Orange chocolate truffles

Has anyone noticed this blog has quite a chocolate theme?! Cutting out fructose has left me seeking my chocolate fix in ways not involving the consumption of chocolate blocks... but it hasn't stopped me wanting it. I've heard that women crave chocolate because they need magnesium, so I guess a simple fix could be to take magnesium supplements... but that doesn't sound quite as appetising as chocolate! 

I have had numerous attempts to make a satisfactory chocolate, but nothing has quite cut it... until these truffles. I've tried chocolate variations using unsweetened baker's chocolate (AKA cacao liquor), raw cacao powder, and normal baking cocoa powder; I've mixed them with cacao butter and coconut oil (bleurgh); I've sweetened them with rice malt syrup, dextrose-based syrup and stevia; I've added vanilla and/or coffee to try to compensate for the lack of flavour. I've found that using unsweetened chocolate (I have some Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate a friend kindly brought back from USA) or raw cacao powder result in an overpowering, bitter chocolate taste (like licking cocoa powder off the spoon), which is difficult to mask. And the chocolate is either waxy or chewy. 

For my first couple of attempts making these truffles I used Nestle baking cocoa powder, then raw cacao powder, and both were very nice, but VERY dark tasting and a little on the bitter side, and I added extra sweetening to compensate. I have now discovered that using the less acidic dutch processed cocoa powder results in a friendlier chocolate. Yes, raw cacao powder may have more magnesium and other minerals to benefit my body, but when it comes to chocolate it's the taste buds I aim to please. ;) (And from what I've read, raw cacao powder doesn't strictly meet the requirements for raw food anyway, if you're concerned about that sort of thing.)

You could try using this chocolate coating recipe to make eating chocolate or choc chips for baking if you like... It is not my ideal chocolate by a long shot, but it is the best fructose-free option I have discovered, and I'm happy enough for it to coat these extremely delicious orange truffles. OR you could coat the truffles in 85% cocoa chocolate, or some store-bought fructose-free chocolate such as Plamil's No Added Sugar Organic Chocolate (which I got from Flannery's). 

Adapted from http://www.againstallgrain.com/2012/04/22/paleo-mandarin-chocolate-truffles/

Makes about 18 truffles

Truffle filling

• 30g (3 tablespoons or 1/4 cup) cacao butter, chopped
• 2 tablespoons (40ml) coconut oil (I used unrefined, cold-pressed extra virgin coconut oil, which has quite a coconut flavour, but is not noticeable in these truffles)
• 1/4 cup (60ml) rice malt syrup
• 2 tablespoons (40ml) coconut butter (make a batch of this first, if you haven't made it in advance)
• 1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder (I used Nestle Plaistowe premium cocoa. You can use normal baking cocoa powder or raw cacao powder, but the truffles will have more of a bitter taste and you may wish to add more sweetening to compensate.)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (3 tablespoons) strained fresh orange or mandarin juice (takes about 1/2 a large orange)
• 1 teaspoon orange or mandarin zest (from 1 large orange)
• 5 drops liquid stevia (optional. Adjust to taste.)
• pinch of sea salt 

Chocolate coating

• 25g (2 ½) tablespoons cacao butter
• 3 ½ tablespoons cocoa powder (I haven't successfully made the coating with dutch processed cocoa yet – it seized and I have run out of the cocoa powder – but assuming it wasn't the type of cocoa powder that caused it to seize, I would recommend dutch processed cocoa for flavour. I have successfully made the coating with raw cacao powder.)
• 1 tablespoon rice malt syrup, warmed till very runny
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 drops liquid stevia

Directions

Make a batch of coconut butter if you don't have any on hand by throwing a whole packet (I use 500g) of dessicated coconut into a food processor and blitzing until it turns runny. It may take around 15 minutes, and you will probably need to scrape the sides of the bowl several times. NOTE: You need to make a large quantity of coconut butter for the food processor to handle it. There are plenty of ways to use it up! Don't worry about cleaning your food processor yet as you are going to put the coconut butter back in shortly with other ingredients.

Place the 30g cacao butter in a double boiler over the boiling water. Stir for 1-2 minutes until it has started to melt, but there are still some solid pieces. Turn off the heat, then whisk in the 2 Tbs coconut oil and 60ml rice malt syrup.

Pour the mixture into a food processor, then add the ½ cup cacao powder, 2 Tbs coconut butter, 1 tsp vanilla, ¼ cup orange juice, 1 tsp zest, 5 drops stevia and small dash of salt. Process for about a minute until your mixture is smooth and thick.

Refrigerate truffle mixture for 45 minutes.

After the truffle mixture has chilled, use a spoon to scoop out balls (about 1/2 or 2/3 of a tablespoon in size) from the bowl. Roll them between your palms to form smooth balls. (Use disposable food handling gloves if you'd rather not get your hands messy! Alternatively, rub some coconut oil onto your hands to stop the chocolate sticking too much.) Place the balls on a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate at least 15 minutes. Be careful not to roll the balls too much or the heat from your hands can melt the chocolate.

For the chocolate coating, melt the cacao butter over a double boiler until it reaches 50 degrees Celsius (122F). Take care no water or steam (from the double boiler or elsewhere) gets into the bowl at any stage, else the chocolate will seize.

Add the warmed rice malt syrup, vanilla, stevia and cocoa powder. Mix until all combined and the mixture reaches 50 degrees Celsius again.

Remove the chocolate from heat and allow to cool slightly. Take the truffles out of the fridge and dip each truffle in the chocolate (or hold the truffle over the melted chocolate – you can use a toothpick – while spooning the melted chocolate over it). Place truffles on a fresh sheet of baking paper on the refrigerated tray and allow them to cool and harden at room temperature before storing in the fridge.

Yeah, I used to think that making truffles by mixing chopped chocolate with cream was fiddly. Well, these are totally worth the fiddling in my opinion! Yum! 

Excuse the daggy photo - I may take a better one someday, but in the meantime, check out the pretty pictures from the original Mandarin Chocolate Truffle recipe. :)