Give your sweet a handmade treat

Chocolate may seem like a Valentine's Day gift that requires little thought or effort, but it doesn’t have to be.

"Buying chocolate is sort of a saturated gift," said Tom Parfitt, chocolatier and instructor at the University of Richmond's Center for Culinary Arts, "but when you put time and effort into making it yourself, it means more."

So listen up, guys, because Parfitt has some advice for you. "Especially with men for women. Women appreciate the love that goes into actually handcrafting something."

And it doesn't have to be complicated to be tasty, Parfitt says.

Working with chocolate
Tom Parfitt, chocolatier and instructor at University of Richmond’s Center for Culinary Arts, has some advice for working with chocolate.
Buy quality chocolate: Parfitt recommends Callebaut, Scharffen Berger or Ghiradelli.
Chop the chocolate: Chopping the chocolate will help it melt easier and make it more stable.
Use quality ingredients: Use the best flavoring ingredients possible. For instance, good-quality vanilla instead of imitation.
Stir vigorously: The chocolate will have a creamy texture and a nice sheen.
Garnish appropriately: The garnish should hint at what’s inside. If your ganache has an almond flavor, roll the truffles in chopped toasted almonds.
Valentine’s Day recipe: Basic Dark Chocolate Ganache
• 1¼ cups bittersweet chocolate
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• Salt, pinch
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature and cut into cubes
Chop the chocolate fine, so it melts easily. Place in a large bowl.
Heat the cream, corn syrup and salt in a saucepan until hot, then pour into the bowl of chocolate, making sure the cream covers all of the chocolate. Add the vanilla and let stand 5 minutes.
Whisk the chocolate in the center of the bowl until it’s shiny and smooth. Working outward from the center, incorporate more chocolate into the center. Once the cream and chocolate are mixed, add the butter and continue mixing, making sure the butter melts fully. This should take no longer than 2 minutes.
Let the ganache cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until hardened.
With a spoon, scoop a small amount of the ganache and work it into a ball with your hands. Dust your hands with cocoa powder to make rolling easier. Roll the balls in cocoa powder.
Using a fine strainer, shake off the excess cocoa powder and serve.

Valentine’s Day recipe: Basic Milk Chocolate Ganache
• 1 ½ cups milk chocolate
• ½ cup heavy cream
• Salt, pinch
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature and cut into cubes
Chop the chocolate fine, so it melts easily. Place in a large bowl.
Heat the cream and salt in a saucepan until hot, then pour into the bowl of chocolate, making sure the cream covers all of the chocolate. Add the vanilla and let stand 5 minutes.
Whisk the chocolate in the center of the bowl until it’s shiny and smooth. Working outward from the center, incorporate more chocolate into the center. Once the cream and chocolate are mixed, add the butter and continue mixing, making sure the butter melts fully. This should take no longer than 2 minutes.
Let the ganache cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until hardened.
With a spoon, scoop a small amount of the ganache and work it into a ball with your hands. Dust your hands with cocoa powder to make rolling easier.
Dip the balls into the "magic shell" and refrigerate to harden.

Valentine’s Day recipe: Make Your Own "Magic Shell"
• 8 ounces good quality chocolate, chopped
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
In a saucepan, combine the chocolate and the coconut oil and heat over low, stirring frequently until melted. Remove from heat.
While it’s warm, use this chocolate to dip fruit or truffles. If desired, roll truffles in a garnish (such as chopped nuts) after dipping in the chocolate. Place dipped fruit or truffles on parchment-lined cookie sheets.
Garnish fruit with milk and white chocolate squiggles. Refrigerate to harden quickly.

Store-bought chocolates are wrapped in tempered chocolate -- a coating that is shiny and snaps when broken. Parfitt says it's not necessary, though, to go through the complicated process of tempering to make chocolate truffles.

The Food Lover's Companion defines tempering as a technique that stabilizes chocolate through a process of melting and cooling, making it more malleable and glossy. Parfitt calls it the process that makes the chocolate melt in your mouth and not in your hand.

"The point of wrapping a confection is to preserve it," he says. "You're extending the life by wrapping it in a shell that will keep air away from the cream and butter, which can spoil."

But these won't be hanging around long, so make it easier on yourself and roll them in cocoa powder or consider using what Parfitt calls his "cheat," a sort of "magic shell" -- a combination of chocolate and coconut oil. The coconut oil, he says, makes the chocolate harden easily.

Tim Gearhart, owner of Gearhart's Chocolates in Charlottesville and Richmond, agrees that home cooks should keep it simple.

"No matter what Food Network says, working with chocolate can be difficult," says Gearhart. Stick to the basics, he says. "It's one thing to make truffles, but tempering chocolate is a whole different ballgame." It's difficult, he says, to get the perfect snap and shine every time. "People who've been doing it for five or 10 years can still have trouble."

He suggests having fun with the flavors of ganache -- a mixture of chocolate and cream -- by playing with ingredients such as teas and chilies to create truffles, then rolling the truffles in cocoa powder.

Parfitt says ganache should be silky smooth with a creamy mouth feel. You can flavor this mixture in countless ways by steeping the flavorings -- toasted nuts, spices, herbs and extracts -- into the cream (then removing them) before adding the cream to the chocolate. Thicker flavorings, like peanut butter or chili paste, should be added once the chocolate and cream have been mixed together, he says.

Whether you make your own or can't be deterred from the store-bought route, Gearhart has a few tips.

First of all, it's crucial you know your audience. Gearhart has found that among his customers, the dark-chocolate fans are staunchly dedicated and unfailing in their commitment for the rich confection. If your sweetie is a lover of dark chocolate, best stick with dark and ignore the milk and white chocolate.

For those, Gearhart suggests his top-sellers, the Maya -- a rich, bittersweet chocolate ganache, flavored with cinnamon, orange and Ancho chili, then rolled in cocoa -- and the Criolla, his darkest, most bittersweet chocolate. The Criolla is made of Venezuelan chocolate ganache with natural cocoa nibs, dipped in dark chocolate and finished with gold leaf.

His favorite, though, is more of a milk-chocolate lover’s dream. The Malted Milk Hazelnut is whipped Gianduia (a chocolate containing hazelnut paste), malted milk and toasted hazelnuts dipped in milk chocolate.

Whether you plan to make your own chocolates or buy some for that special someone for Valentine's Day, there are only a few days left, so better get to the kitchen -- or the chocolate store.