The meal that was cancelled due to the ice and snow just before Christmas was reorganised for early February. Luckily, the weather was mild, if a little damp and we finally had our meet up with friends. As some of these friends are virtually vegans, I thought I’d try something a little different. Out came Paul A Young’s Adventures with Chocolate and I set to.
- Simmered 80ml of water with 1 tbsp of honey (Vegans can use the equivalent amount of sugar or agave syrup or date syrup etc).
- Stirred in 2 tbsp of tahini until smooth and simmered for a couple of minutes.
- Poured over 125g of chopped 81% dark chocolate (Ecuadorian Arriba) and left to melt.
- Stirred carefully with a metal whisk to avoid splitting.
- Left to cool then placed in the fridge for an hour.
- Toasted 50g sesame seeds in a frying pan and left to cool.
- Dipped a tsp in hot water and scooped out spoonfuls of ganache, rolling them in the sesame seeds and dipping the spoon back into the hot water each time to avoid the ganache sticking to the spoon.
Apologies for the quality of the photos – I had no natural light which makes the truffles look less attractive than they actually were. Luckily, these were meant to be roughly shaped into quenelles and I managed that quite successfully. They were very rich and the tasty crunch of sesame seeds made a good contrast to the unctuous interior. An additional benefit of the sesame seeds was that they encouraged chewing which keeps the whole thing in the mouth for longer. The tahini was present as a flavour but not overwhelming, a bit like a chocolate version of halva but not as sweet and cloying and with a smoother texture. CT expressed his surprise: “I can’t believe these are vegan”. I’m very excited by them; I now have a highly acceptable vegan truffle. I’m going into business – oops no, Paul got there first!.As it happens our friends had made an extremely rich and delicious chocolate truffle torte for dessert, so my truffles were somewhat surplus to requirements – oh well, can’t get it right all of the time!
KitchenMaid – thank you kindly 🙂
These sound absolutely exquisite – all my favourite things in one (of many) little bundles. I’m with everyone who said they would add this to their list of lovely things to make from your blog!
Sushma – they are very easy to make.
Dom – they were certainly different, but good nonethe less.
Peasoupeats – I think date syrup would work well in this recipe. I agree, better than agave.
Kath – thanks. I have no excuse, I did know about the honey, just wasn’t thinking when I wrote the post. Oh well, this post gets the record for the most name changes!
Sarah – tahini is a great substance but I’m a bit conservative in my use of it – good to branch out occasionally.
Gillian – as long as you don’t use honey you’ll have a wonderful truffle to sell to your vegan customers 🙂
Celia -Thank you. These are interesting but nothing like sesame bars, much more like truffles. But I do like sesame bars too 🙂
Oxslip – thank you for that, it’s so easy to put a smile on my face. Hope you like the tea bread.
Johanna – normally I’d agree with you, but we were all rather full by the time we’d finished the torte – sometimes it’s best to know when to stop. Everyone got a goody bag to take away with them though.
RhyleysGranny – a world without butter, cream and cheese does sound very unappealing 🙁
Chele – thank you making me feel better about my dreadful photos. That plate was just the wrong thing to put the truffles on – conflicting patterns and all that. I have a small one and a much larger serving platter with the same design.
Sheelagh – Thank you and you’re very welcome. Would be interested to know what you use your plate for?
Another brilliant recipe to try, I love tahini, so can’t wait to give this a go, (along with nearly every other recipe in your collection). Btw I have a dish very similar to your one too!
Thanks for your support & lovely comments on my blog Choc
Sheelagh 🙂
I know I am focusing on totally the wrong thing here but I LOVE that plate! So pretty … and the truffles make it even prettier lol
What is it about that word Vegan that makes me shudder. I have to say your truffles changed my mind. They look great.
surely you can never have enough chocolate desserts – these sound like just the sort of thing I’d love to have arrive with a guest – have bookmarked them to try
Tahini is such a great flavour, these look great. You are such a top blogger I’m really behind on your posts, but the teabread is on the list of things to make too now – can’t go wrong with cardamom and chocolate. Thanks for the recipe!
They look and sound delicious, Choc, a bit reminiscent of sesame bars, only with chocolate instead of caramel! Your vegan friends are lucky to have you! 🙂
Ah I had wondered about this recipe. Now I can stop wondering and just try it!
These sound fantastic! I love tahini.
You see I had no idea that vegans didn’t eat honey – how stupid am I? Surplus to requirements – I don’t believe it. They would have been snaffled after the torte if you had bought them here. They look and sound delicious.
Fantastic recipe, I shall definitely be making these! I’ll probably use date syrup as sometimes agave isn’t sweet enough for me in desserts:)
god these look so good… I love the darkness of them I bet they had a real exotic quality… divine!
Looks Amazing, would love to try them:)
Helen – hope you like them
C – can’t believe I made such a stupid mistake. Thanks for pointing this out to me, better go and make a note quick.
Corina – it’s certainly not something I would have thought up myself.
BVG – why is it there’s always an annoying amount left in the jar? So yes a good use for that.
Raffaiella – please do.
Can I have some truffles? 😉
They sound like the best possible left-overs to me!!!!
Thanks for this – I love the idea of the tahini in there (mine is only ever used for hummus!)
What an interesting way to use tahini. I never know what to do with it apart from houmous. They look great.
They look great – I love the idea of truffles made without cream – it must really let the flavours of the chocolate shine through.
I’m certain honey isn’t vegan though 🙁
I have been waiting for this recipe ever since you tweeted about them!
Duly bookmarked!