The best hazelnut truffles

Hey there!

 

So today I was visiting a friend in the afternoon and since I personally like to bring a little something whenever I visit someone else’s house. This visit had come up rather spontaneously hence it had to either buy a present or make a really quick one. So obviously I went with the second option, well I do love cooking so why go out and spend money when you can just make it yourself also I find it so much more personal if you actually spend the time and effort to create a present.

 

At first I was going to bake something, though then I woke up way too late to go through with that plan so those truffles I came up with were the way to go. I’m sure most of you have either heard or tried vegan truffles; you know the ones with dates instead of chocolate and lots of other healthy ingredients, yet those tend to taste pretty healthy too. By all means that isn’t always a bad thing, yet when your eating a truffle you kind of want to have the feeling of indulgence.

 

So the clue to my truffles was that I actually roasted and skinned the nuts I added. This just gives them a really special flavour, which kind of reminds of Ferrero Rocher, at least in my opinion. I also decided to cover them in some 70% chocolate which made them even more amazing.

 

I was absolutely blown away by the result. I didn’t actually think they’d turn out this great prior to my cooking session, yet again I was proved wrong. Those were divine. And you know what’s best, they’re also super easy and quick to make and if you are really in a rush you could also skip the chocolate part and only cover them in cocoa powder. Though if you’ve got the extra 30 minutes the chocolate needs to harden I highly suggest to not skip that step, it just ups they’re level from quite delicious to absolutely divine.

 

So here you have the recipe which really only consists of five basic steps: roast, soak, skin, mix, shape and the same amount of ingredients.

This recipe makes approximately 10-12 truffles.

 

 

• 100g dates (approx. 5 medjool dates)
• 70g hazelnuts*
• 2tbs cacao powder (the unsweetened kind)
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 50g 70% chocolate

 

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C, put your hazelnuts on a lined baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes, make sure to stir your nuts around every 5 minutes. While the hazelnuts are roasting soak your dates in cold water.
2. When your hazelnuts have finished roasting take them out of the oven, and pour them onto a tea towel. Wrap them in the towel and massage them until pretty much all the skin has come off
3. Remove your dates from the soaking water, then make sure to pit them after add your dates, 30g of the skinned nuts, 1tbs cacao powder and vanilla into a food processor, process until your mixture reaches the consistency of a sticky cookie dough
4. Now divide your dough into 11 equal portions and shape them into little truffles, make sure to add one of the leftover roasted nuts in the middle of each of your truffles
5. When you have shaped your truffles melt your chocolate. Meanwhile finely chop up the rest of your roasted hazelnuts
6. When the chocolate has melted cover your truffles in chocolate and roll half of them in the chopped nuts I decided to leave the other half plain, let the chocolate set
7. When the chocolate has set completely cover the plain truffles in cacao powder and then serve with a cup of tea or coffee

Voila. You just created some amazing tasting completely vegan truffles, which actually only consist of 5 ingredients. Those truffles are honestly amazing and you absolutely wouldn’t think that they don’t actually contain any nasty ingredients. They even kind of taste like Ferrero Rocher, which are some of my absolute favourite chocolates in the world. I still remember when my mum got a cardboard cake covered in Ferrero Rocher chocolates for her fiftieth birthday and I probably ate at least half of those delicious treats. They were just so delicious.

So go ahead make some truffles, I’m sure there’s someone in your life who’d like some chocolates and if not just treat yourself.

 

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie

 

 

*You could totally substitute with any other nuts if you happen to be allergic or just not a lover of hazelnuts. Yet if your going for the Ferrero flavour you should definitely stick with my recipe.