After Dinner Peppermint Truffles - Bakemas Day 18

I know it’s only been 5 days but I have more truffles! Okay, I probably should have planned this a little better and spread them out through the month but the recipe was going to go up anyway.

Mint and chocolate is one of my favourite combinations ever, you have no idea how much I miss cheap mint choc chip ice cream its probably one of the things I was most gutted about when I had to stop eating dairy...

ANYWAY

After eights are pretty much a standard at Christmas and I love a good peppermint cream at any time of year, they don’t usually have any dairy in so I’m free to eat the whole bag...not that I do that or anything, but unfortunately after eights do. Obviously these are not a vegan after eight copy cat recipe because they look so far from an after eight, honestly I was just messing around with flavour ideas while I was making date truffles and this batch; hands down my favourite so far.

So maybe I’m a little bias because mint chocolate is my favourite but somehow without me even trying these ended up tasting exactly like peppermint creams, maybe it was the peppermint tea I soaked the dates in or the desiccated coconut I put in a bit of then decided I didn’t want to do that but it was already in there, I have no clue (it's probably magic) but I am so here for it! As much as I love peppermint creams my one gripe with them is the sugar content and I only used dates to sweeten the centre of these so I’d say from this recipe alone my month has been a complete success!

The recipe is pretty straight forward like your bog standard date bases truffles, soak your dates in hot water with a peppermint tea bag, drain, add to the food processor, blend with all your other ingredients, chill, roll and coat in chocolate, easy peasy!

I feel like this is one of those recipes I’m going to go a little overboard on for a while so I might just have to make a massive batch and store them in the freezer which means less food processor washing WOHOO! ...Or less me asking someone ever so kindly if they'll wash it up for me because the eczema on my hands is horrendously bad at the moment. ANYWAY, let’s get to the recipe.

You will need
210g/1½ cup dates
1 peppermint tea bag
½ tsp peppermint extract
4 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp ground almonds
2 tbsp desiccated coconut
150g dark chocolate

Put the dates in a bowl with the peppermint tea bag and fill with hot water until the dates are covered and leave to soak for 10-15 minutes. Drain the dates and put them in a food processor with the peppermint extract and blend until it forms a smooth paste.
Add in the cocoa powder, ground almonds and desiccated coconut and blend until everything is incorporated.
Spoon the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate until it’s firmed and less tacky, alternatively you can pop it in the freezer which will be a little quicker.
Roll the mixture into balls and refrigerate to firm up.
Melt the chocolate and coat the balls and put back in the fridge to set.
Store in the fridge.

Makes 18