Raw Chocolate Truffles
These nut butter based truffles are sweetened with raw honey.
These Raw Chocolate Truffles are a wonderful treat for parties, to pull out when people come over for coffee, and especially for Valentine’s Day. Plant-based and paleo, these truffles can also be made keto-friendly with a slight adjustment to the sweetener and nut-free with an adjustment to the base.
The base of these truffles is nut butter (or seed butter such as sunflower or pumpkin seed butter), which you can buy pre-made at the store or make yourself. Since I’ll already be using my food processor for the truffles, I like to make my own for these truffles.
If this is your first time making nut butter, here are some helpful tips…
The more heavyweight food processors (you’ll know if you have one of these) will process nuts into a butter more quickly than the lighter weight, less expensive processors. But that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve a smooth butter with an inexpensive machine. I used to travel with a mini food processor, and you’d be amazed at the things it could do.
It’s totally normal for the process to take up to 10-minutes and sometimes a little over, depending on your machine. If your processor still seems to be having trouble 10-minutes in (for example, if it looks like nut flour and it is not appearing oily), you can help it along with a little extra virgin olive oil, adding a splash here and there until your mixture becomes a butter.
You want to make sure you fill your processor with the nuts. You’ll end up with more butter than you’ll need for this recipe, but who doesn’t like having fresh nut butter on hand? This will actually save you time, as when the processor is full, it keeps the nuts on the bottom and you won’t have to stop intermittently to scrape down the sides.
Have fun with it! Today, I made a butter from walnuts, brazil nuts and cashews. If you have a less powerful food processor, I highly recommend starting with walnuts—they’ll process more easily into a butter than any other nut. I’ve found that seeds such as sunflower or pumpkin seeds will not form a butter in these lighter weight processors, no matter how much oil you add to help it along.
Once you have your nut butter, we’ll be adding in the majority of our ingredients, saving the raw cacao powder and the raw cacao butter for last. My preferred sweetener for these Raw Chocolate Truffles is raw honey—I find that just two tablespoons is all that’s needed for one batch, however I always like to taste as I go along. You can use coconut nectar or maple syrup to make them vegan-friendly and to make them keto-friendly, simply use one tablespoon of raw honey or coconut nectar and then add organic liquid stevia to taste.
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup nut or seed butter of choice
1/3 cup grated raw cacao butter, melted using a double broiler
1/3 cup raw cacao powder
2 tbsp raw honey, coconut nectar or maple syrup
3 tbsp purified water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1-inch vanilla bean, scraped
Flaky sea salt to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Blend all ingredients except cacao butter and cacao powder in a food processor or high-speed blender on low until smooth.
Stream in melted cacao butter and add cacao powder bit by bit to the blender, being extremely careful not to over-blend (or overheat) the paste.
Once the cacao butter and powder have been fully incorporated, pour the paste into a hotel pan or a mixing bowl and place in the refrigerator to firm up.
After about an hour, your truffles are ready to be formed! Using a melon scoop (or spoon), scoop the paste into individual balls, rolling with your hands to perfect the shape.
Once your truffles are formed, roll them in the toppings of your choice (cacao powder, crushed cacao nibs, chopped nuts, hemp seeds, freeze-dried berries etc.).
Store in fridge until ready to serve. These will keep well for up to 5 days.
Total time: 1h 30 min | Level: Medium | Yields: 16 truffles
There are so many different ways to get creative with these Raw Chocolate Truffles. While processing the ingredients, you may choose to add flavorings such as butterscotch or peppermint extract, or even a drop or two of essential oil (such as orange or lemon). Today I added just one drop of lemon essential oil—I feel it gives it a subtle caramel undertone that you can’t quite put your finger on. You can roll your truffles in whatever you’d like, just scour your pantry for ideas! I like to roll mine in crushed (and ideally salted) nuts, hemp seeds, freeze-dried strawberries or raspberries, lucuma powder, or even more cacao powder. If you plan to gift these, make sure they are placed into the refrigerator upon arrival at their destination, as they’ll get squishy at room temperature.
Emilía Rún
Emilía Rún is a plant-based chef, Kundalini Yoga teacher and mindfulness instructor. Throughout her own life, the teachings of yoga and mindfulness have allowed Emilía to cultivate an unbroken connection to the heart, which serves as a compass in her daily life. Emilía is the host of Heartful: Practices to Awaken the Heart.
