Chocolate Pots

Today’s sweet treat is in support of the Good Cookies Food Blogger Valentine’s Day Event hosted by The Little Kitchen. We’re fundraising for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer – so if you’re feeling the love today, please swing by and show them some! Our donations will be matched by our great sponsors, Dixie Crystals, MediaVine, and OXO!

These delicious, elegant, and surprisingly easy little pots of chocolate goodness and decadence have a long Valentine’s Day history with me, so I figured they would be the perfect thing to share with you this week.

While there’s a tie in all of this to my handsome husband, chocolate pots de creme remind me most of my best friends and our grad school Galentine’s Day. Everyone needs these friends – the ones who will cheer your publication successes and hold your hand through the agony of proposals and defenses, who will pile into cars and road trip with you at the drop of a hat even if it means piling books and laptops into bags because you know you’ll all end up doing some work that weekend in between wine and Uno games.

For whatever reason, one particular Valentine’s Day weekend, I was feeling a little down, so I asked them if they wanted to come out to Charlottesville for a girl party. They were all game, and hopped into the car immediately.

Feeling a little bit of hostess guilt, I put together a couple little surprises for them for their visit – one of which was a chocolate class at the local culinary school where I’d been taking classes. And it turned out to be awesome!

We made truffles. We made pots de creme. We made the world’s most decadent fudge. We had a lot of fun teasing each other about whose souffles were misbehaving. And we just had a lot of fun reconnecting over chocolate.

While recreating some of our recipes back at my apartment, we were talking about our love lives at the moment. I happened to mention a guy I had met while I was living and working in Hawaii – right prior to leaving for grad school. We’d dated fairly briefly before I’d had to leave to start school, but had never brought up the subject of having a long distance relationship. I’d thought it was too soon to think about that. But he was hanging around in my mind.

The girls, of course, gave me some good natured teasing. Until a box showed up at the door. Said guy had sent me a case of my favorite Hawaii brewed beer for Valentine’s Day, saying that he thought that was a little more “me” than flowers, though he’d send those, too.

Three faces suddenly turned serious, and my besties all pointed at me and said that I was an idiot if I didn’t keep this one. They were right.

He and I have been married eight years now, and all three girls were in my bridal party.

So while this whole thing ended up in a romance, today’s story is the love between a group of friends…and some really, really good chocolate.

[lt_recipe name=”Chocolate Pots” summary=”This simple, elegant, and remarkably easy treat is perfect for showing your love to a significant other, your besties, or just yourself!” servings=”2″ total_time=”2H20M” print=”yes” image=”https://homefrontcooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Chocolate-Pots-0233-1024×683.jpg” ingredients=”4 oz dark or baking chocolate, coarsely chopped;1 cup heavy cream;1/4 cup sugar;1/8 tsp salt;1 tsp vanilla;grated chocolate for garnish;strawberries for garnish” ]Add the chopped chocolate to a heat proof bowl {such as Pyrex} and set aside.;Add the cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla to a saucepan and heat over medium heat until hot but not boiling, about x minutes.;Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for one minute. Then whisk together until the chocolate is melted and the ingredients are well combined. The mixture should be smooth.;Evenly divide the mixture between two ramekins, cover, and let set in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.;Garnish with chocolate shavings and strawberries and serve.[/lt_recipe]

Remember, show some Valentine’s love to the Good Cookie Food Blogger fundraising page if you can!

Help us make a difference by donating to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer!

Our goal is to raise at least $3000. Because these three companies: OXO, Mediavine amd Dixie Crystals have each pledged to match our donations raised through this campaign up to $3000! That means when we raise $1, it turns into $4!

Thank you to so many of you who have already donated, please help us reach our goal so we can get the full matching donations and help us make an even huge difference!