Vegan Chocolate Orange Truffles

First of all a massive thanks to my dearest mother for sharing the recipe with me, and to my partner for taking some of the photos.

These sumptous, indulgent, chocolate orange truffles have been a staple of my family Christmases and New year’s since my childhood. I remember opening the fridge and being delighted with the delicious smell of chocolate orange. It was on the 1st December 2014 when I decided to complete my vegan transition, with the thought that I would have enough time to plan the delicious Christmas treats I’d normally make and share with family and friends. These truffles were something that was foremost in my mind.

Funnily enough, the original recipe comes from a book called ‘Clever With Cream’, written by Lorna Walker and published in 1980 by none other than The UK Milk Marketing Board. Extremely grateful to the original author for developing the recipe but it’s especially fun to veganise something that was published by such a lobbying group. The original recipe was adapted by my mother and we’ve both worked to veganise the recipe.

The recipe has been adapted several times over the years when I’ve lived in different places and had different ingredients available. For example, in rural Sicily where I spent a Christmas with a fab group of friends of different nationalities, I skipped the orange liquer as I was having a year on no alcohol, and rolled them in dessicated coconut. I’d suggest either the coconut or the orange, with both, it’s rather a clash of flavours.

Vegan Chocolate Orange Truffles Recipe

Ingredients:

1. 2 tablespoons (40ml) plant based cream – oat cream, soya cream or creamed coconut (melted)
2. 225g (8oz) plain dessert chocolate
3. 75g (3oz) plant-based margarine
4. 50g (2oz) icing sugar
5. Rind of half orange, finely grated
6. 1 (20ml) tablespoon of freshly squeezed orange juice or orange liqueur
7. 100g (3oz) biscuits, crumbed

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl resting over a pan of boiling water or use a double boiler pan.

2. Add the margarine cut into pieces & leave resting on the chocolate until it is melted, then fold together with the icing sugar, cream, orange rind & liqueur or juice, and biscuit crumbs.

3. Leave this mixture aside until firm then taking teaspoons at a time roll into balls and pop in a paper case. Refrigerate & (optional) roll in dessicated coconut.