Chocolate orange truffles with just five easy ingredients. They’ve got a melt in your mouth texture, a rich dark chocolate taste and a delightful zesty orange twist!
This weekend we had an enormous Christmas baking session and I whipped up some of our easy vegan rum truffles to go along with all the cookies we made to send to our families.
But I really wanted to make a non alcoholic and more kid friendly truffle too. So I adapted the recipe to make these delicious vegan chocolate orange truffles.
They remind me of the dark Terry’s chocolate orange that I always used to get in my christmas stocking when I was a kid.
Unlike many other vegan truffle recipes, we don’t use coconut milk or cream, so you get a strong chocolatey taste, without that hint of coconut flavour.
Another thing that’s different about this recipe from other chocolate orange truffles, is that it uses fresh orange and is made without orange extract.
So it’s super easy to make with ingredients you probably already have at home!
Ingredient tips
Here’s what in the truffles:
Dark chocolate - We used a 70% cocoa content bar of dark chocolate. Many are naturally vegan, just look at the ingredients to check they don’t contain butter or milk.
Coconut oil - We recommend using refined coconut oil such as this one. Refined coconut oil has a neutral flavour, unlike raw or unrefined coconut oil which is much more coconutty.
Icing sugar / Powdered sugar - In the US some brands of sugar aren’t vegan due to processing with bone char, this brand is vegan certified. If you don’t have any powdered sugar, it’s easy to make in a food processor. Just process granulated sugar until very fine.
Orange - As we’re using the zest too, an organic orange is a good option.
Cocoa powder - This is used both in the truffle mixture and for rolling the outside of the truffles. For a more sweet coating you can roll them in a mixture of equal amounts of cocoa powder and icing sugar.
Step by step
You'll find the full recipe in the card below, but here's a step by step photo guide to show you how easy it is to make these yummy truffles!
Step 1 - Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan of gently boiling water.
Step 2 - Remove from the heat and stir in the refined coconut oil until smooth.
Step 3 - Add the icing/powdered sugar, cocoa, orange juice and zest and stir until well combined.
Step 4 - Chill the mixture for approximately 15-25 minutes in the fridge until it is solid enough to be shaped with your hands.
Step 5 - Scoop out a small spoonful of the mixture and roll it into a ball between the palms of your hands. (You might get a little bit chocolatey!)
Step 6 - Next, roll the ball in cocoa powder, and repeat forming the truffles until you have finished all the mixture.
Variations
Instead of rolling in cocoa powder, you could roll the truffles in shredded coconut or finely chopped nuts.
For a warm and fiery chocolate truffle you could add in some ginger which goes great with orange. You could use freshly grated or powdered ginger. Finely chopped pieces of crystallised ginger would also be yummy!
Serving and storage
These truffles keep well in at room temperature, and don’t need to be refrigerated to keep their shape.
You can keep them in the fridge in an airtight container for longer storage, but the taste and texture is best when you serve them at room temperature.
These chocolate orange truffles make wonderful gifts. Present them in a jar, or in a little bundle of baking paper ties with a ribbon.
You’ll get around 20 truffles depending on how large you make them. We found it impossible to have just one and they disappear very quickly, so you might wanna make a double batch!
We hope you enjoy these chocolate orange truffles as much as we did! Try these other vegan Christmas recipes:
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Orange Truffles
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz (100 g) dark chocolate 70% cocoa
- 2 tbsp (30 g) refined coconut oil
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) orange juice freshly squeezed
- ½ tsp orange zest
- 2 tbsp icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder plus extra for dusting
Instructions
- Chop or break the bar of chocolate into small pieces.
- Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, add the chocolate to the bowl and stir until melted.
- Take the bowl off the heat, and stir in the coconut oil until combined.
- Add the orange juice, orange zest, icing sugar and cocoa powder and stir until completely smooth.
- Chill the mixture in the fridge until it has become solid enough to shape with your hands. It's usually ready in 15-25 minutes, but I like to check on it regularly to get the perfect time to roll the truffles.
- With a small spoon, scoop out portions of the dough and then roll them into balls between the palms of your hands. If your hands are warm, covering your palms in cocoa powder before rolling will reduce melting. If the mix is very sticky, you may want to chill it for a little longer.
- Sprinkle some cocoa powder on a plate, and then roll the balls in the cocoa until they are evenly coated.
- Store in an airtight container and serve at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
Heather says
Hi, if storing for 2 weeks do I store in the fridge?
Sophie and Paul says
For storage for up to 2 weeks I'd recommend keeping them in the fridge. Allow to come up to room temperature when serving. Enjoy 🙂
Lubi says
Hey! 🙂 These looks wonderful! Can I use coconut sugar or any other sweetener apart from powdered sugar? Also do you have any tips how to make these but white chocolate? Thank you xx
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Lubi! Yes we love these truffles. I'm not sure how they'd turn out with those substitutes without testing it myself - so you might have to do some experimenting 🙂 If you have a high-speed blender or grinder you can grind coconut sugar into a powder and try using that? Ground dates can also be a delicious sweetener in truffles, but you might need to play around a bit to figure out a quantity that works. We've never made them with white chocolate (I'm a dark chocolate lover!), I'd probably try a small batch using vegan white chocolate, leaving out both the cocoa and powdered sugar and see how that turns out. Have fun!
Rachel says
Does this have to be coconut oil so the truffles will solidify when chilled?
Trying to figure out a sub..thank you!
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Rachel, Yes the coconut oil does help the truffles to stay solid, even out of the fridge. We haven't tested it, but I think the closest substitute would be a type of block style of vegan butter (just make sure it's coconut free if needed). Fingers crossed it works!
Debbie says
I made a small batch of these for my colleagues a few days ago and everyone loved them and demanded I make a bigger batch next time! Though, these were a bit fiddly and took about 30 mins to firm up but they ended up looking very professional. Thanks for the recipe!
Sophie and Paul says
Thanks Debbie, so happy you and your colleagues loved them (Lucky colleagues that get homemade vegan truffles at work!) Time to firm up does vary based on the bowl you put them in and the temperature, but when you get the sweet spot they are easy to roll out. Hope you enjoy them again soon!