Vegan Chocolate Truffles

Since I'm on this ongoing quest to expand my vegan recipe repertoire, I decided to give these vegan chocolate truffles a shot.  Now truffles are traditionally made with cream and butter, and this recipe was obviously going to have some kind of non-dairy substitute.  But when I saw that this recipe had literally 3 ingredients and that the "cream" was going to come from raw cashews + water  to make cashew cream,  I fell instantly in love.  Could it really be true that cashew cream was that simple?  I remember eating at this vegan restaurant a couple of weeks ago that had an entree with cashew cream.  I thought it was absolutely divine, and for some reason I thought it would be difficult to make by myself.   


But if this recipe was true, it really wasn't.   Still high from my DIY almond milk experience  a couple of weeks ago, I knew this recipe had the potential to teach me something valuable on my quest to improve my vegan cooking.  Can you imagine unleashing the potential of creams made from nuts? I was giddy at the thought.


So then I jumped right in and made it, using this recipe.  I didn't have enough baking chocolate in the house, so I decided to divide the recipe accordingly.  Also I used carob powder instead of cocoa powder.  This is what I did:


(the amounts are my own amounts but the steps/procedure come from the original recipe given above.  I just put my own comments in blue :

Vegan Truffles Recipe 1/4 cup raw cashews  1/4 cup cold water  .3 lb bittersweet chocolate  carob powder  1. Put cashews and cold water in a blender and blend at high speed for 1-2 minutes (yes a long time).  2. Scrape the sides down and blend again until the mixture is the consistency of heavy cream.  I don't know if it's because I have so little in that blender, but it didn't really puree the cashews as much as I thought they should.  It was absolutely delicious but I still got some cashew bits in it.  It did turn out to have the consistency of heavy cream, however, with cashew bits.  For next time I was thinking, maybe soak the cashews in water first, like I did with my almond milk, to sort of break them down and soften them so they'll blend right away in the blender.   3. Meanwhile, in a double boiler heat the chocolate until it's all melted.  I didn't have a double boiler so what I did was put the chocolate in a small saucepot and put it in a wok filled with water, on the stovetop.  I think it worked pretty well because the chocolate melted nice and fast.  The reason for doing it like this is because you don't want the chocolate to be on direct heat as it burns so easily.  The boiling water acts as a protective barrier between direct heat and the chocolate.   4. Cool the chocolate until it's comfortable to work with and fold in the cashew cream (making sure not to stir too fast or you'll create bubbles).    This step did not take long at all, aside from the cashew bits in my cashew cream, I think this turned out pretty well. 5. Cool in the fridge for 2 hours (to set).   This step made my chocolate too hard and almost impossible to work with.  I had to melt it a little bit so I can shape them into little balls.   6. Take out a small ball, roll in cocoa powder and store in fridge/freezer.    This turned out to be really easy once the chocolate mixture has melted a little bit.

This is what mine looked like after:

I thought they were delicious but I'm not satisfied with the consistency.  I have a feeling it is related to how I blended my cashew cream.  I'll keep that in mind for next time but this isn't bad for a first try.  ♥