Tuesday, February 24, 2015

My life will never be the same - a recipe for raw chocolate truffles

My life will never be the same.  The reason: After over two years of not eating any sugar, I found a recipe for raw chocolate truffles. I am in love.  I quit eating sugar because I wanted to see what it did for my health - and although I confess to being the biggest sugar junkie this side of the Cascade Mountains, and although I NEVER thought I could survive without the addictive white stuff, these two years without sugar have proven to be very healing for me.
Healing, but boring because I love the taste of chocolate.
Enter my friend Erin: She brought me home made chocolate hearts for Valentine's day, and my life has not been the same since.  I now make one batch a week.  I have declared these truffles my special medicine, and therefore I don't share them with my family (let them eat Snicker Bars).  They are divine, healthy, and consist entirely of superfoods.













I'll post the recipe below. (Hint: They are super easy to make).

Apart from making and eating chocolate truffles (ahem), I've been highly productive with many other things.  Come to think of it, maybe it's BECAUSE of these truffles that I AM so highly productive.  Chocolate-powered Corina - watch out, world!

Since there's been so much going on, I'll make a list and show you that way:

- I planted onions and made a movie about it.  We are putting together some tutorials for my online class, and since we have such an awesome, fool proof system for growing killer onions, we thought sharing it in a short movie would be fun. (More about that in another post).  For now, the onion seeds are slumbering in front of the wood stove, soon to germinate.



- Eva and I planted peas this week.  I know, I know, it's only February... But the weather has been so nice and warm, why not pop in a few seeds to see if they germinate?  I usually start peas in the greenhouse, and I will soon, but in the meantime, I just had to experiment with early direct planting.





- We smoked almost 20 pounds of salmon that ten-year old Luke and my hubby caught in our wild rivers in the past months.  There is nothing like smoked salmon, and considering that it costs $20 per pound to buy in the store, we made $400.  We don't make money with it, of course, but it feels like currency - or gold.


Before smoking...
After smoking...
- We pruned our orchard.  With "we", I mean my hubby and our friend Andris, who is a master at grafting.  He grafts new varieties on our old fruit trees, so that they are healthier and more productive.  We now have one cherry tree that has five different types of cherries on it.  I can't wait for the different colors to emerge!  The whole family helped pick up branches to throw on a burn pile.



- Steve is cutting fire wood.  There are five dead trees in the area where the goats were fenced in for ten years.  They like to gnaw on tree bark, and that's how they killed some of the trees.  So Steve is cutting them down and getting lots of fire wood out of it.  The boys help.  Don't ask me why Luke is wearing a bike helmet doing this.





- I have been sprouting seeds for snacking on.  Crunchy, yummy.  It ain't chocolate truffles, but it's healthy, too.  And talking of healthy: I've been going on excursions with my friends to pick nettles.  We love making nettle pesto, and we love drying them for tea.







- I'm reading "The Nourishing Homestead" by Ben Hewitt.  A lovely book by a lovely writer.


- And what kept me busiest of all was my writing.  I just wrote an e-book with three of my tutorials for homesteading skills.  It's for hard-core homesteaders and urbanites alike.  You can download it here for free.

What's going on in your life?  What are you working on?


RECIPE FOR RAW CHOCOATE TRUFFLES

6 Tbsp raw organic cacao powder (online here)
4 Tbsp melted organic coconut oil (online here)
2 Tbsp sweetener (I use 1 Tbsp honey, and 1 Tbsp coconut nectar)
1 tsp vanilla, non-alcohol (online here)
¼ cup cashews, ground
¼ cup brazil nuts, ground
¼ cup ground goji berries or raisins 
1 pinch sea salt

Put nuts and berries in cuisinart and chop them finely.
Place coconut oil in 16 oz measuring cup. Place cup into a larger bowl and add boiling water to bowl, just enough to reach the bottom 2 inches of measuring cup. Stir coconut oil until melted. Add cacao powder, sweetener, vanilla, ground nuts, goji berries, and salt. Mix well. Slowly pour into silicone ice cube trays. Pat the top of each heart to release air bubbles. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. Store in the fridge.  Good luck trying to store them.  You will wanna eat them all.  Now.

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6 comments:

  1. do you grind the raisins as well if you use them?

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    Replies
    1. Chelsea, yes, grind them as well. You want everything to be as fine as possible. I've only made the truffles with raisins once. I really like them with Goji berries!

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  2. Oh my! Such a find!!! Going to buy supplies now.....

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    1. Ann, oh good! I eat four truffles every single day - and look how healthy I am. Ahem. They ARE medicine!

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  3. I just finished making these yummy treats using the goji berries. Mine don't look as nice as yours but then I've never made candy before. I only used the heart molds as the stars (also on my molds) looked more difficult to remove. I had to turn my mold almost inside out to remove the hearts. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.

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    Replies
    1. You know what? Mine didn't look so nice at first, and after making them a couple of time, they started looking professional. I have to turn my molds inside out to remove the hearts as well. Whatever works! I'm so glad you like the recipe!

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