Chocolate and Prune Truffles

This is an extremely simple-to-make dessert which is nice to an eye and to your taste buds. No flour, no eggs, no baking…although made of only four ingredients, it has a nice complex flavor and sweetness. Of course, when it contains chocolate, you might say, but the real star of this dessert are prunes. Seriously. 🙂

I got the idea for these truffles when I came across this recipe at Elana’s pantry. However, I wanted to skip the coconut, and bring some more flavors to them and came with my, very “chocolately” yet subtle version of it. Here is the recipe, enjoy!

CHOCOLATE AND PRUNE TRUFFLES

– makes about 10-14 truffles, depending on the size –

Ingredients:

1/2 cup prunes, pitted (about 11-12 prunes)

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon green tea (with dried strawberry pieces and flowers)*

1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips or 75g dark chocolate with 70% cacao solids

4 tablespoons cacao

optional: some sugar, dry raspberries powder, or candied orange peel for decoration

*you can substitute with any tea you like, or by fruit juice (original recipe calls for tart cherry juice, but I believe apple cider would work as well)

Instructions:

1. Boil water and prepare the tea. If you make green tea, do not hold it too long because it might turn bitter (max 2 minutes).

2. Pour tea (or juice) over prunes and leave to stand for 1-2 hours at room temperature until prunes absorb all the liquid.

3. If more liquid remains after it, pour it out, and puree prunes into jam.

4. Melt the chocolate over steam bath and let cool for 2 minutes before pouring it over pureed prunes.

5, Combine well, then put to freezer for about 30 minutes until it hardens and becomes easy to handle.

6. Take small amounts of puree and roll into balls using your hands. Work fast, immediately putting them into cacao.

7. When you are done with all truffles, you can decorate them with some (coloured) sugar, candied orange peel etc.