These Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles are luxuriously creamy, incredibly moreish and undetectably dairy-free!
Just like these other vegan chocolate truffles I posted a while ago, these are made with a simple base of blended soaked nuts, cacao butter, cocoa powder, your sweetener of choice, vanilla and a pinch of salt! Not too many ingredients and really easy to make!
As I used to absolutely love Fererro Rocher chocolates, I was keen to create something that would somehow bear a resemblance to those.
The issue was that most dairy-free Fererro Rocher-type recipes I found online were actually more of an energy ball situation involving vast quantities of dates.
Whilst I do love dates, I wasn't completely convinced that blending up nuts and dates would create a texture exactly like the silky-smooth, hazelnut-infused, chocolate heaven of a Fererro Rocher.
So, I decided to turn to my trusty friends, soaked cashews. I used half cashews and half hazelnuts to create a simultaneously rich and creamy yet strongly hazelnut-flavoured chocolate.
I'd recommend using roasted hazelnuts, and either removing the skins yourself by soaking in water (they peel off really easily when soaked) or buying pre-skinned ones to save you the effort. This process is essential to guarantee perfectly velvety-soft, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate truffles.
Then all you need to do is whizz everything through a food processor, leave to harden and roll into balls. I added a whole roasted hazelnut in the centre of each truffle to make them more similar to my beloved Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
And if you're less lazy than me, you could make these even more similar by first dipping them in melted dark chocolate followed by some ground hazelnuts.
You can get hold of cacao butter in local health stores, Whole Foods, online, and probably in large supermarkets too.
I hope you'll love these Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles! For more chocolate treats, check out my:
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Helpful tools to make these Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles:
food processor
Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles
Ingredients
- 60 g (½ cup) raw cashews, soaked in cold water overnight or in boiling hot water 15 minutes
- 60 g (½ cup) roasted hazelnuts*, soaked in cold water overnight or in boiling hot water 15 minutes
- 20 g (0.7oz) cacao butter
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup to taste (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Salt, to taste
- 16 whole roasted hazelnuts
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder for dusting
Instructions
- Drain soaked nuts and add to a food processor along with all the other ingredients**
- Whizz until completely smooth
- Taste and adjust flavour accordingly
- Put the mixture (keeping it in the food processor but you can transfer to a bowl if you wish) into the fridge and leave for 4-5 hours to harden – the mixture should be hard enough to easily shape into balls
- Sprinkle cocoa powder onto a plate
- Use two teaspoons to make teaspoon-sized balls of the mixture, insert a whole hazelnut into the centre of each truffle, then use your hands to roll the truffle in the cocoa powder
- Repeat for the rest of the mixture***
- Keep truffles in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week
Notes
**If your food processor isn’t very powerful, it may have trouble with the cacao butter. In this case, melt the cacao butter first using a bain-marie before adding to the food processor.
***Instead of using cocoa powder to dust, you could first dip them in melted dark chocolate followed by some ground hazelnuts.
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Oli
I love your cashew chocolate truffles so can't wait to give these a go too!
Rhian Williams
Thank you!
Anonymous
Are the hazelnuts supposed to be salted or unsalted?
Rhian Williams
Unsalted!