Homemade coconut honey chocolate truffle recipe

Homemade coconut honey chocolate truffle recipe

• 2.10.2015

Valentine's Day is coming up, and while I'm not inspired by anything pink or red or covered in hearts, I do like to make a quality, real food special treat that husband and I can enjoy. I've made homemade chocolate almond butter cups before (they were amaaaaazing), but I really wanted to master the homemade chocolate part as well, rather than melting super-sweet, store-bought chocolate chips.

I didn't trust that this would be possible, because when I've made chocolate bark-type goodies before with coconut oil, they only work frozen or refrigerated because coconut oil melts so low. But, I remembered seeing a recipe in The 21-Day Sugar Detox book for homemade chocolate almond butter cups--turns out a similar method but sweetened is on Balanced Bites, here and in Practical Paleo--and it uses the basics (cocoa powder and coconut oil) but also coconut butter/pureed coconut concentrate. When I figured out how to make homemade coconut butter (the trick: process it until you think it's done, then process it some more), I absolutely loved it, but I'd forgotten how versatile it is for coconut-ey desserts like this!

And, mixing it in to the chocolate mixture is genius because coconut butter is solid at room temperature! So when I decided to try making my own, I wanted to come up with a filling other than almond butter or nut butter to do something different... and I figured, why improve on the genius-ness of the coconut butter?? So I did a coconut butter, honey-sweetened filling! Simple, no extra flavors, a great baseline for fancier goodies later on if I decide to get creative.

Like all the goodies I make... of course these are real food, unprocessed, dairy-free, grain-free, gluten-free, Paleo-friendly treats. (And if you leave out the honey, you can make them 21-Day Sugar Detox-friendly, too!)

Homemade Chocolate Truffles with Coconut Honey Filling

Chocolate Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. coconut butter/puree coconut (or 1 c. unsweetened dried shredded coconut to make your own with this tutorial) 
• 1/4 c. coconut oil
• 1/2 c. cocoa or cacao powder
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Coconut Filling Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. coconut butter/puree coconut (or 1 c. unsweetened dried shredded coconut to make your own with this tutorial) 
• 1/4 c. coconut oil
• 1-1.5 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Optional topping: sprinkle of unsweetened dried shredded coconut

Instructions:

1. Combine all the chocolate ingredients except the vanilla in a small saucepan or double boiler. Heat and stir constantly until just melted. Turn off heat and add vanilla.
2. Spoon half of the chocolate mixture into candy molds, filling each just less than 1/3 full (for my larger molds, this was about 1 teaspoon, although I didn't do them all evenly!). (For smaller molds, you can also use a ziploc bag with the end cut off to squeeze the melted mixtures into place.) Put in fridge or freezer to harden.
3. Combine all the coconut filling ingredients except the vanilla in a small saucepan or double boiler. Heat and stir constantly until just melted. Turn off heat and add vanilla.
4. Once bottom layer of chocolates is solid, spoon coconut mixture on top. (Again, for me this was about 1 teaspoon in large molds.) Put in fridge or freezer to harden.
5. Once coconut layer is solid, spoon more chocolate on top. Put in fridge or freezer to harden.
6. Pop chocolates out of molds. 
7. Optional: brush a couple drops water on tops and sprinkle with unsweetened dried shredded (or flaked) coconut.

Serve room temperature for excellent texture/smoothness and still very strong structure, thanks to the coconut butter! 

Try different shaped molds, too!

I think both of the molds I used are too big! So I've been cutting these in half.

Endless variations:

Now that I've got the homemade chocolate part down, I'm up for experimenting with all kinds of fillings. These were totally fun and easy, and I can definitely see making them for a treat or potluck or something! Here are a more few ideas:

• Your choice of nut butter (try my DIY almond butter method/recipe (but use any nut or seed you like) here!)
• Swap the honey in the coconut cream filling for dates or homemade date syrup
• Would a lemon-ey filling be good? Like these tart Lemon Vanilla Melt-Aways (maybe with some honey added)
• Mint extract added to the chocolate part! Or coconut creamy center, I guess.
• How about a chocolate layer; a nut butter layer; a coconut cream layer?? Mmm...

The best part is, too, when you make a treat yourself you know exactly what went into it. No feeling icky afterwards and not knowing exactly what did it. And, the extra effort of making something before you enjoy it makes it taste even better!!