This year, for Valentine’s Day, instead of buying chocolates that are just going to sit on the shelf half-eaten forever, maybe we would try something different. Why not make our own truffles? It’d be much more meaningful and easy to avoid some of our dietary concerns.
It turns out, it was super easy! I took a standard truffle recipe and adapted it to be non-dairy and the results were amazing!
Here’s how they are made….
Ingredients
6 ounces of good quality chocolate bars (we used Guittard).
1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon Silk Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Tablespoon spreadable non-dairy butter substitute (we use Country Crock Plant Butter)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Toppings such as sprinkles, cocoa, cookie crumbs, sanding sugar, cocoa, cocoa nibs, crushed nuts, melting chocolate, etc.
If you want to be very extravagant like for a gift, you can sprinkle the top with luster dust or fancy gourmet sprinkles.
Instructions
Finely chop the chocolate bars and place in a medium bowl. Add the “butter” and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat the cream to a simmer.
Pour the cream over the chocolate/butter and stir to combine. The chocolate should be completely melted. If it isn’t, you will have tiny little chunks in the truffles which are not unpleasant, but it won’t be that smooth, creamy truffle texture.
Add vanilla.
Refrigerate for about 1 – 2 hours to firm.
Remove from the fridge and roll into balls. I find that a standard cookie scoop is a little too big for my taste, but a mini scoop works nicely if you want consistent size.
As you can see from mine, we didn’t make them perfectly round, but rather in a “traditional truffle shape” which is sort of lumpy.
After you make the balls, roll them in your choice of topping and then sprinkle or embellish to your hearts delight. Can be chilled or stored at room temperature.
Makes about 15 – 20 truffles.
