Send your Valentine a sweet message with rich, homemade treat

It's a well-known scientific fact that you can eat as much rich, dark chocolate as you want on Valentine's Day and not gain any weight.

Something to do with the winter phases of the moon and the way photosynthesis affects cocoa beans in months beginning with the letter F.

OK, I made that up.

But if you're going to eat chocolate, what better day than Valentine's?

And if you're ever going to prepare a homemade chocolate treat, what better day?

Think of the brownie points — brownies... chocolate... get it? — you could score for going to the trouble of making something chocolate and delicious for someone you're trying to impress? Or maybe just someone you're married to?

Here's the dirty secret about this recipe we're about to reveal: It really isn't all that much trouble. This certainly won't be as fancy as something a chocolatier would produce, but it's perfectly good — and you made it.

"These are so easy to do, and everybody loves them," said Jan Carlton, of Henrico County, a culinary instructor, home economist and author of numerous cookbooks. "This is for people who want to do something real quick and easy and aren't necessarily professional. Just a nice, easy recipe to do. The kids could help you do this, too."

Easy Chocolate Truffles, she calls them.

If you can heat a pan on the stove, and if you've got a food processor or a blender, you can make these. They're ridiculously easy.

And ridiculously good.

Excuse me, while I eat another one.

Here's all it takes:

*Some good-quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate.

*A little heavy cream.

*A little brandy or dark rum or flavored liqueur (if you're so inclined), or just more cream.
Here's all you do:

*Chop the chocolate in a food processor or blender.

*Combine the cream and brandy or whatever in a saucepan, and bring it to a simmer.

*Pour it over the chocolate and blend it together.

*Spoon it into spiffy little candy cups and let it cool.

Bingo! For a few minutes of your time and about $10 out of your wallet, you've created four-dozen pieces of scrumptious candy, and you're a Valentine's hero.

This recipe allows you to avoid the inherent trickiness of cooking with chocolate. You've got to be careful when you melt it. Use a double-boiler or microwave it on the lowest power in short bursts.

"You don't want to burn the chocolate," said Carlton, who co-authored a cookbook on chocolate in the 1990s, "Chocolate, Chocolate: A Gift of the Gods" (that is scented with the aroma of chocolate) and will teach a class on cooking with chocolate in April at the University of Richmond Culinary Arts Program. "Once it's done that, you have to throw it out."

Now, that's a tragedy.

What kind of chocolate should you use for cooking or baking?

Personal preference, said Carlton, but she goes with the semi-sweet over the sweeter milk chocolate. The semi-sweet, or dark chocolate, has the antioxidants that have health benefits.

Carlton also demonstrated chocolate chip banana muffins, another simple, but good, recipe.
Candy. Muffins. A little something for everybody.

"I mean," Carlton said, "who doesn't love chocolate?"

Baking tips from Jan Carlton

*Don't overbeat muffin batter, which can result in "tunnels" in the muffins. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until the dry are just moist.

*Coat pecans, walnuts or other kinds of nuts with flour so they don't sink to the bottom of the muffins while baking.

*Spray paper or foil baking cups with nonstick cooking spray. It's not necessary — and it's why many of us use them in the first place — but Carlton says she's found "it makes it easier to peel them off."

*Add baking soda or baking powder to the wet ingredients at the very end, just before baking. Otherwise, the soda or powder can lose its potency and change the appearance and taste of what you're making.

*Which bring us to this: FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. "I tell people to read the recipe all the way through, and get out all of the ingredients and measure them out" before combining the first ingredients, Carlton says.