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"Baking with friends" was printed on the cover of the recipe book that Felicie and Luca had bookmarked recipes to try. Valentine's day felt like the perfect day to attempt creating elegant chocolate truffles. Something soft, sweet, simple, did not take too much time, and goes well with sprinkles. Opening the book to the page:
Elegant Chocolate Truffles 1/2 pounds (4-1/2) cups milk chocolate, melted (110F/45C) 1 Cup Whipping Cream 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1. Gather ingredients and melt the chocolate.
In intervals of 15 seconds, the large bowl of chocolate spun in the microwave, Luca watched a little enchanted.
"Feli, do you remember painting that bowl?"
Felicie smiled back at Luca. Of course, she would remember that time where the Slaughter House Losers decided to make pottery during the holiday season.
"It was a mess, Luca! Please, don't tell me you want to do that again."
"Relax, Feli! I was thinking of maybe just painting, nothing more!" Luca turned to take the chocolate out of the microwave. He could feel the glares Felicie was shooting at him, as if she were trying to burn him.
Luca snorted, returning back to his attempt to melt this massive chunk of chocolate.
February 14, Valentine’s day, felt like the best day to try a hand at baking together. Felicie had a long list of recipes she wanted to make, and having a sous chef in the kitchen gave her that motivation to bake at least twice during Luca's visit.
Finally all the ingredients were on the adjustable table, ready to be mixed together into a majestic masterpiece.
2. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with plastic wrap; set aside.
Coming back to the table, Luca with the baking pan, and Felicie with the plastic wrap. Except, Luca was on the other side of the table.
Felicie with a crystal clear understanding of what Luca was about to do, couldn’t help but smile.
“Luca, no.”
“I can catch it! Believe in me!” Luca’s eyes locked onto the pan as if he was staring down his arched rival.
Soon enough, the pan zipped across the table with Luca lagging behind it. Luca dived to catch it, but with a dramatic crash both the pan and Luca had met the floor.
“Luca, are you okay?” Felicie turned her wheelchair to face Luca, who was face down on the floor.
3. Place melted chocolate in a medium-size bowl.
“I already did step 3!” Luca lifted the bowl of melted chocolate near his cheek. Then near Felicie’s face.
“Look, you can see your reflection in the bubbles, Luca!”Felicie pointed to the painted bubbles on the clay.
Luca kneeled down next to Felicie, asking, “Can you see both of us?”
Felicie reached out to tilt the bowl until the both of their faces were in the bubble together.
“So cute! Like we’re under the sea.” Felicie smiled.
“Or at the beach! Look at these waves!”
Luca starts to tip the bowl back and forth rapidly until some chocolate starts spilling over the top.
“Ah! Luca!”
4. In a 1-quart saucepan, scald cream. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
Felicie placed the pan onto the stove. Turned around, expecting Luca to have the whipping cream ready to put in the pan.
“Luca! What are you doing!” Felicie turned to face Luca spraying whipping cream into his mouth.
“Do you want some?” Luca asked, talking through the cream.
Felicie stared unimpressed before her face turned into an amused smile, “Okay, give me some.”
Felicie opened her mouth and Luca sprayed a swirl of whipping cream onto her tongue.
Both sat and chewed, wiping some off of eachother’s lips and cheeks.
“Here.” Luca passed Felicie the cup of whipping cream. To clarify, the whipping cream is in the liquid state, not foam.
“Thank you.” Felicie poured the cream into the saucepan.
Luca hummed, “Sizzle. Sizzle. Sizzle,” as they watched the cream heat and bubble up.
5. Stir in vanilla.
“Has it been five minutes yet?” Luca fiddled with Felicie’s hair. Creating ponytails, braids, half-up half-down hair styles.
“Timer says one minute. Almost there Luca.”
“Feli, what time now?”
“Forty seconds .”
“How about now?”
“Forty two.”
Luca slowly looked side to side before saying, “how about now?”
“Thirty”
Luca untied Felicie’s hair. Felicie motioned Luca to kneel beside her as she pushed away the strays on his hair to fix his slick back. A slick back that was put on to impress his beautiful girlfriend. She could see it in his eyes that he was mesmerized, lost in a daze, looking up at her.
“Ten seconds, Luca.” Felicie smiled watching Luca snap back into focus. Grabbing the vanilla and a spoon.
Felicie’s alarm went off, and Luca mixed the vanilla into the cream with focus of true satisfaction.
6. Beat chocolate with an electric mixer.
Electric mixer was plugged in, holding chocolate, and set to a medium speed. Well, until Luca dialled the speed to one then to three then to ten.
Felicie swatted Luca’s hand away from the dial, “stop messing with it.”
Luca shot a cheeky smile back at her.
7. Stop mixer and pour cream all at once over chocolate. Continue beating, cleaning sides and bottom of bowl several times with rubber scraper, until mixture is smooth and well-blended; this takes no more than 1 to 2 minutes.
Felicie grabbed the bowl of melted cream and poured the cream over the chocolate, then turned the mixture back to a medium speed of five. Luca held the spatula to the bowl to scrap the mixture from the sides.
Soon enough, the swirls of cream and chocolate blended into one.
8. Pour into prepared pan and refrigerate 6 hours or until firm.
Luca held the pan steady as Felicie poured the mixture into the pan. Then the mixture was in the refrigerator. A timer set for six hours.
“Wanna dance?” Luca chimed from behind.
Felicie extended a hand to Luca. He gladly accepted with a nod.
With Luca leaning down, Felicie spun him around by taking his hand over his head.
He kept spinning until he reached the floor.
“Feli, how did I look?”
“Your hair is messy again.”
Luca sat up, looked in the reflection of the oven to fix his hair.
“Better?”
“Close enough, Luca.”
They spent the afternoon together, playing board games, video games, scrolling the internet, making lunch, making dinner, building pillow forts, drawing hearts on each others arms, sitting to watch the clouds in the sky, and waiting for the timer to go off.
9. Cut into 1 inch squares and serve immediately. Store in refrigerator. Makes 64 pieces.
At last, the timer went off and it was time for the grand reveal of the chocolate truffles.
Luca’s cold hands from the pan immediately was placed on Felicia’s face.
“Ouch! Luca! That’s cold!” Felicie shivered, swiftly bringing her hands to her face as an attempt to warm up.
“It’s not that cold! You need a break from the heat!” Luca says as he hands Felicie a knife to cut the truffles. Splitting it down the middle and cutting it together.
Felicie held one up for Luca, “Here, try one, don’t choke please.”
Luca opened his mouth for the truffle, eating the piece with a single bite.
“Oh! This is really really good, Feli!”
“You didn’t even chew!”
“I can still taste it!” Luca took one to feed to Felicie.
She takes a bite, “you are right, this is better than I thought it would be!”
They organized the rest of the pieces in a heart shaped box for the rest of the killers to enjoy.
“This is a lot, do you think they will finish it?” Felicie asked as she wrapped the box with a ribbon.
“I’m sure they will!” Luca tied a ribbon bow into Felicie’s hair, “because we did an awesome fantastic job!”
Felicie sat admiring the truffles, the glasses of water, the flowers, the candles, the ribbons, the bowls, the green eyed boy who was complimenting her, and the heart she shared with him in this moment.