Guest Post: White Chocolate Peppermint Truffles

It is a pleasure to have another guest post from my friend Starlene. Starlene blogs at GAPS Diet Journey where she chronicles her journey on the GAPS Diet and creates GAPS Friendly recipes. She also has recently released her first book, Beyond Grain and Dairy. This is a cook book filled with dairy free, GAPS approved recipes for everything from appetizers to deserts.

~PattyLA

My original goal in creating this treat was to create a white chocolate version of my Chocolate Coconut Fudge Bites. Then I wondered if I could make it low oxalate as well. My curiosity was piqued recently when I read a blog post at Roo’s Clues which talked about how oxalates “…injure and kill the mitochondria” and it made me wonder if I should look more closely at avoiding oxalates. Patty has written a very informative post called What Are Oxalates? which will explain more in case you are also interested.

I asked Patty about twenty questions on Facebook one night to see if I could figure out how to make this recipe low oxalate. Not only are these truffles low oxalate (Patty says they contain just over 1 mg oxalates per truffle) but they are minty and rich tasting.

Patty also introduced me to Be Young essential oils, as this is another way she has found to keep the oxalates low in the diet. I recently ordered Peppermint and Spearmint. This recipe includes four drops of the Peppermint oil and Patty says, “If you purchase them [essential oils] from a pure source like Be Young nearly all of them can be ingested and used topically. Some care should be used by pregnant women and on young children with some of the oils. Peppermint is one that can raise the blood pressure and cause contractions in pregnant women so a trial with just sniffing it is advised for pregnant women and those with high blood pressure and if it is too strong spearmint can be used in its place.“

And now for the recipe!

White Chocolate Peppermint Truffles

• 1/2 cup coconut cream concentrate (aka coconut butter)
• 1/4 cup cocoa butter
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1-1/2 cups shredded coconut + 1/4 cup for decoration
• 1 T. coconut flour
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 3 T. honey
• 4 drops Be Young Peppermint Essential Oil
• 2 teaspoons water

Warm coconut cream concentrate until it is the consistency of smooth peanut butter.

Melt cocoa butter.

Add coconut cream concentrate and cocoa butter to your food processor.

Add sunflower seeds, shredded coconut, coconut flour, vanilla, salt, honey and 4 drops of peppermint oil. Be very careful that you only get four drops. I found it was best to drop the oil onto a spoon first so that I could be sure to count the drops. They fell out of my bottle very fast.

Blend until smooth. While the processor is blending, add the two teaspoons of water. This should cause the mixture to slightly ball up as it blends around.

Using a teaspoon measurement, scoop 2 even teaspoons for each truffle. Mash together and roll between your hands to form a round ball. If you roll them too roughly they will fall apart so it’s best to mash them into shape firmly initially, and then gently roll into a ball. Yields 32 truffles.

Roll in the remaining 1/4 cup of shredded coconut to decorate.

Alternately you may press evenly into an 8″ x 8″ square pan, lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle shredded coconut on top to decorate. Place in freezer for 15 minutes to harden. Cut into small squares. These are less time consuming and they taste just as delicious!

Best served straight from the refrigerator. They can also be frozen, but turn rock hard. They hold together at room temperature but are slightly squishy.

Thank you Patty for having me at your blog today, it has been a pleasure to share with your readers.

Starlene is the author of GAPS Diet Journey, where she chronicles her journey to health on the GAPS Diet and explores other healing modalities compatible with GAPS. Starlene has recently released her first e-cookbook Beyond Grain & Dairy. You can keep up with Starlene through her blog, and connect with her on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.