Shaun Smith is a writer, journalist and former chef in Toronto. He is the author of the young adult novel Snakes & Ladders. This Sunday is Valentine's Day, and what better time to check in with the chocolatiers?

The origin of Valentine's Day is not precisely known. Some say it hearkens back to Roman times while others link it to various Christian Saints, and others still say it is just an excuse to sell greeting cards. Whatever the reason, any day that gives you an excuse to eat chocolate with your sweetheart has to be a good thing.

I talked to some chocolatiers who have new cookbooks out to get some sinful recipes that you can enjoy this Sunday, even if you don't have a sweetheart.

Max Brenner offers a true romantic's perspective with his recipe, "A high-school bonfire chocolate melting heart cake with a soft marshmallow first memory hidden inside," from his book Chocolate: A Love Story. Dominique and Cindy Duby, of Vancouver's DC Duby Sweets, provide decadent Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème, from their book Chocolate. Maricel E. Presilla's Pistachio-Crusted Rose-Cardamom Truffles, from her book The New Taste of Chocolate, are a seductive blend of Old World and New World flavours. My recipe this month is for Triple Threat Cookies. I call them that because they are a hybrid of three of my favourite cookies: chocolate chip, peanut butter and oatmeal.

Triple Threat Cookies

Use only natural, fresh-ground peanut butter for this recipe. Processed peanut butter has far too much sugar and will make your cookies overly sweet. Also, use the highest quality chocolate you can find, such as Camino, an excellent fair-trade brand made in Ottawa.

Ingredients (makes about 30 cookies)

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ½ cup smoothly ground, natural peanut butter
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, loose
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375° F, with rack at centre position.

(Shaun Smith) Have your butter and peanut butter at room temperature. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars with an electric mixer, blending until very smooth. Blend in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour, baking soda and salt. Using a stiff rubber spatula, mix in the rolled oats and chocolate chips by hand, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the dry ingredients are incorporated well into your cookie dough.

Lightly butter a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper. Use a teaspoon to scoop out portions of cookie dough that can be rolled by hand to roughly the size of a golf ball. Place the balls of dough on the cookie sheet and press down with your fingers to flatten each into a thick disc. Leave about two inches between each cookie, as they will spread when cooking.

Bake in batches at 375° F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow each batch to cool on the cookie sheet for about three minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

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Max Brenner's "A high-school bonfire chocolate melting heart cake with a soft marshmallow first memory hidden inside"

Max Brenner runs a chain of restaurants and shops called Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man. For 20 years, Max Brenner has been working with chocolate. Originally from Israel, he apprenticed as a chocolatier in Germany, Austria and France, working for two of those years with Michele Chaudun, one of Paris's most famous chocolatiers. It was there that he developed his passion for chocolate.

"I think chocolate is the most romantic gift," says Brenner. "One of the reasons we like chocolate so much is because the temperature at which it melts is very similar to our body temperature. It is very intimate, very sensual. It is almost like having a relationship."

Today, Brenner runs a chain of restaurants and shops called Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man, which specialize in chocolate creations. He has locations in Israel, the U.S., Singapore, Australia and the Philippines.

His new book, Chocolate: A Love Story, is a veritable love letter to chocolate, collecting 65 of his personal recipes. Brenner collaborated with artist Yonatan Factor to give the volume a lighthearted pop aesthetic, with boldly coloured stencil graphics. That playfulness is a reflection of the book's quirkily named recipes, such as "Innocent meringue kisses," "Handsome tiramisu," and the one below, "A high school bonfire chocolate melting heart cake with a soft marshmallow first memory hidden inside."

"I think the melting heart cake is one of the ultimate chocolate dishes," says Brenner. "For me, the idea of a high-school bonfire always gives me the association of a broken heart or falling in love."

A high-school bonfire chocolate melting heart cake with a soft marshmallow first memory hidden inside

(Excerpted from the book Chocolate: A Love Story - 65 Chocolate Dessert Recipes from Max Brenner's Private Collection by Max Brenner. Copyright © 2009 by Max Brenner. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company. Photo: Max Brenner. Art: Yonatan Factor)

Ingredients

(Little, Brown and Company)

Ganache Filling

• ½ cup heavy cream
• 7 ounces whole large marshmallows, plus 10 marshmallows, finely diced
• 7 ½ ounces white chocolate, roughly chopped
• 15 1 ½ -inch by 1-inch deep silicon molds

Soufflés

• 12 ounces dark chocolate (preferably 56 per cent cocoa), roughly chopped
• 3 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 8 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 15 soufflé ramekins, 2 to 2 ½ inches in diameter

1. Make the ganache filling. In a small saucepan, cook the cream and the whole marshmallows until the marshmallows melt and the mixture comes to a simmer. Pour over the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Let sit until the chocolate begins to soften, about 1 minute, then stir until smooth.

