These vegan white chocolate truffles are delicious, festive, and perfect for the holidays! Bonus: they’re made from scratch, and with little or no refined sugar, depending on if you make the dark chocolate shell.
There was a time in my life when I straight up hated white chocolate. I remember nodding heads with sympathizers who agreed that ‘it is NOT chocolate and it has no place in a dessert lineup’. To me, it just tasted like milk, sugar, and not much else.
Then a couple of things happened. I tried vegan white chocolate bars from Charm School Chocolate and was taken with the depth of flavor. Then I went to a vegan chocolate workshop by Pure Chocolate by Jinji and her white chocolate panna cotta had me captivated. And finally, I got on the computer and ordered myself some cocoa butter, and made vegan white chocolate everything for a couple of weeks straight. Including, but not limited to, these vegan white chocolate truffles… scones… banana bread… you name it. White chocolate flavored.
In the interest of not alienating the contingency of white chocolate haters among my readers, I’m trying to space out those recipes. So we’re just starting with the white chocolate truffles today. I’ve seen a recipe or two for vegan white chocolate truffles before, and they sounded great, but they called for ‘vegan white chocolate’ as an ingredient. Granted, Baltimore is no Portland, but I’ve never seen that in the store and it sounds like the kind of thing that could be really good or really bad depending on the brand that you buy. Start from scratch with cocoa butter, on the other hand, and you can control the sweetness, creaminess, and flavor to your own liking, without any soy milk powders needed.
The vegan white chocolate ganache that is the cornerstone of these truffles is adapted from the panna cotta that Jinji made, and it’s actually really simple! If you do much vegan cooking you probably have everything you need except for the cocoa butter itself. As for that, I love the cocoa butter that I bought from nuts.com. It is great quality and their shipping was super fast. They even threw in some bonus cacao nibs for free. There are also several options available on Amazon. Generally the best deal is to buy 16 oz. or more. That amount goes a long way and I don’t think the price tag is as crazy as it might seem.
One last thing: tempering the chocolate for the shell. If you don’t temper the chocolate then you will need to store these vegan white chocolate truffles in the fridge (or preferably the freezer). If you do, then they can survive at room temp. Tempering the chocolate involves holding the melted chocolate at a specific temperature and mixing in unmelted chocolate in order to realign the fat molecules. It’s how you get the very crisp texture that a store-bought bar of chocolate comes with. It’s kind of a pain in the butt, but you will be rewarded for your efforts. Totally optional, though! In the recipe I included a link to tempering instructions.
Vegan White Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients
For the vegan white chocolate ganache:
- 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked overnight unless using a high-powdered blender
- 100 grams cocoa butter
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp plain, unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use homemade almond milk)
- 1/2 cup brown rice syrup (or agave nectar, see notes for details)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- generous pinch sea salt
For the dark chocolate shell:
- 8 oz semisweet chocolate
- 1/4 tsp vanilla powder (optional)
- pinch sea salt
To make them peppermint flavored:
- 1/3 tsp peppermint extract (added to the ganache)
- crushed peppermint candies (the basic red and white peppermint candies are usually vegan)
Instructions
For the vegan white chocolate ganache:
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Combine all ingredients together in a blender until completely smooth. There is no need to melt the cocoa butter first, as the heat produced from blending is sufficient to melt it.
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Add more sugar or salt to taste. Pour the ganache into a bowl and place in the fridge to set for 2 hours up to overnight. I like to also place a baking sheet in the freezer at this time so that it's nice and cold for the next steps.
To shape the truffles:
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Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Use a spoon to scoop out portions of the ganache and roll it between your hands to shape into a ball. Place each truffle on the prepared baking sheet.
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(Optional) Roll each of the truffles in finely crushed pepperment candies before placing on the baking sheet. This works with or without the dark chocolate shell.
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Place the baking sheet of truffles in the freezer for at least 60 minutes or in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to firm up.
