Prune and chocolate truffles


This is a sort of half-way house as a truffle.

It's a bit of chocolate, if you're feeling that way inclined, and there's some fruit too, if you're that way inclined. That's way I meant about half way house - if you're poised between wanting something sugary and something virtuous, this is something-in-between option.

The chief ingredient is prunes, which kind of have a bad press, but don't let that put you off - they don't taste massively pruney and they shouldn't give you the effect that you often think about when you think of prunes. Unless you eat loads of them, I guess. Maybe best not to eat the whole batch in one go in case.

I used tea as the soaking liquid for the prunes, but there's no reason you can't use something else - water, if you're like that, or booze if you're like that. I mean, I like the idea of rum as soaking liquid - rum truffles, anyone? - but that seems like you'd need an awful lot of booze for that, and there's something about using that much booze in anything other than a cocktail that makes me feel a bit wrong. So, tea it is.
And there's some dark chocolate in there too, which means the end result isn't too sweet. If you're feeling things a bit more sugary, you can sub out the dark chocolate for a vegan type milk chocolate - there are a lot of supermarkets selling some decent ones these days, and you can't go wrong with Moo Free.
This recipe was mainly created because I have a bag of coconut flour that I don't know what to with. If you've got any great recipes or tasty ways to use it up, can you send them my way?

Prune and chocolate truffles
Makes 20 truffles or so
Ingredients
100g prunes, soaked overnight in Earl Grey tea
70g soya cream
120g dark vegan chocolate
40g coconut flour*
Dessicated coconut shreds

How you do it
Drain the prunes, and blend them with the soya cream til you have a creamy, pruny puree.
Melt the dark chocolate over a bain marie (that's a double boiler to you US folks) and stir into the prune puree.
Stir in the coconut flour until you have a mixture with mouldable consistency.
Stick in the fridge to cool - shouldn't take too long - and it'll firm up a bit more.
Take a small lump - like a little walnut - and roll it between your hands til you have a ball, then roll the ball in the coconut shreds to coat. You could also use chopped nuts, or cocoa powder, or anything else your heart desires, to coat it. That is, unless your heart desires celeriac shreds or coat buttons or paperclips or something like that. Don't use those, that would be odd.
* depending on how absorbent your prunes are and how much soaking liquid they've soaked up, you may need more or less coconut flour. With that in mind, I suggest adding in 20g to start with, stirring thoroughly and checking the consistency, then adding the rest of the flour in 5g increments from there.

Comments

  1. People often use dates or other dried fruit in their truffles, so why not prunes. I think they have a deep, rich taste that would go well with chocolate. And I like your idea of soaking them in rum. You could drink it after so as not to waste it. :)

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  2. oof these sound soooo fantastic!!
    I am down with prunes, for the record.

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  3. Sounds like a happy compromise between decadent desserts and healthy snacks- Which is to say, perfect!

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  4. These sound great, and are especially appealing because I often end up with coconut flour and soya cream that I buy on a whim and don't actually have a plan for.

    If you can stretch to finding / buying an avocado, one of my favourite coconut flour recipes is... http://www.bitesizedthoughts.com/2012/10/vegan-brownie-bites-with-avocado-and.html (also containing chocolate, of course!) :)

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  5. I'm nearly drooling, these look incredible!

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  6. I love prunes! Like in all manners and shapes so these sound delicious to me. I wonder how half tea/half rum would go? Sounds like it would go well <3

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  7. Not usually a prune eater, but what a great idea! I'm sure these lovely truffles will turn around all the "bad press" surrounding prunes in no time. :-)

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