(Little, Brown and Company)

2. Divide the ganache among 15 1½-inch-round by 1-inch-deep silicon molds, sprinkling with the diced marshmallow as you go. Freeze for a minimum of four hours.

3. Prepare the soufflés. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water (a bain-marie). Add the butter and sugar and stir until the mixture is smooth and warm. Remove from the heat and let cool. Whisk in the eggs one by one. Set aside.

4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Whisk the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture until smooth. Divide among fifteen 2½-inch paper baking cups, filling each three-fourths full.

5. Put one frozen marshmallow ganache piece in the middle of each baking cup. Bake until the soufflés rise and the insides are still molten, about nine minutes. Serve immediately.

(Yield: 15 servings)

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Dominique and Cindy Duby's Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème

Dominique Duby and his wife Cindy have written Chocolate: More than 50 Decadent Recipes. Of course, there's one big question for Valentine's Day: is chocolate really an aphrodisiac?

"From a scientific perspective," says Dominique Duby, "there are certain compounds in chocolate that are known to make you feel like you're in love. There are many other foods that have the same compound, but we like to keep the aura around chocolate."

The compound in question is called phenylethylamine (PEA). Studies have shown that in the brain, this naturally occurring chemical plays an important role when we fall in love. It even peaks during orgasm.

Dominique Duby and his wife, Cindy, know all about the pleasurable effects of chocolate because they make some of Vancouver's most delectable confections. Their new cookbook, Chocolate: More than 50 Decadent Recipes, collects some of the most delicious ganaches, pralines, puddings, cakes and truffles made by their company, DC Duby Wild Sweets.

"Our philosophy has always been science, art and nature," says Cindy Duby. "We always try to do something different."

(Whitecap Books)

To put a spin on a cliché, the Dubys' repertoire often finds them thinking outside the chocolate box. "We've done chocolates with flavours like red cabbage, butternut squash and parsnips," says Cindy Duby. They've even done actual truffle-flavoured chocolate truffles.

And how will this chocolate-obsessed couple spend their Valentine's Day?

"For us," says Cindy, "holidays are so busy that if we can get a day off to just lay around and order pizza, that's a good treat."

Perhaps wisely, Dominique puts a more romantic twist on it: "When you work together 24-7, every day is Valentine's Day."

Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème

(Excerpted from the book Chocolate: More then 50 Decadent Recipes by Dominique & Cindy Duby. Copyright © 2009 by Dominique & Cindy Duby. Photos © 2009 by Dominique & Cindy Duby. Reprinted by permission of Whitecap Books.)

Ingredients

Serves six

• 2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp (30 g) granulated sugar
• 2 tsp (10 ml) rasped lime zest
• pinch of salt
• 3.6 oz (100 g) 70 per cent dark chocolate, melted

Garnish

• 6 fresh raspberries
• 6 sprigs mint

(Whitecap Books) Warm whipping cream in a saucepan over low heat. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, sugar, lime zest, and salt and whisk until well mixed. Slowly pour (temper) warm cream over yolk mixture, whisk until combined, and transfer mixture into a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a saucepan of hot (not boiling) water and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, and no longer liquidy or foamy, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and strain mixture. Add melted chocolate and stir until mixture is smooth. Divide mixture evenly into six serving cups or small ramekins. Place the pots de crème in the fridge for at least three hours, or until set (overnight is best).

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Maricel E. Presilla's Pistachio-Crusted Rose-Cardamom Truffles

Marciel E. Presilla runs two Latin American restaurants, Zafra and Cucharamama, in New Jersey. (Frankie Frankeny/Ten Speed Press)For Marciel E. Presilla, chocolate is much more than just a confection.

