Developing new recipes can be immensely satisfying, especially if you are a bit of a nerd, but it can also be extremely frustrating when things don’t come together. You end up binning lots of high quality ingredients, the next post’s deadline is looming and you have nothing up your sleeve. This is what was happening when I tried to make margarine-free vegan frosting for these tasty beauties. I did throw the towel in a few times and was that close (pinching my index finger and thumb as I write this) to aborting the mission. In the end, it all came together and not only that, I ended up getting two recipes out of that kitchen experiment. As the frosting came together, I added some rum, maple syrup and coconut milk to the coconut butter leftovers and froze them in an ice-cube mould with the intention of dipping them in chocolate later. That’s how today’s vegan coconut truffles came about.
These are adult chocolates as they contain a bit of rum and are sweet but not Bounty bar sweet. They go like a dream with a shot of strong espresso on a hot day – you have probably heard this from me before as there is nothing sweet I don’t like with an espresso. Because it’s very hot outside, I’ve gone the extra mile and tempered my chocolate before coating. It was my first attempt and I was a bit worried about it as apparently heat (it was 25 degrees here today) can wreak havoc with chocolate (which has reputation for being finicky), but it all went well. Try it if you dare! Otherwise, if it sounds too risky and scary just melt the chocolate over a water bath and cool it down a bit before using.
