Valentine’s

Few foods say I love you like chocolate does. After all, chocolate has long been considered an aphrodisiac. Tryptophan and phenylethylamine are the compounds responsible for its reputed arousing qualities. Chocolate is also desirable for • Recipes | D4

its health benefits — thanks to flavanols, which are antioxidants also found in berries, red wine and grapes.

In small amounts, chocolate is good for you. Many health

experts recommend eating a 1-ounce square of chocolate a day. And the darker the

chocolate (dark chocolate is higher in antioxidants), the better.

Another reason we love chocolate: It’s versatile. You can sip it, bake it, layer it, mold it and even spice it up.

The recipes included in

today's section play on that versatility. There’s a brownie recipe topped with a cheesecake filling, baked and finished off with a layer of ganache. And because chocolate and chile go hand in hand, we spiced up Molten Lava cake batter

with ancho chile powder and cayenne pepper — and served it with a scoop of vanilla-bean ice cream to cool it all off.

Finally, we made small chocolate bowls using blown-up balloons as the mold. It worked like a

charm. We filled the bowls with ice cream and drizzled them with more chocolate and garnished with fresh berries.

So this year, show your Valentine how much you care with one or more chocolate dishes.