What We Ate Wednesday--Chickpea Truffles

 Hello lovelies! I got several vegan cookbooks from the library (thank you Click and Collect!) and No Fuss Vegan by Roz Purcell had several tasty treat recipes.

I was intrigued by this recipe for Chickpeas Truffles. I mean I love chickpeas and I love truffles so this sounded like an ideal recipe for me.

It was a tiny bit more difficult to make and the chickpea mixture was soft (very soft) like a mousse. That could be because it has been raining non stop for days and it is VERY humid out there even when the rain gives us a brief respite. It would have been nice just like that in little parfait glasses but I decided to follow the recipe and make them into truffles. 

Trying to roll quite sticky soft balls of very dark chocolate was a challenge-especially trying not to think of coprophagia, but it was worth persisting as the mousse tastes amazing with a hard chocolate coating and a sprinkle of sea salt. 

I found because the mousse was so soft it benefited from chilling in the freezer whilst I melted the chocolate otherwise it soaked up all the chocolate and started to develop a blob shape rather than stay round. The blobby ones still tasted good, but weren't as pretty.

The result is a hard chocolate shell with a soft fluffy interior. I did have to use twice as much melted chocolate as she did, but i think that was the humidity. Please excuse my blurry inadequate photo. I was trying to get them back in the freezer before they melted again in the heat. 

 

Chickpeas Truffles

1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

6 TB peanut butter

4 TB cocoa powder

3 TB liquid sweetener--maple syrup, agave, golden syrup

1 tsp vanilla essence

pinch salt

Blend everything in a food processor until smooth and creamy. Roll into balls. If too soft to roll in balls refrigerate for 20 minutes or so to firm up and try rolling again. Put your balls on a parchment lined tray and pop in the freezer for 15 minutes while the chocolate melts.

200g dark chocolate

flaked sea salt

In a double boiler (a bowl over a simmering pan of about an inch of water) or a microwave to melt your chocolate. Take your cold balls from the freezer and dip them quickly one at a time into the melted chocolate and then put back on the parchment paper and sprinkle with sea salt. 

When all are finished pop in the freezer to set the chocolate. At this point i was still not convinced it was working as the mousse was still quite soft. but it did. When hardened, removed from parchment and store in an airtight box in the fridge. 

They will be hard on the outside and soft in the middle and delicious all the way through.