Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate Truffle Bombs

Second week of January. Cold. The kind of January where the stove is the focus of the house and the rest is incidental. I made a soup every day for five days running — Monday vegetable, Tuesday navy bean and ham, Wednesday chicken, Thursday turkey wild rice, Friday pozole. The pozole was a thing I wanted to learn from David, Miriam's son. He had brought it for Christmas dinner. He sent me his recipe via Miriam, written in pencil on the back of an envelope. The recipe involved hominy and pork and red chiles and a long simmer. I made it. It was good. It was not as good as David's. I called Miriam and said: tell David his pozole is better than mine. She said: I'll tell him. She said: he'll be pleased.

The cohort spring registration. The eight slots are taken — five returning and three new. The 58-year-old woman is taking the intermediate class. I was hoping she would. We'll start the intermediate work the second week of class. She wants to do art metalwork. The other returners want different things. The semester will be good.

Caleb came Saturday alone — Miriam was working a Saturday at the Cherokee health system, a community vaccination event. We sat at the kitchen table over coffee. He said: do you remember the worst night. I said: which one. He said: 2018. The Mayes County jail. I said: I remember every minute of it. He said: I do too. He said: I've been thinking about it. He said: how far it is from here. He said: from there to here. I said: it's the longest road. He said: yeah. He said: I want you to know — He didn't finish. He said: you saved my life. I said: you saved your life. He said: with help. I said: yes. He said: I love you. I said: I love you. We didn't cry but we wanted to. We sat with the coffee. The coffee did the work.

That whole week of soup, and then Caleb at the kitchen table on Saturday — I kept thinking about what it means to let a warm drink carry what words can’t quite finish. We didn’t need anything elaborate. But afterward, once Caleb had gone and the quiet had settled back in, I made these peppermint mocha hot chocolate truffle bombs — something I’d been meaning to try since the holidays — and I sat with one in a mug and thought: yeah, this is right for January. This is the kind of warmth you give someone when you want them to feel it all the way through.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 5 min | Total Time: 1 hr (includes chilling) | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate melting wafers
1/4 cup instant hot cocoa mix
3 tablespoons mini marshmallows
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 tablespoons crushed candy canes or peppermint candies
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (for dusting, optional)
6 cups whole milk, heated to serve

Instructions

Melt the chocolate. Place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until fully melted and smooth. Set aside about 2 tablespoons for sealing.
Coat the molds. Using a silicone half-sphere mold (about 2 inches in diameter), spoon roughly 1 tablespoon of melted chocolate into each cavity. Use the back of a spoon or a pastry brush to coat the sides evenly all the way to the rim. Refrigerate for 15 minutes until set.
Mix the filling. In a small bowl, stir together the hot cocoa mix, espresso powder, and peppermint extract until combined.
Fill the bombs. Pop the set chocolate shells out of the molds. Fill half of the shells with a heaping teaspoon of the cocoa-espresso mixture and a small pinch of mini marshmallows.
Seal the bombs. Warm a flat plate in the microwave for 20 seconds. Press an empty chocolate half shell gently onto the warm plate for 3–4 seconds to slightly melt the rim, then press it firmly onto a filled half to seal. Hold for a moment until set. Repeat with remaining bombs.
Decorate. Drizzle the sealed bombs with the reserved melted chocolate and immediately sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Let set at room temperature or refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Serve. Place one truffle bomb in a large mug. Pour about 1 cup of hot (not boiling) milk slowly over the bomb and watch it melt open. Stir to combine and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate Truffle Bombs — When the Coffee Does the Work