Friday Food: Lemony Coconut Truffles

I adapted these truffles from a Honey Coconut recipe in the AWW Celebrations cookbook. One day I had no peanuts or honey and so I looked in the fridge and I had a lemon. And so the Lemony Coconut Truffles were born.

I usually make twice the amount of this recipe at Christmas and Easter as they are so easy, refreshing and freeze really well.

They are also great if you need something in a hurry, which I did on Thursday. I started making these at 9-20am and they went out the door at 11am on a plate, ready to eat!!

 

Lemony Coconut Truffles    makes 30-40 depending on the size you make (obviously)

• 125g full fat cream cheese (I use Philly)
• 190g white chocolate that will melt well
• finely grated zest of a lemon
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 1/2 cups coconut
• extra coconut for rolling

Put the cream cheese and chocolate in a microwave proof bowl and 'zap' on half power for 60-90 seconds. If you heat the cream cheese too quickly or violently it will 'pop', and you don't want that. Let the bowl sit for a minute or so and then stir the mixture until all the chocolate is melted.

 

Add the lemon zest, juice and coconut and combine well. I never add all the coconut at once, the juiciness of your lemon or runniness of the chocolate can affect how much coconut you need. You have to use your initiative!!!

Line a 20 x 20cm tin with baking paper or clingfilm and then press the mixture firmly and evenly into said tin. I cover the mixture with more baking paper and then roll with a straight sided glass if I am being pernickety. Do cover well and then freeze or refrigerate, depending on your weather, for about 30 minutes.

Check the truffle mixture is firm and set and remove from the tin. Cut into evenly sized pieces. Pour the extra coconut into a container and as you roll the truffles into balls, pop them into the coconut and give the container a good shake each tme. I also use a ziplock bag and that works perfectly as you can store them in it as well. Keep them refrigerated or frozen until you are ready to eat them.

Everyone at the Bushfire morning tea liked them, so I think that's a good recommendation. I like them because I can eat them: they have no proper chocolate in them!!

Comments

[Susan]

Oh, those look so good. And I think I have all the ingredients on hand except the white chocolate. Best part - my kids will probably not eat them (though they are devouring coconut/caramel/chocolate cookies, so I might need to rethink that). And, while they are something that I would not feed to the dogs, there is little danger to the dogs if they manage to steal a truffle.

I also have to say that I am surprised and delighted that you have Philadelphia cream cheese - apparently, it has conquered the world.

[mrspao]

They look delicious!!

[Leonie]

Wow! That's a great recipe, I can see the boys gobbling them up :-)

[Jan]

While peanuts and honey would be good, I think I prefer your lemony ones. I might even do something like this soon.

[RoseRed]

Oh I think you have vastly improved this recipe by changing it to lemon! Sounds delicious and so easy!

[DrK]

yum yum yum. lemon and coconut, honey and coconut, it all sounds good to me. they look delicious!