Party Flavors: No-guilt truffles

The party food landscape has become increasingly homogeneous, with its ubiquitous bag of Doritos rather than homemade fudge or stuffed mushrooms. Columnist Erin Nyren would like to bring back the house parties of yore, in which everyone cooked or baked something to share.

I stared down at my hands, palms completely covered in oily chocolate residue from rolling truffles. I briefly wondered whether the mess was worth the 12 truffles I was getting out of it.

As I bit into the firm, creamy morsel a few minutes later, I knew it was worth it.

This week I wanted a recipe that was more sweet than savory because I wanted to treat myself. I settled on a recipe for no-guilt truffles, since no one wants to worry about having to get to the gym the next day, and they wouldn’t break my healthy eating habits too badly.

Conveniently, the recipe uses ingredients that many people already have. I keep non-fat vanilla Greek yogurt in my fridge and cocoa powder in my pantry at all times. I borrowed some almond butter from my roommate, since I’m more of a chunky peanut butter person. Although the recipe said peanut butter can be used instead of almond butter, I didn’t want the smoothness of my truffles tainted by chunks of peanuts.

I was surprised to see yogurt included in a recipe for chocolate truffles. The yogurt is what keeps the truffles guilt-free because a more typical truffle recipe, like Alton Brown’s recipe on the Food Network, involves using heavy cream, butter and corn syrup instead. Of course, the yogurt and almond butter substitution results in a truffle that’s not quite as smooth or creamy as store-bought Lindt chocolates, but I’d rather forgo a little sweetness or texture to feel better about my eating choices.

The truffles took only about 25 minutes to prepare, including the 15 minutes that the dough set in the refrigerator. Once the ingredients are combined and have set, it’s simply a matter of rolling the now-firm yogurt, chocolate and almond butter mixture into balls and covering them in cocoa powder. They’re ready to eat immediately after.

Following the recipe, I chose to use Ghirardelli 60 percent cacao chocolate chips. Although I’m a fan of very dark chocolate, the truffles came out undeniably bitter, which I was completely fine with. To me, the bitter taste added an element of surprise to the dish. But if bitterness isn’t appealing, I’d recommend using sweeter chocolate.

The recipe contained no instructions on how to roll the truffles in the cocoa powder – I’m sure almost any method would work – so I sprinkled cocoa powder on a square of aluminum foil. After rolling the truffles in the powder, I repeatedly dropped them from about four inches high onto the foil to shake off any excess cocoa powder. I wanted only a thin layer, to avoid inhaling the cocoa powder, which usually causes slight coughing. Apparently my efforts weren’t quite enough, though, because my roommate ended up choking anyway due to an ill-timed inhale.

These truffles were so effortless to make and required such simple ingredients that doubling or even tripling the recipe for a party would be easy. Choose a variety of chocolate – bitter or sweet – and go for it. Just make sure to keep an eye on them if transporting because they do tend to roll.

– Erin Nyren

What’s the best food you’ve ever eaten at a party? Email Nyren at [email protected].