Valentine's Day "Truffles"

In honor of Valentine's Day, I took it upon myself to make, from scratch, vegan truffles using an "easy" recipe from www.dairyfreecooking.com. The recipe follows for anyone bold enough to try it, with my notes in parenthetical. Let's just say they tasted amazing, were healthy (no butter, cream or sugar) but didn't resemble truffles I've ever seen. The batter was not gelled quite firm enough to form round balls so instead I ended up making chocolate pancakes; the dough was gooey and stretchy. If you try this, prepare to get chocolate all over yourself...I know I did. In retrospect, I could have left the batter in the fridge a little longer or perhaps left it out on the counter after the refrigeration step , but hey, I was anxious to finish up and eat. The finished product wasn't pretty, I must admit. I did dust my pancakes with cayenne pepper, sea salt and cinnamon, separately, of course, not all together and it tasted good, like high end chocolate without the high end, um, professionalism. This is why I didn't gift my confections, as planned. Instead I ate the lot of them, every last one. I had to, right?

Maybe I've stumbled on the next big trend - chocolate pancakes. Watch out Vosges! Wouldn't that be serendipitous?

Makes about 12-16 truffles (I halved the recipe, just FYI. You didn't think I ate 16 of these things, did you?)

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup good quality cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
1 ¼ cup agave nectar
pinch of salt
Preparation:
1. In a small mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients, mixing until well combined. Place the bowl, uncovered, in the refrigerator for 30 minutes (maybe longer, unless you, too, want pancakes).

2. Line a small baking sheet with parchment. Remove the mixture from the refrigerator and, using your hands, roll the mixture into small balls, placing them on the sheet as you work. Place the sheet in the freezer for 1 hour (I froze them overnight).

3. Remove the sheet from the freezer and dredge each of the balls well in cocoa powder (cayenne pepper, sea salt, cinnamon). Place back in the freezer for an additional 10 minutes to overnight, and enjoy. Truffles will keep for one week in an airtight container (or a few hours, if you are like me)

Just for the record, I will be going on a chocolate walking tour in the Village tomorrow. Yes, more chocolate for me. I am sure that none of what I will taste will resemble my confections.