Strawberry & Coconut Truffles Covered in Chocolate – Vegan + Paleo

You know how most baby food looks like… mud? I get it… in order to pack our babies food full of veggies and nutrients, we end up feeding them combinations of green, orange and blue purred things, which for those of us that no better, is less than appetizing.

Right, what does icky baby food puree have to do with delicious chocolate covered truffles? Just stick with me here.

As Warner got older, I noticed that his snacks started to get.. better… tastier. Suddenly he was eating things like berries, applesauce pouches, and what I soon discovered were my own personal favorite, freeze-dried fruits!

While shopping one day, I came across a selection of freeze-dried fruits. Thinking they would be the perfect “puff-food” addition to Warner’s snack collection, I grabbed a couple of bags of strawberries, blueberries, bananas and grapes.

First, allow my to lay a little advice here. Don’t waste your time with the grapes. They turn in to a sort of super chewy consistency as you chew. If you buy freeze-dried bananas, buy all that the store has, because you will eat them twice as fast as your child does, and then your kid will still be hangry. Same goes with apples. Actually, you may eat all the apples yourself. Blueberries are good, and you will likely be able to show restraint and let your kid eat them. Fair-warning: his mouth will turn purple and he will look like a vampire. How do I know this? Personal. Experience.

Now to the strawberries. While the others are good for snacking alone, the strawberries have the added benefit of being able to bake them into things. Like chocolate, and coconut. See where I’m going here?

So because Warner was able to eat slightly crunchy but melty freeze-dried fruits, I was able to come up with the idea for these truffles… and that led to the decision that they needed to be covered in chocolate.

Okay! Enough about baby food. Here is the recipe:

Equipment:

• • Parchment Paper
  • Baking Sheet
  • Instant Pot (to use as a double boiler)
  • Oven Safe Bowl
  • Mortar & Pestle (optional see notes)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 Cup Coconut Butter
• 1 1/2 Cup Organic Unsweetened Coconut
• 1/4 Cup Skinny Sticks Maple Syrup
• 3 TBSP + 1 TBSP Freeze Dried Strawberries divided
• 1 Cup Enjoy Life Semi Sweetened Chunks
• 2 TBSP Coconut Oil
• 1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

I accidentally stumbled on this awesome brand of Maple Syrup: Skinny Sticks. It just happened to be on sale one day at our local Fareway… and I decided to give it a try on a whim. It is DELICIOUS. The company is a really small, family based business out of Wisconsin. Like, it’s a guy and his wife and kids making this delicious stuff. The have a really cool story about how the business got started, and why their maple syrup is better, which you can read here. If you are local, I highly recommend searching this brand out- you are going to love it!

Instructions:

1. Using the mortal and pestle, crush the freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder.
2. In a bowl, combine coconut butter, coconut, maple syrup.
3. Add the melted coconut oil and vanilla, and mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Add in freeze-dried strawberries, and mix.
5. Roll mixture into small balls- actually roll them as small or as large as you like! 😀
6. Place on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
7. Refrigerate until hard, about an hour or so.
8. Once the balls are hardened, prep the chocolate:
9. Add three cups of water to the bottom of the Instant Pot. Add the trivet, and an oven safe glass dish.
10. Pour chocolate chips into the glass bowl.
11. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté. As the chocolate begins to melt, stir occasionally. When the water begins to boil, switch the Instant Pot to Keep Warm.
12. When the chocolate has melted, submerge coconut balls, and roll around until fully covered. I just plopped a few in at a time, and rolled them around and scooped them out with a fork.
13. Gently place back on the parchment paper / baking sheet. Before the chocolate hardens, sprinkle with freeze-dried strawberries.
14. Place back in the refrigerator. Once the chocolate has set… eat up!

Notes:

Confession: I don’t own a mortar and pestle. I just opened the bag of freeze-dried strawberries to let the air out, re-sealed, and crunched the daylights out of it. While the consistency was a little… not consistent… nobody complained. However, it would be much easer with a mortar and pestle… or at least a bowl and the end of a bottle? I’m open to suggestions here! 😀

I happened to be baking a lunch casserole while whipping these up, so I set the bowl with coconut butter in the oven for a few seconds to soften the coconut butter up. It just mixes easier when soft! You could also give it a nuke in the microwave.

If your truffle mixture seems particularly crumbly, or too thick, simply add more coconut butter or coconut.

If you are doing a larger batch, I would switch the Instant Pot from Sauté to the Slow Cooker function. If it gets too cool too quickly, the chocolate will become tacky and unworkable. If this happens to you… don’t. panic. You won’t be able to use it to cover the truffles, but you can spread it out on parchment paper, add some coconut and nuts, and have a nice little chocolate bark going on. See? You meant to do that.

Subbing honey for maple syrup? Let me know how it turns out! I would start with less honey, and taste-test as you add more.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator no need to freeze as the coconut oil and butter are pretty solid at fridge temps. These lasted almost 4 days in our house.. FYI.

I ended up making half with strawberries and half without. I actually prefer the version without, while Whit loved the strawberry one! If you make these, I would love to see your creations! Tag me on Facebook or Instagram #thesewildacres

And Happy Valentine’s Day!