Chocolate Truffles and Coconut Snowballs

Since I have a huge lump of cacao butter sitting in my cupboard, and by sheer luck there was hardly any clients at work today so my boss let me leave early, the obvious thing to do was to go home and start making some chocolate truffles. People are generally surprised when I tell them how just how much I adore chocolate. They give me this weird look and say 'Aren't you a vegan?'. Not really sure of when people started believing vegans don't like chocolate. Or that all chocolate contains milk? Maybe all the gross stuff like Aeros, Kit Kats, that kind of thing. But I'm sort of a chocolate snob, and I really rather eat a little bit of super dark, super expensive chocolate than a bag of Oh Henrys any day. Most chocolate isn't raw(although you can find raw bars), but I generally make an exception for it. Or you can make your own. It's fairly simple, all you do is re-unite cocoa butter and powder, along with some sweetener and whatever other goodies to choose to throw in.

For the truffles I made 2 different types, chocolate ones and coconut snowballs. The coconut snowballs didn't take to being dipped in the chocolate too well, they didn't really firm up properly so I rolled them in some more coconut afterwards and it seemed pretty tasty.




Chocolate Truffles
1/4 cup coconut butter
1/2 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup maple syrup/agave
1 cup cacao powder

Blend everything except the cacao powder in a blender, then mix the cacao powder in by hand in a bowl. Let set in the fridge for about half an hour(or in the freezer if you're impatient as I always am). If you use the freezer check on them in about 15, you don't want rocks. Scoop into balls and roll in more cacao powder, or dip in melted chocolate then place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and place in fridge/freezer to set.



Coconut Snowballs

1 cup nuts(I used almonds and brazil nuts, but macadamias, cashews, hazelnuts, anything really would work also)
1 1/2 cups plus 1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded, dried coconut
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup/agave

Process the nuts in a food processor until they're finely ground. Add 1 1/2 cups coconut, coconut oil, and maple syrup, then process until the mixture is a sticky paste. Place in the fridge/freezer until slightly firm. Roll into balls and then roll in additional coconut.

Chocolate
1/3 cup melted cacao butter(in a bowl over boiling water, or in a dehydrator set at 120 degrees)
1/3 cup plus 1 tblspn cacao powder
3 tblspns agave/maple syrup

Mix all together in a bowl, dip truffles in!