Chocolate Orange Marzipan Truffles

This week I was wearing sunglasses and running shoes on my way to school every single day since it was both warm and sunny, and the snow was gone. That means spring is here, which implies that Easter is just around the corner:) And in Norway, most people go to their “hytter” (cottages) to go skiing during the holiday. They also eat a lot of chocolate, oranges and marzipan. So I figured that since I love all of those things, why not combine them? And make them a little healthier and completely vegan as opposed to those in the stores? These amazing truffles were the product of that idea, and I’m really excited about sharing them with you!

Ingredients:

250 g almonds (not bitter)

2-4 large medjool dates

100 grams vegan chocolate (I used 70%)

juice and peel from 1/2 orange

30 walnuts, or swap some with other nuts (I used walnuts and pistachios)

Start by putting the almonds (raw) in the food processor and mix until you have an almond-meal-like consistency.

Next, add the almonds, dates, orange peel and freshly squeezed orange juice (I used my hands, no excuse if you don’t have and orange squeezer) to the food processor. I used two dates, but you might want to add 1-2 to make it a little sweeter. Now is definitely a good time to sample the marzipan and add more orange peel if you want a more prominent citrus flavour.

Now if you’d like, you can put the marzipan in the fridge to cool, but this will result in lumpy chocolate around the finished truffles. Start making little balls of the marzipan, it should be somewhere between 25 and 35 (I got thirty). If you want to be super-efficient, you should melt the chocolate while shaping the balls.

Once the chocolate is melted, dip the balls into the chocolate, roll them around a little, before letting them drip slightly in the air over the bowl. Move them carefully over to a tray with a baking sheet and place a nut on top of each truffle (walnuts look best, but pistachios are also yummy).

Next, put the truffles in the fridge. Make sure they’re lying horizontally and not slightly tilted. Or tilted at all for that matter. Also make sure gross things are not dripping on them (this has happened to me before. Totally ruined my day). Let them rest in the fridge until the chocolate is solid/firm around the truffles – about 1-2 hours. Of course, you can speed up the process by putting them in the freezer.

Now it’s time to try one. Or many.