To make the dark chocolate shell:
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Either follow these instructions to temper the chocolate, or simply melt it over indirect heat along with the vanilla powder (optional) and sea salt.
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Take the shaped truffles out of the fridge. One by one, place the truffles on a fork and dip them into the chocolate, coating all sides. Gently shake off any excess and return them to the baking sheet. If any extra chocolate goes with it, you can always snap it off later.
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Before the chocolate cools too much, sprinkle with additional crushed peppermint if desired.
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Let the truffles cool in the fridge or freezer for an hour before eating. Store in an airtight container, in the fridge or freezer if not tempered.
Recipe Notes
Made with only agave, these truffles are quite sweet. I prefer desserts that aren't very sweet so I usually use all brown rice syrup. Half and half of agave and brown rice syrup is a nice compromise. Choose according to your sweetness preferences, and adjust to taste.
I don't recommend a food processor for the ganache, because it will take quite a long time to get the cashews smooth due to the small amount of liquid in the recipe. However, it can be used if necessary.
If you choose not to make the dark chocolate shell then I recommend rolling the truffles in cocoa powder or crushed peppermints so that they have some sort of coating.
Nutrition facts include half of the semisweet chocolate (since it's impossible to use all of it for dipping).
I'm Shannon, the writer and photographer of Yup, it's Vegan! I'm a morning person based in Baltimore, USA. My mission is to create healthy plant-based recipes that anyone would enjoy, using seasonal produce with inspiration from global flavors.
Missy says
Fantastic recipe, I love using it as an icing on my dairy free kids cakes. Its fantastic that there are no weird ingredients, it doesn’t cost a fortune to make and it can be easily coloured. Thank you
Maisie says
Help! I’m blending and blending but it never goes smooth… it’s very grainy. Delicious, but grainy. Have you any advice? Do I just need to keep going?
Thank you!!!
Maisie says
OK I fixed it!! Just kept blending through the hand cramp and now I have delicious silky smooth truffles mix 🙂
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Sorry I just woke up and saw your comments! Phew, I’m glad you kept going! That is definitely the key. Sometimes it can take many minutes for the oils to start to release from the cashews (almost like making nut butter) and everything to get smooth, depending on what blending device you’re using. Hope you enjoy the truffles!
Maisie says
Oh yes, we will!
Kari @ bite-sized thoughts says
Oh, these sound amazing! I have never liked white chocolate either, but I’ve never been able to try a vegan bar – and I think I would probably find good white chocolate very different. I am certainly sure I’d love these 😀
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thank you! 🙂 Good white chocolate is so different from what I remember trying in my pre-gan days.
Panda With Cookie says
Oh man. These look amazing. I love white chocolate and it’s so hard to find.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thank you! Yeah, I assumed for a while that as a vegan I was just giving up white chocolate, but recently I started finding all of these ways to enjoy it and it makes me really happy 🙂
Miranda Lemon says
PS I always liked white chocolate 😀
Miranda Lemon says
They look fantastic! I bet they are delicious 🙂
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thanks, Miranda! I just finished off the rest of them yesterday and I really want more now. It’s good to hear someone stick up for white chocolate!
Cheryl says
What?!?!?! I cannot handle this! I cannot even! When I was vegan, it stressed me out so hard that I couldn’t have “white chocolate” unless I bought like $30 worth of cocoa butter. This is the perfect solution! And how elegant are these? Slow clap, Shannon. SLOW CLAP.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Ah, thank you! Yeah, you can definitely make these with under ~$5 worth of cocoa butter 😀
Laura @ the gluten-free treadmill says
Oh, yum! I’ve been waiting for this recipe since you posted a teaser picture a bit ago! Worth the wait!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thanks! It’s the perfect season for truffles =]
Karyn says
These looks wonderful! Do you think I can substitute vanilla extract for the vanilla powder?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thank you! I think I would just omit the vanilla from the shell completely (and make sure to put vanilla extract in the filling) – the liquid content could affect how well the shell sets up.