Healthy creamy chocolate coconut truffles that can be made with only 2 familiar ingredients and supply a huge amount of nutrients including immunity boosts, mood elevators and heart healthy powers.
Chocolate Coconut Truffles
These treats are powerfully healthy for your immunity, mood and heart, and so easy to make. Blend up, roll, dip, set and eat. Minimal ingredients to buy, minimal equipment to wash - my kind of recipe!
Now I get that you probably need to like coconut to love these, so if you don't, try my other truffles, here is a collection of my truffle recipes.
But if you do love coconut, you'll love these!
What Ingredients Do You Need For Coconut Truffles?
You only need two ingredients to make this recipe. Searching online for similar recipes - coconut bites, coconut bliss balls and coconut truffles - revealed that many recipes require sweetened condensed milk.
Sweetened condensed milk is not in my recipe. I don't add it because it is processed, high in sugar, and provides little nutritional benefit. Plus condensed milk is hard to buy, and not a typical pantry ingredient. And it is not necessary. The only two ingredients you need to make delicious rich and healthy coconut truffles are:
1. Coconut butter.
Yes you can buy it, Coconut Manna is what it is called and it is expensive and comes in a jar. Don't buy it. Make it. Buy instead a bag of shredded coconut. I use macaroon but any shredded coconut is fine. Blend it for 3-4 minutes or less and you have a creamy, dreamy, drippy butter. Coconut butter. Congratulations.
Coconut butter is bursting with nutrition, and so much fun to eat - I use it in recipes such as these vegan gluten free brownies but I also use it as a fruit and chocolate dip, a drizzle on ice cream, and yes, to just spoon out of the blender!
2. Dark Chocolate.
I buy chocolate chips often because they are easy to melt but dark chocolate bars are fine too. Look for quality brands that have cocoa butter as an ingredient and at least 70% cacao. My favorite brands are Enjoy Life, Theo, Chocolove, and HU.
How Healthy is Shredded Coconut?
Coconut meat, shredded or otherwise, is highly nutritious. It is a strong immunity booster because it has properties that are anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-parasite, plus it is very high in fiber and iron.
Nutritional Benefits of Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate, the only other ingredient in these truffles, is also a nutritional rock star.
Using at least 70% cacao is recommended so that the chocolate has a high concentration of flavonoids and antioxidants, components that are known to strengthen blood vessels, lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure.
Dark chocolate also triggers the body's production of mood-boosting serotonin. And it is high in magnesium, also a mood booster and depression-buster. Magnesium is often considered short-changed in the typical Western diet.
How to Make Coconut Truffles
Now that I have convinced you that these coconut truffles are awesome, how do we make them?
First, blend up shredded coconut into coconut butter. It's quite easy, actually. But be sure to buy the correct shredded coconut. You want unsweetened, and you want shredded coconut. Not coconut flakes.
I buy this macaroon shredded coconut when I can find it because it blends into a slightly creamier texture, probably because it is shredded more finely. But other brands of shredded coconut are fine too including Terrasoul, Anthoney's and Let's Do Organic - just be sure to buy unsweetened.
Next, refrigerate freshly blended coconut butter for about 30 minutes or until touch test allows you to roll balls. Roll balls and set them on a rack over a parchment-lined pan. Refrigerate balls until you are ready to coat them in chocolate.
Melt the chocolate, dip the balls, let them set and eat!
Try My Other Easy Chocolate Treats
Healthy Filled Chocolate
Homemade Twix Bars
Sprinkles Chocolate Bar Recipe
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Chickpea Chocolate Clusters
And if you are really interested in learning how to make super easy homemade chocolate treats, don't forget to sign up for my FREE chocolate treat emailed course below.
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Chocolate Coconut Truffles
Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded coconut (blend into butter; makes 1 cup butter)
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Make coconut butter
- Blend up the two cups of shredded coconut until the mixture becomes creamy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt and blend again briefly. Taste-test. Coconut is naturally sweet, however, if you want a sweeter mixture, add a teaspoon or two of maple syrup.
- Set mixture in a bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Roll one inch balls and set on a rack that sits on a parchment lined tray.
Coat them in Chocolate
- Use a heat-safe container to microwave the 1 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave for 60 seconds. Stir until all chips are melted. If need be, microwave again in 15 second increments until the chips are all melted.
- Set a small skillet of water to heat on the stove. Put the heat save container - I used a pyrex glass measuring cup - in the water so the melted chocolate stays melted.
- Lower each ball quickly into the chocolate, coat, drain and set on the rack to drain and set.
- Once the chocolate coating has sealed, refrigerate in a covered container for about a week. If they last that long.
Nutrition
Dee Dine is founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a plant based recipe blog, and author of the recent cookbook, Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients and another immunity-boosting smoothie shot book, 4-Ingredient Smoothies + Juices , due out in January 2021. On this blog you'll find incredibly easy recipes with hidden veggies for anyone wanting to eat healthier, regardless of diet. Dee has graduate degrees in sciences and journalism, editor at The Feedfeed and a nutritional expert at WikiHow. More about Dee Dine here.
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