Vegan Dark Chocolate Truffles

By pattie_d

Usually I incorporate tofu into savory, dinner entrée type meals like stir fries or my latest tofu ricotta pizza. But tofu is so adaptable, it works great in desserts too, especially silken tofu. Silken tofu has a high water content, making the consistency much like Greek yogurt. The light texture makes it easy to blend into batters, smoothies, and in this case, dark chocolate truffles.

Ingredients

• 1 package of drained silken tofu (you will only use 3/4 of the package)
• 10 oz dark chocolate chips
• 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 – 1c shredded unsweetened coconut for rolling. You could also use cocoa powder or a cinnamon sugar blend to coat your truffles if coconut isn’t your thing.

Preparation

Step 1

Place tofu, chocolate chips, maple syrup and vanilla in a high speed blender and blend on high until the chocolate is no longer gritty and the mixture is smooth. My Vitamix does a stellar job with this, but if you don’t have a blender that gets the job done, you can always melt the chocolate in a double broiler or in the microwave, and then incorporate it into the tofu in the blender to ensure it’s smooth.

Refrigerate the chocolate tofu mixture for 4 hours or overnight (especially if you used hot, melted chocolate). This will solidify the mixture, making it an ideal texture to roll into truffles.

Spread coconut onto a plate or shallow bowl. Make sure your hands are clean and cool (warm hands = melting chocolate!). Scoop out tablespoon-sized scoops of the chocolate mixture and using your hands, roll into truffle balls. Drop the truffle into the coconut and gently roll to coat the outside. Set aside and repeat with the remaining chocolate mixture. Serve immediately or keep refrigerated.

These truffles are so decadent and rich, you can’t even detect any tofu flavor. And the tofu actually adds a nice bit of protein to this otherwise high fat dessert – most truffles are made using heavy cream and butter. These would make the perfect bite-sized party dessert, and with the holidays coming up (YIKES!) they actually look like little festive snowballs. Not that I want to see anything that resembles snow.