Delectable vegan chocolate truffles that are easy to make, but fancy enough to give as gifts!
Start by getting all of your ingredients ready. This includes chopping and toasting the nuts and toasting the coconut if you are doing so. If you want to decorate the tops of your truffles as shown in the photos, reserve an extra teaspoon of instant coffee granules and an extra tablespoon of each of the nuts and the coconut.
Have five bowls ready for the truffle filling. (The sixth variety is plain, so you don’t need a separate bowl for that one.)
One bowl with the instant coffee
One bowl with the peppermint extract
One bowl with the chopped almonds
One bowl with the chopped pecans
One bowl with the coconut
Add 6 oz (1 c) of the mini chips and the whole bag of dark chocolate morsels to a medium-sized glass bowl, and mix them together.
Whisk the sugar, salt, and 0.6 g (3/8 tsp) of instant coffee together in a small bowl, then add it to the coconut milk and whisk to combine. Have the chocolate, vanilla, a whisk, and a spatula ready for the next step.
Heat the coconut milk mixture to boiling, whisk it to be sure the sugar is dissolved, then pour it over the chocolate. Let stand for two minutes, then whisk together to blend in the melted chocolate. Add the vanilla, then whisk until smooth and glossy.
Add 130 g of the chocolate truffle mixture to each of the bowls with the peppermint extract and coffee granules, then whisk to mix each one. Add 85 g of the truffle mixture to each of the three bowls with nuts and coconut, then stir each one.
Once the truffle filling is firm, use a scoop to shape each kind. Place the truffles on a cookie sheet that is lined with either waxed paper or parchment paper. Start with the plain ones, then scoop the nut and coconut versions, and then the coffee version. Stop to wash and dry your scoop before finishing up by scooping the peppermint ones. You will get eight of each variety if you use a #60 scoop. Once all the truffles are scooped, chill them for another 20 minutes.
Use a fork to lower each truffle into the tempered chocolate, then roll it over, lift it out, and scrape the excess chocolate off on the side of the bowl. Gently push the truffle off the end of the fork onto waxed paper or parchment paper. Add a bit of chopped nuts, coconut, or instant coffee to mark the respective flavors if you wish. You need to do this right away while the chocolate is still melted, or the toppings won’t stick. I left the plain ones plain and added a chocolate swirl with melted chocolate to the mint ones. (For adding the chocolate swirl, you do wait until the chocolate shell has hardened before piping on the decoration.)
Wait until the chocolate coating has completely hardened before putting the truffles into mini paper cupcake liners. You can also box them up if you are giving the truffles as a gift. The truffles will last for at least a week at room temperature, and longer if kept in the fridge. You can also freeze them, but mine are always gone too quickly for that!