Treats Week: All Truffles, All the Time

I think I would lead a happier life if every Wednesday was a truffle day.  Just sayin’.

I have an easy kind of truffles for you today, delicious to the max.  They make great nibblies to have on hand for guests who drop by, and also elegant little gifts.  And the best part of this recipe (which I have modified from here and here), aside from its simplicity and versatility, is that they’re totally vegan and gluten-free.  So you can make everyone happy.  Serve them with chokladboll for fika and it will be even more impressive.

Soak about 15 medjool dates (those are the big ones) for about 15 minutes.

While the dates are relaxing in their nice bath, take about 1 cup dessicated coconut, and chuck it in your food processor.  Pulse that until you have teeny flakes, and set half of it aside for coating the finished truffles.

Do the same with 1 cup walnuts, almonds, pecans, or nut of your choosing, reserving half for coating.  I toasted these ones first.

Dump the other half of the coconut and nuts back in the food processor.

Add the soaked dates to the food processor, as well as 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 cup full-fat coconut milk.  Alternately, you can use a few tablespoons of coconut oil.

Now what you should know here is that I both doubled the recipe and my food processor is really small, so I did this in batches and mixed it together in a bowl.

Pulse that gooey mass until it’s all finely combined and forming a huge ball.  Chuck that in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Then you can start making truffles balls with your hands.  Take about 2 tablespoons of the mixture and roll it in your palms to form a rough sphere. This was my hand after doing the whole batch.

Roll about a third of your truffles in unsweetened cocoa powder (with an extra sprinkling of cayenne if you wish), another third in your coconut flakes, and the last third in the crushed nuts.

Keep these in the fridge, or freeze them for later on down the road. My doubled recipe made 48 truffles.

They’re so pretty and tasty and spicy!

Fika with Swedish Chocolate Balls

My lovely pseudo-family came to visit my parents and I all the way from Sweden.  I got to see my nephew after four years’ absence, and meet my goddaughter in person for the first time.

We were also introduced to the fantastic Swedish tradition of fika.  Roughly translated, fika means “to drink coffee”.  In Sweden it is used as both a noun and a verb and it’s an invitation to have a coffee break and enjoy some baked nibblies.  “Shall we fika?” is a common phrase in offices across Sweden in mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

And what better treat to fika with than traditional Swedish chocolate balls (“Chokladboll“).  Chocolate balls do not really contain any chocolate, only cocoa, and are also known by another, rather racist name, so we’ll stick with the chocolate one, shall we? 

Now, I multiplied the recipe and had to translate it from the metric — because in Canada, though we wholeheartedly espoused the metric system decades ago, we still cook in American.  So bear with me.

Cream together 1 3/4 cups softened butter and 1 cup and 3 tablespoons granulated sugar.

Add in 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, 4 teaspoons icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar), and 3/4 cup cold coffee.  Mix well.

Stir in 8 cups oats.

Roll the mixture into small balls, about the size of your average Timbit (the traditional Canadian version of the fika treat).

Roll the balls in dessicated coconut (a cup should do) and toss them in the fridge to harden a bit.

My pseudo-family sometimes piles the balls into towers and uses them as cakes for those with gluten allergies.