Bitter Chocolate & Hangar One Raspberry Vodka Truffles

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I made these truffles to be served with coffee at the end of our Christmas dinner using the recipe here.
I substituted the cointreau for my favourite Hangar One Raspberry Vodka . In another slight diversion from the recipe, I decided to roll my truffles in cocoa powder instead of the specified chopped chocolate.

As I used 66% Valhrona Caraibe chocolate , the resulting truffles were extremely dense, dark and bitter. The raspberry vodka, although immensely flavourful, is not very sweet either, so I wouldn't recommend these treats to anyone who is partial to a lot of sugar. Being a dark chocolate lover, I liked these very much, and many of my guests did too. Fred, who famously declares "I am not a sweet guy", also shies away from extremely bitter food stuffs claiming he would prefer these if they had been rolled in a little sugar afterall.

How Foodies Can Help With Tsunami Relief. Tip(s) of the Day #2

If you read this blog, the chances are you like food. If you like cooking, too, why not organise a Bake Sale. On returning to work yesterday I got together with a colleague to try and think of ways we, as a company, could try and raise extra funds to help out in Asia. We are still at the planning stage and I am not sure how grand our efforts will turn out to be. At the very least we will be holding some bake sales. A batch of cookies or brownies only costs a few dollars to make but you can probably sell them for 3 or 4 times the cost price. As it's January and people are generally trying to be healthier, why not try some low-fat recipes. Every dollar counts, so even if you work in a small office you might be able to raise an extra bit of cash in this way. If you need some Bake Sale ideas and inspiration you can check out one of my old posts for links here.

Medecins Sans Frontieres estimate that they have already received sufficient funds for their currently foreseen emergency response in South Asia. Consider sending your donations elsewhere, or give to their other disaster relief funds instead.

Somebody at work, yesterday, alerted us to this Sales Force Foundation site where they will match public donations to Tsunami Relief Funds up to a value of $100k.

Foodblogger Juliette Rossant is following and reporting on ways you can help with the fund raising efforts on her blog, SuperChef Blog

Bitter Chocolate & Hangar One Raspberry Vodka Truffles