Born in Cuba, Presilla now lives in Hoboken, N.J., where she runs two Latin American restaurants, Zafra and Cucharamama, and a specialty food shop called Ultramarinos. As she writes in her book, The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes, her childhood memories take her back to the cacao fruit that her family once grew on a plantation in Cuba: "When my father told me about big, strange-looking fruits that sprouted right out of the tree bark and were filled with the beans that are the source of all chocolate, I formed a mental picture of thick-skinned papayas full of fragrant Hershey's chocolate kisses."

Presilla has since become a leading expert on cacao. Holding a PhD in Spanish history, she is a formally trained cultural anthropologist who has written about the cuisines of Latin America for numerous magazines, is an advisor to the Culinary Institute of America's Latin American program and has taken many top chefs on tours of cacao plantations in Venezuela.

The New Taste of Chocolate provides both an in-depth history of cacao - from its early roots in the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec cultures, to its international cultivation and production around the world today - as well as numerous recipes that employ chocolate in both sweet and savoury dishes.

The best chocolate, which often comes from single-origin plantations, is as complex and flavourful as fine wine, according to Presilla.

(Ten Speed Press) "The type of cacao tree used, as well as manufacturing and even processing, can affect the flavour of chocolate," she says. "A Venezuelan cacao from Barlovento, east of Caracas, will taste of dried fruit - raisins and cherries. A Madagascar cacao will be citrusy. A Malaysian cacao is very acidic. There are some cacaos that do not taste of fruit at all. There's one called porcelana from western Venezuela, it tastes like macadamia nuts."

The recipe for Pistachio-Crusted Rose-Cardamom Truffles, says Presilla, is a marriage of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Latin American influences. It takes romantic Persian elements, such as rose petals and pistachios, which reached Latin America via Spain's Moorish heritage, and combines them with chocolate and hot árbol chilies.

"It is an homage to Old World flavours that later became incorporated into Spanish cooking," she says, "but then I brought it to the New World by adding chile árbol."

Pistachio-Crusted Rose-Cardamom Truffles

(Reprinted with permission from The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes by Maricel Presilla, copyright © 2009. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc. Photo credit: Frankie Frankeny © 2009)

These lovely truffles, crusted with bud-green pistachios and bits of rose petals, have the same aromatic flavourings as my Persian Poem in a Custard but deliver a more emphatic flavour in every bite.

Makes about 40 truffles

Ingredients

Ganache:

• 10 ounces dark chocolate, preferably Cluizel Vila Gracinda (67 per cent cacao) or Valrhona Araguani (72 per cent cacao)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 (three-inch) sticks true cinnamon (soft Ceylon cinnamon, sold as canela in Hispanic markets) 1/4 cup dried rosebuds (sold in Asian and Middle Eastern markets and as rosa de Castilla in Hispanic markets)
• 1 tablespoon green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 1 small dried árbol chile
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon rose water (available in Middle Eastern markets)

Coating:

• 8 ounces green pistachios, shelled and crushed
• Dried rosebuds, crushed
• Pinch of sea salt (optional)

(Frankie Frankeny/Ten Speed Press) To prepare the ganache, very finely chop the chocolate with a sharp knife or a few bursts of a food processor. Transfer to a plastic bowl and set aside (plastic is desirable because the cream will not prematurely cool). Combine the cream, cinnamon, rosebuds, cardamom, chile, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat and let steep for 20 minutes. Bring back to a boil and pour enough of the boiling liquid through a strainer to get one cup. Quickly pour this over the chocolate. Wait five seconds, and then slowly stir the mixture from the centre with a rubber spatula until it melts into a shiny pudding-like cream. Add the rose water and continue stirring and scraping the sides of the bowl until the whole mixture is uniformly integrated. Do not over stir. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the chocolate mixture firm up overnight. It is best to do this in a cool place, but not in the refrigerator, as cooling too rapidly could make the ganache slightly grainy.

To prepare the coating, put the pistachios in a plastic bag and crush into smaller particles. Remove the petal portion of the dried rosebuds from the stem section and rub the petals between your hands to make flakes. Mix with the pistachios on a shallow plate. Add the sea salt.

To form the truffles, have ready an 11-by-17-inch piece of parchment paper. Using a measuring tablespoon, scoop up enough ganache for one small truffle. Roll it between your palms to form a ball. Place each ball on a sheet of parchment paper. Next, roll each ball in the coating mixture, pressing down slightly with your hand as you roll to make sure all parts are coated.

You can store the finished truffles in a closed container in the refrigerator, but let them come to room temperature before serving. Since they are made with perishable ingredients, they should be eaten within two days.