This delicious, healthy and somewhat sophisticated treat is not too sweet, making a great candy for adult palates. It may appeal to the younger crowd as well –my 10 year old ate a dozen of these and then packed more in his school lunch.
Along with their rich chocolate-prune flavor, these vegan truffles are packed with healthy antioxidants and quite nutritionally dense.
Chocolate Prune Truffles
Ingredients
- 1 cup prunes, pitted
- ¾ cup tart cherry juice
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup chocolate chips, melted over very low heat
- ¾ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Instructions
- Place prunes in a bowl and cover with cherry juice
- Soak for 1-2 hours
- If your prunes are hard, not juicy, you may need to heat them just a bit in the cherry juice until soft
- Place prunes and juice in food processor and pulse until smooth, about 30 seconds
- Pulse in vanilla, then melted chocolate
- Scrape mixture into a bowl and place in freezer for 30-45 minutes, until almost smooth
- Remove from freezer, and roll into 1" balls in palm of hand
- Roll in coconut to coat
- Serve
Equipment
These tasty little truffles are based on a recipe called Prune Armagnac Truffles in Baking with Agave Nectar, by Ania Catalano. Her recipe has heavy cream and liqueur and looks absolutely divine.
I made these truffles liquor free (for the boys) and dairy free (for me) and swapped out a few other ingredients as well to create this vegan version. I hope you enjoy this little treat as much as my family has!
hanne says
This combination of prune and chocolate sounds divine. I love prunes, and I wish they were used more often. Thanks so much for another great prune idea!
Karen says
Elana,
I can’t say enough about your beautiful blog. It is truly simple and satisfying. I discovered your blog a few months ago and after making many of your recipes I feel even better than just going gluten free. I never thought I could have even more energy! I just want to say thanks for sharing, you never know who will read your blog or how it affects them so I wanted you to know you have added to my life and hence my family’s. My kids love your blondies and power bars. I love the simplicity of your recipes and am just starting to experiment. Here is a recipe I tried this morning that turned out really good. Thanks again!
Karen
veggiebelly says
oh my! this looks so beautiful! youve done a great job with the photo :) I love the prune-chocolate-liquor combination.
elana says
~M -I use whatever is organic and bulk at the health food store in terms of prunes and other dried fruits. Happy Birthday to your husband!
Claire -Thanks so much; I really appreciate it!
Fran -Thanks for your great suggestions. I am going to go through my site and change all of the chocolate in recipes to read dark chocolate 73%. Per the agave, as you can see from the comment after yours, some people prefer agave over honey, though you can always experiment and use honey in these recipes. I think any brand of grapeseed oil will work. I hope that answers all of your questions and I really appreciate your feedback!
Tammy -Thanks for your comment. Your peanut truffles sound AMAZING. I bet my boys would love them :-)
Tammy says
For Fran: Agave nectar is inexpensively available through Amazon, if you can order from them. See the “subscribe and save” link on this page:
http://www.amazon.com/Madhava-Organic-Nectar-17-Ounce-Bottles/dp/B000FMTJL4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1225598043&sr=8-3
Honey is not a substitute for agave for many of us, because agave nectar has a very low glycemic index, so those with diabetic conditions can have it (or those who want to avoid diabetes!). Honey’s glycemic index is very high. However, if you can have honey, you can substitute it one for one, though you may have to adjust the amount of fluid in the recipe, as agave isn’t quite as thick.
Elana, I took what I learned from your wonderful site and invented chocolate peanut truffles about a week ago, and have been making them every night! I can have peanuts and dairy, so I use crunchy peanut butter and dry milk powder, along with flaxseed meal, vanilla, agave and unsweetened baking chocolate instead of Dagoba chips (not sure if there is a sweetener in Dagoba), and roll them in unsweetened coconut. I can have prunes, but I’m not sure if I can have cherry juice; I’ll try it, and if it doesn’t make me fall asleep, I’ll be making them a lot, I’m sure! I love how you exemplify the principle of adaptability…every recipe leads to another.
Fran says
Hi Elana,
First off, congrats for giving a great, informative website to people (with or without digestive problems) who want to cook delicious & healthy meals.
I do have one issue though, and it has probably already been adressed here, but will you in the (near) future perhaps be inclined to also offer these recipes with ingredients that are universally available? Especially considering that I read you are thinking of bringing these recipes out in a cookbook (great idea btw).
I am from Europe, and because of digestive problems try to adhere as good as possible to the Specific Carboyhydrate Diet (SCD-Diet), and there aren’t that many good cook books or cooking recipes out, but your recipes almost perfectly fit. Since I can’t (or without a lot of effort and extra cost) order Dagoba Chocodrops or Agave Nectar or Grapeseed oil for example, it would indeed be extremely helpful if there was perhaps a seperate ingredient list with just the amount needed of grams of bitter dark gluten free chocolate (I can recommend Green&Blacks organic chocolate products btw http://www.greenandblacks.com/ , available in the US and Europe). Also, honey is a universal product to use in for example desserts as a replacement for refined sugar, with lots of health benefits (digestive enzymes, vitamins, much slower burning of calories compared to refined sugar).
I hope I don’t appear offensive, but I do believe you could draw in a much larger audience if your ingredients were universally available.
Claire Walter says
Elana –
I can’t find contact info for you, so the best I can do is to post this here as a comment totally unrelated to prune truffles but definitely related to your fine blog.
I was recently honored with the blogger-to-blogger E for Excellence Award, and I’m thrilled to be passing it on to you too. As the blogger who bestowed it on me explained, “The rules for this award are a little blurry. But then most excellent recipes are created without exactly following the recipe. That’s what makes excellent recipes–tweaking them to suit your taste. Some foodies award it to three deserving bloggers, others award it to ten. You have to link to the person giving you the award and also post it on your sidebar, choose the excellent blogs you enjoy and give them the award.”
See http://culinary-colorado.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-e-for-excellence-award-choices-in.html
~M says
Yum! I love prunes and think that prunes + chocolate = fabulousness! But since I have a case of unsweetened cranberry juice, I’ll use that instead of the cherry juice; both are *tart* so I think it will work!
What brand of prunes do you recommend, Elana? I usually use Pavich organic ones. They are great soaked in orange juice and then stewed over low heat!
We had your coconut flour based chocolate cake – in cupcakes – again tonight. My husband requested them for his 26th birthday since we both think they are awesome!
elana says
Hi Kay,
Thanks for your sweet comment. My children and I just finished trick or treating and were sitting here watching food videos when it came in.
Feel free to add me to your blog roll.
Many Thanks,
Elana
Kay says
Hi Elana,
I found your website while googling gluten free squash recipes. You are one busy cook!!! In addition to your stuffed acorn squash, I think I’ll try your caramel dip for apples. I’m logging you my favorites. I know I’ll be back. I’m really overstocked on squash and apples at the moment. It has been a great gardening year in Indianapolis!
May I add you to my blogroll? I think my gluten free blog buddies would be happy to find your wealth of recipes.