Dark Chocolate, Honey & Lavender Truffles

Posted by thesensitivefoodie on October 9, 2013 in Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free, Paleo, Soy Free, Sweet Treats, Vegetarian | 11 Comments

Lavender seems to be one of those flavours that you either love or hate. I decided to have a go at coming up with a truffle recipe, and I like lavender, so I gave it a go. I wanted to test them out to make sure other people liked them, so I took them to my parents house. (My husband had the flu, so he was no help to me, he couldn’t taste anything at all).

After my brother and his partner tried them and both liked them, my mother decided to give them a go. “Mum, you won’t like them, they have lavender in them” I have never known my mother to really like chocolate or sweet things, except for her ferrero rocher stage which lasted only a couple of months about 20 years ago. My father on the other hand, could put Cadbury out of business. I expected her to screw her nose up and spit it out, which is her normal response to something that she doesn’t like. Only this time, she took a bite & then grabbed the container of truffles, declaring that they were hers, and no one else could have any. I though this was quite funny, until I was still receiving text messages at 1.30am  about how good they were.

So being a good daughter I decided to make up a box of them for her, and drop them off after work. Keeping them in the fridge at work was the first mistake, an afternoon slump took over our office, and with the idea that if a couple of us had one each, she would still have plenty left, we opened the box and stole some. Turns out you can’t have just one, and eventually they were all gone. So now I need to make some more, before she reads this post 🙂

Suitable for: gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, nut & soy free diets. Also vegetarian and vegan (check the chocolate brand)

Ingredients

• 300g Dark Chocolate (I used the Fair Trade brand that contained no dairy), broken into peices.
• 1 cup coconut cream, shake the can, and then stir well before measuring
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 teaspoons culinary lavender (not fresh lavender, it needs to be food grade)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste

Coating Options

• chocolate covered truffles – 50g dark chocolate, melted, plus 1 teaspoon coconut oil stirred through.
• cocoa covered – 3 tablespoons good quality dutch cocoa
• lavender coloured sugar coated – I used CK lavender coloured sanding sugar
• chocolate dipped and sprinkled with lavender coloured sugar

I did a mixture of all 4, and I quite liked the effect. Taste wise, my favourite was the sugar coated, I found the cocoa powdered ones quite bitter, but some people preferred them.

Method

1. Using a water bath, by having a bowl that sits over a boiling pot of water, add the dark chocolate, and stir until melted.
2. Remove the bowl from the heat, be very careful.
3. Add the coconut cream, honey, lavender & vanilla paste, and stir through
4. Cover and place the bowl in the fridge for 1 hour, stirring half way through.
5. Prepare the coating option of your choice, as you will need to coat the truffle as soon as you roll it.
6. The truffle mixture should be set enough to roll into balls, stir through again. Roll about a tablespoon of mixture into round balls, and then coat in the option of your choice.
7. Place truffles into the fridge to set for a minimum of an hour. I find the flavours really develop nicely if you leave for 12 – 24 hours.