From Lauren: Today’s recipe is from Samantha at Sweet Potatoes and Social Change. I asked her to share a recipe with you immediately after I found her site and fell in love with her other autoimmune-friendly recipes, particularly her AIP Chicken and Dumplings.
Raspberry Carob Truffles
My very first job, outside of babysitting and pet sitting, was in a chocolate store. That seems a little funny to me now since I haven’t had more than a few bites of chocolate in over a year, but I was a sophomore in high school and I couldn’t think of a job more fun. It was a little local chocolate shop with all sorts of handmade confections. The shelves were lined with everything from eggnog truffles in the winter to chocolate covered fruit in the summer. My job was to handle the customers, decorate the store and decorate the chocolate. In return, I got paid a little over five dollars an hour and was allowed to have a piece of chocolate or two per shift. Not a bad deal for a 16 year old in a small town.
While I’ve never had an overwhelmingly strong sweet tooth I absolutely love the intricacy of baking and making desserts. Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking every day meals too, but there is just something so artistic and beautiful about creating that perfect treat. That treat that makes you feel like you are spoiling yourself; experiencing something luxurious.
However, if you are on any sort of a restricted diet for an extended period of time it can be easy to lose that sense of fun and excitement that comes with enjoying a special treat. I have been following the autoimmune protocol for over a year now and while I have seen amazing improvements in my ulcerative colitis symptoms it can sometimes feel like I am only eating to heal rather than to enjoy the experience of food. This feeling can become especially pronounced around holidays, when everyone else is indulging in sweets, eating out at restaurants, or drinking fancy cocktails.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I wanted to create a recipe that was both luxurious and safe for those of us seeking to enjoy the holiday without sacrificing any of our hard work. The result was even more fabulous than I could have imagined!
When I thought up the idea for this recipe I was somewhat skeptical of my ability to make it work, it has been a long time since those days in the chocolate shop, but I wanted to try. How could a truffle, free of chocolate, dairy, refined sugar, and nuts turn into something truly luxurious and indulgent? I set to work with excitement and reserve only to have these little beauties turn out perfectly on the first try! I took a bite of the first one and audibly squealed with delight! I gave one to my husband later and the next words out of his mouth were “are there more of these?!”
If you are in the process of healing through diet and lifestyle changes, you have made a really difficult but rewarding commitment. True healing is not found in constantly “paleo-izing” treats or solely eliminating certain foods. Elimination must be paired with the addition of nourishing, nutrient dense foods like bone broth, leafy greens and grass-fed meat. However, I strongly believe that long term healing is also found in feeling satisfied as well as nourished. So, this Valentine’s Day don’t eye those cheesy heart shaped boxes of chocolates with looks of longing and depravation, whip up a batch of these lovely truffles and indulge in the fact that healing never tasted so good!
- ¼ cup of coconut oil
- ¼ cup of honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ¼ cup of coconut butter, available here
- 2 ½ cups of frozen raspberries
- 4 TBS of tapioca starch, available here
- ¼ cup of carob powder, available here
- ¼ cup of coconut flour, available here
- Shell:
- 1 cup of coconut oil
- ½ cup of carob powder, available here
- 6 TBS honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- pinch of sea salt
- In a medium to large saucepan, over medium heat, combine all of your filling ingredients except for the tapioca and coconut flour. Stir occasionally until everything is warm and well combined.
- Pour the mixture into your food processor, add in the tapioca and coconut flour and blend until smooth. Place this mixture into the fridge and allow it to cool completely (about one hour). Once it has cooled make your shell.
- To make the shell, make sure your coconut oil is liquefied but not hot. If you need to heat it up to melt it and then allow it to cool for a minute or two, do so. Place all of your shell ingredients into a medium sized bowl and mix with a spoon until all of the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is smooth. This can take a few minutes, but you want to make sure there aren’t any clumps.
- Using a cookie scoop or a spoon roll the raspberry filling into small balls and dip them into the shell mixture. Place each ball onto a parchment paper lined plate or cookie sheet and allow the shell to harden (this will happen quickly). Once the shell has hardened, dip the balls into the shell mixture a second time and cover completely.
- Place the plate or cookie sheet in the fridge or freezer for another 10-15 minutes and then enjoy. Store the truffles in the fridge or freezer.
About Samantha at Sweet Potatoes and Social Change
Samantha is the author of the blog Sweet Potatoes and Social Change. She writes about simple living and healing her autoimmune condition through diet and lifestyle. Outside of writing she is also a wife and a childbirth doula. You can follow her blog on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
Samantha, you are adorable, and I love your warm, down to earth writing style. The backstory was enjoyable to read. Often I just want to jump to the recipe, but I really loved this entire post.
