Chocolate Truffels

It began with a surprise afternoon tea, dropped off by a friend to get me through an afternoon at the clinic. It was a chocolate brownie...with a twist.

Dates
Cocoa
Nuts

Three ingredients! All bursting with REAL energy!

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The brownie was gobbled up. The recipe was taken home, made several times and the experimented on!
I added more nuts, a pinch of vanilla bean, a stick of cinnamon and a squeeze of orange.

Rolled them into balls, dusting them with cocoa and rolling them in pistaschios.

The brownies were transformed into....CHOCOLATE TRUFFELS!

I love to experiment with recipes. To add and minus, depending on what is in the cupboard and which flavours I am craving at the time. Mostly I am guided by a picture in a recipe book and the available ingredients.

Making treats for friends and workmates is my favourite cooking style. To transform something naughty into something full of energy and bursting with health benefits is my kitchen passion. But these treats must not look healthy. It is only after they have been gobbled up, with the eater sitting there, a little greedy grin spreading across their face, and he asks for one more, then the recipe is reveled. Treats, by nature, must be tempting you, appearing to say "I dare you to try me".

This is why the avocado mouse was NOT a hit. Even though it was presented all show-offy in a wine glass. It did not compare with real mousse. Or even to plain avocado dip. I wont be trying it again.

Recipes are only a guide to inspire and encourage creativity. So go on, add a little more chilli to that curry, a little less sugar to those stewed apples. Try some cinnamon and nutmeg in your avocado dip. This, unlike the mousse, was VERY popular. Kitchen creativity is like that. Sometimes you make truffels and win. And sometimes, such as the case with the avocado mousse, you must accept defeat. Mousse is just not meant to be health.


Chocolate Truffels: 


16 dates
2 cups of nuts (walnut, pecan almond)
1/4 cup raw cocoa powder
1/2 orange - juiced and rind
1 small piece of cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean - scraped out and discard the pod. 


Blend the dates until they form a clump like brown sugar. Remove and put them in a bowl. 
Pop the nuts in the blender and whizz on high until the nuts resemble biscuit crumble. 
Add the nuts and the cinnamon, vanilla and cocoa to the dates. 
Squeeze in the orange juice and rind and mix with your hands. 
Roll into balls and roll in cocoa, crushed nuts or coconut.