DIY Coconut Butter and Incredible Coconut Butter Truffles

Until recently, I didn’t even know that coconut butter existed.

Over Easter I was making a Raw Avocado “Cheesecake” and the recipe not only called for coconut oil, but also coconut butter…after a trip to my local health foods shop, I had a $14 small jar of sweet, rich, melt in your mouth, delicious coconut butter!

After a little bit of research (pinterest) I discovered that coconut butter is nothing more than pureed coconut.

Easy enough right?

I started out with 16 oz of organic, unsweetened, dried shredded coconut (which yields about 2 cups of coconut butter) and the cost was only about $4

This is definitely a job for a really good food processor.  The process took about 12 minutes in my kitchen aid food processor

 

after about 8 minutes, the coconut mixture became very runny but still had quite a bit of texture to it.  I added a tbsp. of coconut oil to help smooth it out and continued to process for an additional 4 minutes (12 minutes in total)

Pour the liquefied coconut butter into a jar or container and let sit at room temperature until it solidifies.

I strongly recommend washing out your equipment ASAP as once the coconut solidifies its really not super easy to clean.

And now for Truffles…

I think I can say that these dreamy little bites are my new favourite treat!  They have a rich, buttery texture, melt in your mouth and they aren’t super sweet.  They are pretty much perfect and the flavour possibilities are endless!

The original recipe for these orange truffles comes from My Whole Food Life and I encourage you to follow the link and view the original recipe and instructions there as I’ve switched it up a bit by using only 1 tbsp maple syrup, the zest of an orange in lieu of extract, 1 1 tsp vanilla and a splash of spiced rum.   The creamy orange centres have been dipped in a mixture of 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, melted with 1 tbsp. coconut oil.

Orange Coconut Butter Truffles

• 1 cup coconut butter (homemade using the recipe above, or storebought)
• 2 small navel oranges, peeled and sliced
• zest of 1 navel orange
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp. maple syrup
• splash (about 1 tbsp.) spiced rum *optional

Combine ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.  I haven’t attempted these in a blender but I’m sure they’d work just fine.  just be cautious not to over mix.

Chill the mixture for about 30 minutes.

Using a small cookies scoop, or a small spoon, scoop balls onto a parchment lined pan. Using my smallest cookie scoop, I was able to yield 20 chocolates.

Chill in the fridge of freezer for another 30 minutes until they feel solid enough to dip into chocolate.

While the coconut butter balls are chilling, melt the chocolate with the coconut oil.

Dip chocolates and place on parchment lined baking sheet and chill until the chocolate is firm.

(same recipe, just mixed with strawberries rather than oranges)

Store in the fridge until ready to share!