Oh my word. I think I have just found my new favourite thing... These little truffles are insane! One of the yummiest things I have ever tasted. We are having them for dessert tonight! They are paleo and vegan with no added sugar or other nasties. They are also dairy and gluten-free.
I found the recipe on Pinterest and made a few changes to get the recipe below.
Ingredients for around 25 balls:
Filling
50ml coconut cream
70ml coconut oil (melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
10 medjool dates
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt flakes
Chocolate coating
30g chocolate (I used a mixture of dark and milk chocolate chips)
10ml coconut oil
Remove the pits from the dates, and soak the dates in boiling water until they are soft (about half an hour). Pour off the water.
Place the dates together with the coconut cream, melted coconut oil, vanilla essence and salt into a food processor and blend together until a smooth buttery mixture forms. It will still be quite sticky at this stage. Refrigerate the caramel mixture for at least 4 hours (I did overnight in the coldest part of my fridge) so that it hardens a bit. It needs to be cold so that you can roll the mixture into small balls. The coconut oil hardens in cooler temperatures and gives it its form.
Next, make the chocolate coating. Place the chocolate and the coconut oil together in a small bowl and gently melt them together. I did mine in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, giving it a gentle stir after each 30 seconds until it was melted. It took 2 minutes in total. Take care not to do the full 2 minutes in one go, as you risk burning the chocolate.
Try to keep your hands cool when doing the next step. If your hands are too warm the balls will be difficult to manage. Take a small amount of caramel mixture and roll it into a ball.
Pop the ball into the melted chocolate, and gently coat it using a teaspoon.
Place each ball onto a plate with greaseproof paper (this prevents the balls from "sticking" to the plate. Place the plate of coated balls into the refrigerator to set. Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them and then transfer them gently off the paper onto a serving plate.
