Boozy Chocolate, Hazelnut and Orange Truffles

There's a soft, cold hush that arrives with the snow.  My curtains are drawn, and I can see into our tree-covered backyard where cold birds flee - magpies mostly, but occasionally doves and woodpeckers - seeking a bit of shelter beneath the snow-covered branches as they peck at the seeds and tallow in our neighbors' bird feeders.  It's days like these, hushed and dampened by the snow, that I can hear the beating of their wings as they fly in and away.

Winter leaves me sleepy, quiet, and isolated.  Self-isolated, anyway.  I treasure the quiet.  I avoid the furor of the holidays, even sneaking away with my husband and son to mountain hideaways where neither cell phones nor internet works (yes, these places do still exist, thankfully).

Winter also calls me to the kitchen where I envision, bake, and make sweet things almost obsessively.  Sprouted Spelt Cookies? You betcha. Spiced Molasses Cookies? Of course! Traditional Panettone?

One recipe has lurked obsessively in my head for the last two weeks: Super Boozy Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Orange Truffles.  I worked the recipe out in random thoughts as I drove to our favorite farm or sat in the winding line at the post office.  Honey or unrefined cane sugar, or both? Orange zest or juice? Is a quarter cup of Frangelico and a quarter cup of Grand Marnier too much? Of course not!

I played with the recipe, wanting each truffle to smack the tongue with a not-so-subtle shot of booze.  It's the holidays after all, and a time of sweetness and celebration and special treats.  The truffles are delightfully gooey, with the texture of a softened Tootsie Roll candy.  I use blanched hazelnuts in this recipe, for two reasons: their texture is smoother, and they also are more easily digested as they lack the papery skin surrounding most nuts that contain enzyme inhibitors that make nuts difficult to digest for some people.

It's a wonderful little truffle: not too strikingly sweet, but deliciously boozy and spiked with orange, hazelnut, and cocoa.  If I were heading to holiday parties, I'd bring these, but I'm sitting in the quiet cold of my home where I'll sip tea and nibble one on my own, in solitude.