Cocoa Hemp Seed Truffles
Dates and oats ground into a dough with almond butter and melted dark chocolate, rolled in hemp seeds and left in the cold until they bite like a truffle.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
These are what I reach for at nine at night when I want chocolate and do not want to open a package of something. They take fifteen minutes of actual work and then the refrigerator does the rest, and by the time the processor bowl is washed they are already firming up. Two of them is a proper snack rather than a nibble, and a batch of sixteen means the decision is made for the next week and a half.
Dates are the whole structure here. Ground with oats they go from sticky to a dough that holds a shape, and their caramel sweetness is what lets a small amount of dark chocolate read as a great deal of it. Almond butter goes in for fat, which is what turns a date ball from chewy and dense into something that gives when you bite it.
Hemp seeds do double duty here. Some go into the dough, where they add a soft, faintly grassy nuttiness, and the rest coat the outside so each truffle comes out pale green and speckled and does not stick to your fingers or to the next one in the container. They firm as they chill, and after an hour the outside is set while the middle is still soft and fudgy, which is the texture worth waiting for.
Ingredients
- 12 Medjool dates, pitted (about 8 oz)
- 1/2 cup hemp seeds, divided
- 2 oz dark chocolate (70%), finely chopped
- 3 tbsp almond butter
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- Soak the dates if they are dry: Press a date with your thumb. If it does not give easily, cover the whole lot with hot water for ten minutes, then drain thoroughly and pat dry. Dry dates will not bind and the mixture will stay as crumbs no matter how long you run the machine, since the dates are the only thing holding these together.
- Melt the chocolate gently: Chop the dark chocolate finely and melt it in a heatproof bowl set over an inch of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth and glossy. Take it off the heat while a few small pieces are still visible and stir those in, because the residual warmth will finish them, and chocolate pushed past that point turns grainy and dull.
- Grind the oats to a coarse flour: Put the rolled oats in a food processor and run it about twenty seconds, until they are a coarse flour with a few whole flakes still showing. Those flakes are what keep the finished truffle from being uniformly smooth, and the texture is better for having them.
- Build the dough: Add the pitted dates, the almond butter, half the hemp seeds, and the salt to the oats and run the machine a full minute. It looks like crumbs, then suddenly climbs into a ball. Pour in the melted chocolate and run another thirty seconds, until the dough is dark and evenly streaked.
- Roll and coat them: Scoop the dough into sixteen pieces, about a tablespoon each, and roll each between your palms into a ball; the warmth of your hands helps here. Roll each one through the remaining hemp seeds on a plate until the surface is completely covered, which is what stops them sticking to each other in the container later.
- Chill at least an hour: Lay the truffles on a parchment-lined plate and refrigerate for at least an hour. This is where they become what they are: warm from your hands they are soft and sticky, and cold they are dense and fudgy with a clean bite, which is how they are meant to eat.
Variations
- Orange and chocolate: A teaspoon of finely grated orange zest in the dough turns these into something distinctly Christmassy.
- Espresso: A teaspoon of finely ground coffee deepens the chocolate and makes the sweetness read darker.
- Cinnamon and cayenne: Cinnamon with a whisper of cayenne gives each truffle a slow warmth that arrives after you swallow.
- Different coating: Roll them in toasted sesame seeds or finely chopped pistachios where the hemp goes for a different crunch outside.
- Softer dough: Almond flour in place of the oats makes them richer and softer, closer to a marzipan.
Storage & Leftovers
The truffles keep two weeks in a sealed container in the refrigerator and the texture holds the entire time. Lay them in a single layer with parchment between if you need to stack them, since the hemp coating rubs off wherever they press against one another.
They freeze for three months and are honestly excellent straight from the freezer, closer to a frozen fudge than a truffle. Freeze them spread out on a tray first, then bag them once they are solid so they do not fuse into a single block.
At room temperature they soften within an hour and go sticky, which is fine on a plate that is about to be emptied and less good for keeping. Packed into a lunch they hold their shape until midday and eat perfectly by mid afternoon.
Notes & Tips
- Soak dry dates: Ten minutes in hot water is the difference between a dough and a bowl of crumbs.
- Melt chocolate gently: Off the heat while a few pieces are still solid, then stir, because overheated chocolate turns grainy.
- Leave some oat flakes: Twenty seconds in the processor rather than sixty, so there is still something to chew.
- Let the machine run: The dough looks wrong right up until the moment it climbs into a ball, so give it the full minute.
- Damp hands help: Slightly wet palms stop the dough sticking and the hemp coating goes on more evenly.
- An hour in the cold: Soft and sticky warm, dense and fudgy chilled, and the chilling is what makes them a truffle.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Dates, hemp seeds and almond butter are what make these hold together and hold you. The dates bring caramel sweetness and the fiber that travels with it, the almond butter brings fat, and the hemp seeds bring protein into something that eats like dessert.
- Hemp seeds are soft rather than crunchy and taste faintly of pine nut, and they carry both of the essential fats along with a good amount of complete plant protein. Rolled onto the outside they also stop the truffles sticking to one another.
- Dates grind into a sticky caramel dough that holds every other ingredient in place, and the fiber they carry travels alongside all that sweetness rather than arriving on its own.
- Dark chocolate melted and stirred in at the end streaks the dough rather than flavoring it evenly, so some bites are deeper and more bitter than others. It brings flavanols along with that bitterness, which is where much of the research on chocolate sits.
- An hour in the cold is what makes these a truffle. The outside sets firm, the middle stays soft and fudgy, and the fat and protein underneath the sweetness are why two of them carry you through an afternoon.
- As you eat, let the first one sit on your tongue long enough for the chill to come off it and the chocolate to open up, and notice that reaching for a second one is a choice rather than a reflex.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a different nut butter?
Peanut butter, cashew butter and tahini all work. Peanut butter is the strongest and will take over the chocolate, cashew butter is the mildest, and tahini gives a slightly bitter, grown up edge that suits dark chocolate very well. Use the same amount whichever you choose.
My dough would not come together.
The dates were too dry, which is almost always the answer. Soak them in hot water for ten minutes, drain and dry them, then try again. If it is still crumbly, add a teaspoon of water at a time with the machine running until the dough climbs the sides.
Can I make these for a week of lunches?
That is exactly what they are for. A double batch takes barely longer than a single one and they keep two weeks cold. Roll them all at once and pull out what you need each morning on your way past the refrigerator.
Is there anything from an animal in these?
No, though it is worth reading the chocolate wrapper, since the darker bars are generally made from cocoa, cocoa butter, and sugar alone. Everything else is dates, oats, almond butter, hemp seeds and a pinch of salt. They do contain tree nuts.