Homemade Chocolate & Coconut Truffles

Who doesn't like sweet bites every now and then? or maybe every day? :-)

I am rather a salty person - but, if you give me a piece of chocolate or something sweet, I will eat it all in one eye blink. And indeed, I do believe life is too short to cut on little pleasures like truffles. However, most of the truffles we buy are high on sugar and fat components, including cholesterol... and they usually contain additives.

If you want to keep a nutritious diet and still enjoy this type of little pleasures, making your own truffles should be on the top of your to do list. It doesn't take too long to prepare them.. although your hands do get quite messy :)

For today's truffles, we will need the ingredients below, a blender with dry container, baking paper and space in the fridge ;-)

Ingredients:

• 5 tbsp water

• 7 tbsp agave syrup

• 2 pitted Iranian dates

• 1/4 cup cacao butter

• 2 cups almond meal

• 2 cups cacao powder

• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Chocolate coating:

• 2 tbsp Coconut virgin oil

• 1 tsp Coconut syrup

• 3 tbsp cacao powder

• Shredded coconut to taste

We are going to start by mixing the water, agave syrup, dates and the cacao butter. Blend it all together until reaching a silky smooth dough. Then add 1 cup of almond meal to the mix and blend it all together. Add now the 2 cups cacao powder and blend it all again.

Pour the mixture to a bowl and add the almond meal plus the half cup of shredded coconut. With the hands, mix it all and create a big ball. If it is too liquid, you can add more almond meal or set it aside in the freezer for 15minutes.

Place the dough on a baking paper and you can now follow two options:

a) You press it down with another baking paper until creating a pizza like dough

b) You leave the dough ball as it is.

I chose the option a) and then using a teaspoon, I took part of the dough and made a small ball out of it with my own hands. Once I finished the dough, I placed the truffles in the fridge.

While the truffles are in the fridge, you can start preparing the coating.

In low fire, let the coconut virgin oil melt and add directly the coconut syrup. Mix both ingredients well, then add the 3 tbsp cocoa powder. Steer the mixture until getting a smooth liquid. Be careful not to burn the oil neither the syrup... hence is better to work on low fire.

Take out the truffles from the fridge and then add the chocolate coating on top of each. Directly afterwards, spread the shredded coconut. And... we place them back in the fridge! :)

These truffles should be stored on the fridge to ensure they stay firmly rounded and fresh.

If you try this recipe, let me know how it went and do not hesitate to share with me your truffle moment! :)

Happy sweet bites

xx

Zohar