For the last four Valentine's Days, I have made something special for the lovely Leslie of Leslie's Cookies fame. Making something special for someone special is an all year treat for me, and Valentine's Day is no exception. This year, I'm taking Leslie's love for dark chocolate and Blue Dream and making Party Truffles.

The first step was to figure out how much Buerre Vert  to use. I want to end up high enough for fun, but not so stone that the romance gets lost. I ended up putting in two tablespoons. We will have to eat the whole batch of truffles, but that shouldn't be a problem with these yummy chocolate balls.

Next comes the chocolate. Leslie insists on dark chocolate and given the special occasion, I decided to spare no expense. I called a pal in Belgium and had him send me a bar of Côte d'or 100% cocoa butter.  You can use just about any chocolate that you like. Typically, truffles are made with a combination of bittersweet and semisweet chocolate.

Deep in the back of the Stoned Soup Kitchen, I found a double boiler for melting the chocolate. Using a double boiler lets you control the heat and keep the chocolate from burning. Be careful to keep the water in the bottom part. If any water spills into the top, the chocolate can "Seize" which renders it useless for making anything tasty.

I put a pound of chocolate in the double boiler, added in the two tablespoons of Buerre Vert and 14 ounces of condensed milk. I stirred the mixture over the heat until everything was melted together. I kept stirring while I carefully added some raspberry liquor. Go ahead and add whatever flavoring you like, just make sure that it is something that your sweetheart will like. Valentine's Day is not the time to experiment with bacon jalapeño or blue cheese.

I took the upper part of the double boiler off the heat and let it cool until the chocolate was cool enough to handle. While it was cooling, I set up a plate with some cocoa powder with a hint of salt in it. Salt can make the chocolate flavor really pop, but you have to be careful. Too much and you won't have "Sweets" anymore. When the chocolate was cool enough, I spooned out bite sized chunks, rolled them into balls and put the balls onto the plate with the cocoa powder and salt. When the plate was covered with balls, I rolled them around until they were coated. I put the coated balls on wax paper and popped them in the fridge to let them harden up.

I got about twenty balls out of the batch. They are sitting in the fridge waiting for Lovely Leslie to get home. I'll spend the rest of the afternoon romancing the place up for the big day.