The recipe looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it. I also love that ingredients are affordable. I often find that healthy, autoimmune recipes are rather expensive to make. This one is very reasonable.
I look forward to more blog posts from you!
Yum! The photo of these haunted me all day until I finally broke down and made them. Good thing I only made a fourth of the recipe, or I would be inundated by too many tempting truffles!
I have a few questions:
1. How on earth do you keep your kitchen clean when making these? Not complaining, as my sous chef (my husband) does the dishes for me. 😉
2. Do you have any tips on measuring multiples of oily and sticky ingredients? I had everything lined up in the order I needed it, pre-measured it all, and I ended up with a sink full of dirty tools and dishes. Fortunately I had multiples of measuring spoons, but I think we have enough oily things to fill the dishwasher again. 😉
3. Does the raspberry center ever get hard? I’ve had mine in the freezer for a while, but the inside is a bit runny. I wonder if I did something wrong or if they just need to stay in the freezer, maybe overnight or something.
Truly, I was surprised at how well the shell turned out when I finally ready my calculations correctly and didn’t add too much honey to it. 🙂
Nice, fun recipe. More rich than they look! I’m glad I tried one, but think I’d better stay away from them – if they last that long here with my husband enjoying them. Again, I am happy that I made it (so it wouldn’t haunt me anymore), it’s a miracle that my candy dipping tools just happened to be in a box that isn’t in our storage unit (we just moved), and I am VERY happy I didn’t make the whole recipe. I got about 10 truffles using the small cookie scoop that I have, and still had enough extra shell chocolate to spread on four cookies for my husband.
Thank you for sharing this. Very creative use of ingredients!
Hi, my first try and the filling was absolutely gorgeous but I completely failed with the topping – the honey just didn’t want to mix well with the oil, no matter hos much stirring I put in there… Any tip?
Ok, fabulous I meant ; )
This recipe was a total fail for me. It made a huge mess of my kitchen. The topping never worked just as Johanna mentioned and; the filling is way too soft to dip into anything anyway. I’m sorry to have wasted my time and money.
I second the messy recipe comment. And that the filling was too soft to form into balls; I added more flour. Eating so much raw flour doesn’t appeal to me though. Also, I couldn’t get the shell ingredients to homogenize; the mixture was part oily, part gooey, fudgey like substance. So, yeah, I guess it was a fail for me,too. I thought the flavor of the filling wasn’t bad, but not great. Sweet carob flavor is predominant in the shell. I won’t be making these again; the frozen raspberries just on their own would have been a better treat.
This is not a good recipe. There is no way the author tested this recipe. I am an experienced cook and this recipe is just a complete disaster. The filling does not set up properly although I was able to get it into a ball form. The topping does not blend together. I am so glad I only attempted half the recipe so that I did not waste these ingredients. You must test your recipes before you post them. Unfortunately, I will not trust any recipes from either this host site or the author going forward. 🙁
So I saw this comment before Valentine’s Day and it’s been bugging me ever since. There are soooo many variables in speciality cooking and to write off a cook and a website because of one miss is pretty harsh. I realize food, especially expensive specialty food, can cause big emotions, but there is far too much hatred in the world to post like this. Perhaps the coconut oil was the wrong temperature? Perhaps the coconut flour was coarser or finer? Perhaps the raspberries were simply juicier? So many variables. And everyone is human…we’re allowed a mistake every now and then!
Much peace
They were really good! The filling just needed some freezer time to get stiffer before dipping. Thanks for posting!
G’day
I swapped the raspberries for blueberries and didn’t add the carob powder (didn’t have any) I put the filling in a container overnight in the refrigerator. It firmed up quite well.
When I rolled the balls the heat of my hands melted the filling so I just put them back in the freezer to firm up.
The honey didn’t want to incorporate with the coconut oil for the shell! I mixed the shell ingredients and then quickly drizzled it over the balls of filling. I returned them to the freezer to set before I drizzled the second coat over each truffle.
I had no choice but to sample one as soon as they were done. OMG they are heavenly.
Instead of balls, I put it in a 4×4 pan, since the filling was too soft. First, I poured half of the shell mixture on bottom of pan, then let it freeze. Next I spread the filling on it and topped with the remaining half of shell topping, then froze it all. After, cut into squares. Yummy! Thank you!
Great time-saving idea!