Making chocolate truffles from scratch is not as hard as you'd think. Messy, perhaps — difficult, no.

I love giving little boxes of chocolate truffles to my family and friends for Valentine's Day. Foil cups, lacy doilies and gift boxes suited for chocolates are available for purchase at Michael's Crafts in the Arborland Mall on Washtenaw.

To decorate my truffles, I purchased raspberry sugar from The Spice Merchants in Kerrytown and combined it with chopped pecans. They carry a wonderful assortment of interesting toppings that could be used for truffles, such as flavored sugars, interesting salts, cocoa powder, espresso crumbles and the like. Shredded coconut and chopped pistachios would be delicious toppings as well.

For a totally different twist, check our my dinnerFeed recipe for Chocolate & Bacon Truffles.

Yield: Approx. 3 dozen truffles, depending on size

Cost: Approx. $16

Active time: 90 minutes

Time to chill chocolate before rolling: 16 hours

Ingredients

2 pounds best quality semi-sweet chocolate, divided and broken into chips*

1 cup heavy cream

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-2 teaspoons flavoring such as vanilla extract or Kahlúa

1 1/2 cups total topping mixtures (such as finely chopped nuts, grated coconut, cocoa powder or flavored sugars)

*Callebaut and Ghirardelli chocolates are good choices.

Directions

1. In the top of a double boiler or in a heat-safe bowl over simmering water, combine 1 pound of the chocolate, cream, butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla or Kahlúa. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate melts. Add additional vanilla or kahlua to taste, if desired. Remove from heat and stir or whisk until smooth.

2. Pour chocolate mixture (ganache) into a shallow bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the chocolate. Refrigerate overnight or until chocolate is firm enough to scoop into balls.

3. Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop out chocolate and roll with hands to form 1-inch balls. Refrigerate. (If you are not coating your truffles with hard chocolate, you may roll or top truffles with selected topping at this point before refrigerating.)

4. In the top of a double boiler or in a heat-safe bowl over simmering water, heat remaining pound of chocolate, stirring with a rubber spatula intermittently. Let the chocolate melt completely. With the spatula, lift some of the melted chocolate then drop it back into the pool of chocolate. The chocolate should stack up on itself, as opposed to sinking back into the bowl, when the truffles are ready for dipping. (You may find placing the melted chocolate in another bowl of ice will help firm up the chocolate if necessary.)

5. Using two small spoons, dip the truffles, one at a time, into the chocolate mixture, rolling the truffle into the chocolate to cover completely. Lay chocolate-dipped truffle on a sheet pan covered with wax paper or parchment. Sprinkle coating on truffles while chocolate is still warm.

6. Refrigerate the truffles, covered, for up to 1 week or freeze airtight for up to 1 month in advance. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving.