A little deceiving.
I say that because these truffles were neither picked in the forests of Le Marche nor are they chocolate ganache, seductively rolled in more melted chocolate to make the famed chocolate confections. These so-called truffles only look like truffles. They are raw, gluten-free, dairy-free and the sugar is optional (there is enough sweetness from the dates). The idea for these little rolls of heaven came from a sweet treat popular in India called laddu. Laddu comes in basically one shape and that is round of various sizes.
However, they are hundreds of different combinations. Chickpeas or wheat flour, semolina, sesame laddus are some of the common ones. The primary binding agent in laddu is butter, ghee, khoya ( reduced dried milk) and of course sugar. To make a much healthy version I subbed the flour with phyllium flakes. For binding I use moist dates and tahini, which turned out to be perfect glues.
These treats are the easiest to make in two basic steps, pulse the tahini paste, dates in a food processor and roll. It’s that simple.
I year or so back I discovered Goji berries and their powerful nutritional value. Since then we have incorporated them as snacks in our diet but, I seldom used it as an ingredient in my cooking. Primarily to preserve its nutrition which I feel may get destroyed by cooking. So these raw truffles were perfect. Goji’s are sweet with a little tartness. With the added tartness from cranberries and nutty pistachios they are a wonderful treat and super nutritious.
I do refrigerate them to give longer shelf life.
Here is the recipe
- #ingredient#
- #instruction#
- 8-10 pieces of moist, plump dates
- 2 heaped tablespoons tahini including the sesame oil that gets separated and floats on top
- 3 tablespoon phyllium flakes
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar (optional)
- To roll
- 1/3 cup dry toasted pistachios nuts
- 2 tablespoon goji berries
- 3 tablespoon dried cranberries (goji berries are pricey so I like to mix them, you can use only goji)
- Deseed the dates and coarsely chop them.
- In a food processor, finely pulse pistachios, goji and cranberries each separately and turn them out on a flat plate. Mix evenly.
- In the same food processor pulse dates and tahini paste to a smooth paste. Turn over in a bowl and add phyllium flakes and mix well. If the mixture feel too moist add more phyllium and if dry add another spoon of tahini. It should be a thick slightly sticky dough that can hold its form.
- Pull out a teaspoon amount of dough and roll it into about 1-11/2 inch rounds and roll each in the nut/ fruit mixture. Dust off excess
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