Red Velvet Dark Chocolate Truffles

The perfect Valentine’s Day Treat

These ‘red velvet’ truffles have a secret RED ingredient — beets! The beet flavor is masked by rich, fudgy dark chocolate and adds a red velvet hue that makes them perfect for a Valentine’s Day treat. I even tested them on my boyfriend who had no idea there were beets in there.

If you’re totally turned off by beet truffles or don’t feel like going through the long, messy process of cooking beets, you can skip the beets entirely! I tested the recipe both ways and both resulted in delicious dense, fudgy truffles.

This recipe has only 4 ingredients — coconut milk, dark chocolate, coconut oil and beets (and salt but that doesn’t count)!

How do you make truffles?

All you really need is heavy cream (or full-fat coconut milk in this case) and dark chocolate to make truffles. You heat the cream and then pour it over the finely chopped chocolate and stir gently until it’s smooth. Chill it in the fridge and then scoop it out into cute little truffles (use this small cookie scoop for the perfect truffles and energy bites!).

How do you cook beets?

I like to quarter my beets and then steam them in a steamer basket in the stove. This takes about 25 minutes but for this recipe, you want them super soft so let it stew, for about 35-40 minutes. This also depends on the size of your beet. The smaller you cut it up, the faster it will cook. Here are some general instructions:

1. Scrub the 1-2 medium beets clean, then cut into quarters.
2. Fill a pot with about 1” of water and place a steamer basket inside. Place the beets in the steamer basket and bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes or until the beets are easily pierced with a fork (time depends on size of beet).
3. Allow the beets to cool a bit before removing the skin (I usually don’t even bother if I cleaned it really well, but for this recipe you should peel). Trim off the root end. Done!

This is my favorite kitchen scale. Use it to weigh out your chocolate! Most chocolate bars are 3 ounces, so if you don’t have a scale, you can use 3 (3 oz) chocolate bars.

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Servings 20 truffles

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 1 small cooked beet, peeled and roughly chopped (about ½ cup)* (OPTIONAL)
• 1 cup full-fat coconut milk*
• 8 oz dark chocolate, chopped (or about 3 of your favorite 3 ounce chocolate bars)*
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder, for coating
• *make sure the beet is very well cooked so that it blends easily into the chocolate
• *when using coconut milk from a can that has solidified on top, make sure to heat it up and mix it together into a smooth texture before measuring
• *make sure to use a good quality chocolate. I usually by 3 of my favorite dark (70% of higher) chocolate bars and chop them up finely

Instructions

• In a medium pot, add the coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer. Once it starts to burble/simmer, remove from heat and add the chocolate. Stir gently with a rubber spatula, making sure to scrape chocolate off the bottom of the pot so it doesn’t burn, until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. 
• Transfer the chocolate mixture to a high-speed blender along with the beet (if using), coconut oil and salt. Blend on high until very smooth.
• Transfer to a medium bowl or container and place in the fridge for at least one hour, or until solidified and scoop-able. 
• Use a small cookie scoop to scoop out individual truffles and place into a parchment lined plate. If you don’t have a small cookie scoop, use a tablespoon to scoop and use your hands to roll into balls. Your hands will get messy and the balls might not be perfect balls, but delicious all the same!
• Dust with cocoa powder. Place back in the fridge to solidify again (about 15 minutes). Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
• You can also freeze them easily, but need to let them thaw out before eating.

Tips and Tricks for the perfect red velvet dark chocolate truffles

1. Make sure you cook your beets very well so you don’t end up with beet chunks in your truffles (this happened to me! It’s not the end of the world, they still taste amazing).
2. Don’t burn the chocolate!! Make sure to remove the pan from the heat and stir it immediately so that it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan. Then slowly stir it until melted.
3. Let the truffle mixture cool in the fridge until its firm and scoop-able, otherwise it will be very messy (and still might be messy if you’re using your hands instead of a scoop).