Double Chocolate Sea Salt Truffles

At this very moment my house has dog hair tumbleweeds floating across the floor, boxes of closet junk stacked on my dining room table, and a mouse trap sitting on my kitchen counter. You can only imagine why I had to put one there.  Add to all of this the fact that it now gets dark before I can even turn a burner on to start dinner, and I haven't really felt like being in the kitchen much lately.

Thankfully, there is a bright side. Two weekends ago, pre the mouse invasion and subsequent closet emptying, I hosted a girl's night at our house. Every girl should have a girl's night. Really. It's a great excuse to eat fancy cheese, exchange fun gifts, and drink lots of wine (without any boys around to laugh at you if you can't unscrew the cork correctly...which didn't happen to us. Nope, definitely not).

And my favorite part of girl's night? Making and consuming an absurd amount of chocolate truffles.

Let's face it, truffles are a lady's dessert. They're cute, mini sized, decadent chocolate balls. Not much else a girl could ask for. These Double Chocolate Truffles are filled with dense dark chocolate, dipped in another layer of chocolate, than sprinkled with just enough sea salt to add a little surprise to every bite. To die for. And even better, these are only the first of three different kinds of truffles we consumed that night. Excited yet? Me too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go drown my mouse infested house sorrows in a deep dark truffle. 

Double Chocolate Sea Salt Truffles

Yield: 3 dozen

Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

8 oz. quality semisweet chocolate

8 oz. quality bittersweet chocolate

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (I used reduced fat...I know, who am I kidding??)

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

8 oz. meltable chocolate (I used the double chocolate flavor of Ghiardelli's dipping chocolate. Whatever you do, don't choose chocolate chips. I learned the hard way. More on that later.)

Coarse Sea Salt

Directions:

1. In a double boiler or one heat proof bowl set over another pot of boiling water, heat the 2 chocolates and the sweetened condensed milk over medium low heat. Stir often until chocolates are smooth and thoroughly combined. Stir in vanilla. 

2. Remove from heat, cover, and refrigerate for 1.5 hours. 

3. Remove from fridge. Using a cookie dough scoop or spoon, roll mixture into 1/2 in-1 in balls. If balls are too soft after this process you may want to pop them in the freezer for about 15 minutes. 

4. Meanwhile, in a shallow medium sized bowl, melt chocolate. Using a slotted spoon or fork, dip each ball into the chocolate mixture and coat completely. Use a chopstick , toothpick or knife to scrape excess chocolate off the bottoms. Place on waxed paper. Allow to dry for a few seconds before sprinkling with sea salt. Truffles keep well refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.