As part of my dietetics degree, I had to take a food service class this semester.  One of the main projects was planning, cooking and serving a theme meal for 55 that was 4 courses, under 900 calories, and less than $5.50 per plate.  One of my friends did a vegan theme and these Chocolate Date Truffles were the dessert.  I was super impressed with how chocolatey and rich these tasted even without added sugar.  This week I made them to share with the Diabetes Prevention Program I’ve been volunteering with.  While I believe that all foods can fit in a healthy diet it’s nice to have a low-calorie, low-fat recipe that’s big on flavor and can quench that chocolate craving.

These Chocolate Date Truffles are very simple, but could be jazzed up with a variety of other flavors and/or rolled in a variety of fun toppings, like crushed nuts or toasted coconut.  While this recipe calls for a little orange juice it’s a very subtle hint of citrus (I’m not really a fan of orange and chocolate, but if that’s your jam then by all means add more orange juice).  The most important thing for this recipe is making sure you have a very powerful food processor or blender.  Blending the dates until they’re smooth is key to getting a good truffle. 

Chocolate Date Truffles

Makes 35 truffles

• 4 cups pitted dates (about 30 dates)
• boiling water
• 2 Tbsp orange juice
• 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (more to taste)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, for rolling

Place pitted dates in a large bowl and cover with boiling hot water.  Let stand for 10-15 minutes.  Drain the dates and place in food processor or blender.  Blend until smooth, adding orange juice (and maybe a couple Tbsp of water if still too thick) to help blend.  Once the dates are smooth add in the cocoa powder and blend until well mixed, scraping down the sides as needed.  Taste and add more cocoa powder if needed.

Let the mixture cool down (it’ll get quite warm from all the blending).  Put 1/4 cup cocoa powder in a dish for rolling, then roll about 2 tsp of the date mixture into balls (coating your hands in cocoa powder helps reduce the stickiness).

If serving later plan on sprinkling with cocoa powder again before serving.

While I don’t usually calculate nutrition information, I did add this to myfitnesspal to give calorie and fat counts to the Diabetes Prevention class.  If you’re interested in other nutrition information for my other recipes, myfitnesspal has a very convenient recipe importer option for adding a link to generate nutrition information (although you’ll have to create a free account first).