Lent. Oh Lent. How I love thee and hate thee. It comes around once a year and for as long as I can remember, I have given something up. My dad and Grandma always give something up as well so it makes it a little easier to stick to it…as the saying goes…misery loves company. For whatever reason, I enjoy testing my willpower for 40 days. Some years I am perfect, some years I am not, and most years I am somewhere in between. I have given up anything from cheese to facebook to sweets and I feel like I learn a little bit about myself each time. What am I giving up this year you ask? Well, it’s a little bit complicated, but I am keeping in line with my new year’s cleanse, and only eating one processed food a day. Basically, this means I get to choose between a complex carb (bread, pasta) or a dessert that contains refined sugar…which of course, I love both. I found that giving up processed foods all together was just not feasible, so this is still challenging but doable. And that is where these au natural chocolate truffles come in!
Now, don’t read “chocolate truffle” and imagine biting into a See’s candy because that is not this. This is a sweet, kinda chocolatey, gummy fruit snack for the middle of the day when I am having a sweet craving. It is sweetened with all non-processed goodies and rolled in coconut. It has some vitamins in the fruit and some protein in the almond butter. I recommend these for a sweet substitute, but not a knock your socks off gooey, rich, delicious chocolate dessert.
Natural Chocolate Truffles
*Recipe from the World’s Healthiest Foods Cookbook
- 1/2 cup pitted prunes
- 1/4 cup pitted dates
- 3 tablespoons almond butter (or other nut butter)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup grated unsweetened coconut
Get out your food processor** and drop in the prunes and dates. Let them run through until they are smooth.
Add the almond butter, maple syrup, and cocoa powder into the mixture.
Run the food processor again until smooth. This may take a couple minutes, so be patient.
Now move the mixture to a bowl. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls. Spread your coconut onto a plate and roll the balls in the coconut.
You should have about 10-12 pieces.
All done! How easy was that?
**If you don’t have a food processor, you could try a blender or you can chop and mix by hand.
A little chocolate everyday will help you live that french saying up above.
12 Responses
What an interesting twist on truffles – I am kind of tempted to try this, since I love dried dates and coconut, and boy, do i love truffles. 🙂 Great idea!
Wow, these sound great. We have a great recipe for a ginger truffle on our page and you can totally omit the chocolate as it isn’t needed. I have been trying to get rid of all processed foods in my house. I am doing good but for cereal. That and granola bars are my weakness even though we do make good granola and granola bars in our house. Someday I will get rid of it all!
Cereal is the hardest for me too! Oatmeal is just not cutting it :/ I’m going to go check out your ginger truffles 🙂
Love the idea of using print in your photography! It looks gorgeous.
lovely and healthy, this is a great idea and I love that it’s all natural
These would get me through the day, Congrats on Top 9!
These sound so much healthier than real chocolate truffles but look just the same. I’m really impressed.
These look delightful! Have seen dates used in healthy chocolate but never prunes, I imagine it adds lots of flavour depth. Can’t wait to try!
Love the pictures in dark background with French dictionary. Great idea! Great food! Great photography!
I love the idea, and the images make them look really tasty. I wonder if I could convert my family onto healthy truffles…
Nice Truffles. I love that idea of Power balls. They’re so versatile and you can make them suit your own taste by using your favorite nuts or natural sweeteners or oils (sesame, coconut…etc). When I am having a sweet craving, I fill a pitted date with some almonds. So tasty.
I love dates with almonds- and a little bit of goat cheese between…mmm good!