Naturopathic Cancer Treatment Provider for over 25 years
These rich but subtly sweet little morsels from Dr. Erika Siegel of The Nourish Me Kitchen feel great in your body. At first bite, fragrant orange zest lifts your mood, and then the chocolate takes over to keep you nice and cheery. Feeling feisty? Add a few shakes of cayenne before rolling them up.
MAKES 25 TO 30
1 cup pitted dates, preferably Medjool
1 1⁄2 cups roasted unsalted hazelnuts
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
3 1⁄2 tablespoons cacao powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1⁄2 teaspoon orange zest (see Note)
Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
Stevia (optional)
Coconut oil, for coating hands
DIRECTIONS:
1. Soak the dates in about 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes (the dates should be fully covered). Drain well.
2. In a food processor, grind 1⁄2 cup of the hazelnuts into a coarse powder. Transfer to a shallow bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and set aside to roll the truffles in later.
3. Place the remaining 1 cup hazelnuts in the food processor and process until ground into a coarse powder. Add the soaked and drained dates, the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, the cacao powder, vanilla, orange zest and cayenne (if using) and process until the mixture is a thick, luscious paste. Taste it; if you’d like it sweeter, you can add a few drops of stevia.
4. Coat your palms lightly with coconut oil and roll1 teaspoon of the paste in your hands to form a small round ball, approximately 1 inch in diameter (about the size of a marble). Roll in the reserved hazelnut powder until evenly coated. Repeat with the remaining paste.
5. Place the truffles in a container, spacing them out a bit as you go, and store in the freezer until ready to serve. If it’s warm in your kitchen and the truffles are sticking together, you may need to put them on a baking sheet and place them in the fridge to set before transferring to the freezer. We store ours in the freezer and just grab them directly from there when we want a treat.
Note:
When zesting any citrus, make sure not to get the white and bitter pithy part. And because you will be ingesting part of the skin, make sure to buy organic since citrus trees can be heavily sprayed.
