Double Chocolate Almond Truffles [vegan]

   I tend to cover things I love in chocolate, whether accidentally or on purpose.

  

 These truffles are no exception. If anything, it’s rather surprising that it took me this long to do so. For lack of a better term, we’re going to call them truffles, even though they clearly are not truffles at all, because, you know, vegan. I think they’re better, but more than one person has described my eating habits as “weird”, so that’s probably just one of my many eccentricities talking. 

     They were originally inspired by my love of Larabars, which was constantly at war with my desire not to literally eat myself out of house and home. (Almost two dollars for a bar? Please. I’m not made of money). So, I started making my own. Granted, my flavor repertoire is limited, mostly because I’m kind of lazy, but it holds me over in between legitimate Larabar splurges.

    My formula for making a single-serving bar is a serving of dried fruit + a serving of nuts. In the past I've  rolled them into balls for a dessert/snack, or crumbled them in smoothies. Or just eaten them out of the food processor bowl like a child. The next logical step, really, was to cover them in chocolate. 

   
This recipe is very easy and can be done in less than ten minutes, so it's great if you need a quick chocolate fix. For this adaptation, I thought it appropriate to start with a chocolate-on-chocolate truffle, but I threw in a peanut-chocolate truffle as well because WHY NOT. (I used my peanut butter cup filling recipe, as I had some left over in the freezer). Also, if you don’t have almonds on hand, you can easily substitute another nut of choice—walnuts work great and blend faster and more smoothly.

Double Chocolate Almond Truffles:

3-4 dates

1/8 cup of almonds

1/8 tsp of vanilla

Dash of salt

1-2 tbsp dark cocoa powder

Approx 1/8 cup of dark chocolate chips

Toppings of choice, such as sea salt, espresso powder, cocoa, sprinkles, crushed nuts, etc

Put all ingredients in food processor and blend until mixture begins to cling together. It should work itself into a ball. This may take several minutes, depending on the age/quality/strength of your food processor.

   Roll truffle mixture into small balls and put in the freezer to chill for at least 10 minutes. Then, melt your chocolate, either on the stove top or in the microwave, stirring and being sure not to burn it. After truffles have chilled, roll them in the melted chocolate and place on wax or parchment paper lined tray. Sprinkle on any desired toppings, and allow to chill in freezer or fridge until chocolate shell has hardened.

 Voila!