Vegan Chocolate Truffles with Ginger and Orange

Making truffles at Christmas time is a bit of a family tradition. My mom got my sister and I started when we were little and it was always so exciting to make them and have a good reason to get covered in chocolate. A few years ago I switched to making them with coconut cream.

If anything, I’ve had more compliments on my vegan chocolate truffles than on the standard heavy cream ones I used to make. It’s not that they’re healthier, necessarily, as truffles are inevitably high in fat, but this is certainly a very low-sugar recipe and a little healthy fat is good for you in small doses! Small as in truffle-sized.

Truffles are easy to make dairy-free and vegan with barely any difference in taste and texture. The method is so simple, and people are always happy to get a little jar or box of truffles. If you have kids it’s really fun for them to help roll the chocolates, and since they’re meant to be a little imperfect anyway, it’s a great job for little hands.

This is a winter or holiday inspired flavour with fresh ginger, and orange zest, and it’s a lovely combination.

Scroll to the bottom of the post or click “skip to recipe” above to see the recipe card with full ingredient measurements and instructions.

Ingredients

Method

Place the chocolate into a heat-safe bowl and set aside. Heat the coconut cream in a small saucepan until simmering, then pour it over the chocolate. Let the milk sit with the chocolate for about 30 seconds, then whisk to combine.

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Add the ginger, orange zest, and vanilla, and whisk to mix again.

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Let the truffle mixture cool to room temperature before covering and refrigerating. Chill for at least four hours, or until hard enough to scoop and chilled through.

Add some cocoa powder to a bowl and set aside. Use a teaspoon to scoop small pieces from the cooled truffle mixture. Roll the pieces in your hands to form rough balls, then place in the cocoa powder. Coat each truffle in cocoa.

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Place the coated truffles into a container and refrigerate for up to one week. These freeze well for up to a month.

Tips and Notes

These are truffles that are meant to be rolled in cocoa, not dipped in chocolate, so they may seem a little harder to roll than you might be used to. They can’t be too soft or else they simply lose shape altogether.

If you want to make them ahead of time and freeze, just thaw them in the fridge and re-roll in cocoa before packaging as gifts or serving. The truffles tend to absorb a bit of the cocoa the longer they sit so doing that will just ensure that they’re still pretty when they’re gifted.

Make sure you’re using full-fat coconut milk, or coconut cream, and only use the cream scooped from the top of the can. If yours isn’t really separating, refrigerate it beforehand – that usually ensures that the cream will separate and solidify.

For more perfect round truffles, roll them once, then freeze, then roll again before coating in the cocoa powder. I never bother with this (truffles are meant to look like truffles, after all) but you may prefer it.

If the milk isn’t hot enough to melt the chocolate and you end up with pieces after whisking, simply set the bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water. Don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Heat, whisking regularly, until the remaining chocolate is melted.

Substitutions

The orange zest and ginger are optional, and you can leave one or both out. Other nice add-ins are spices like cinnamon and cardamom.

I use semi-sweet chocolate (55%) but you can do a darker chocolate if preferred. Use one you like the taste of as is.

There is no substitution for the coconut cream.

The recipe originally called for pomegranate arils to be rolled into the centre of each truffle – this is delicious, but difficult and time consuming. If you want to, you could add 2-3 per truffle.

More Chocolate Desserts

Chocolate Orange Tart
Almond Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Dark Chocolate Crêpes
Chocolate Orange Cinnamon Rolls
Raw Vegan Chocolate Nut Bar

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This post was originally published in December 2017. It has been updated with improvements to the recipe and new text and photographs as of December 2020.