Dark Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Truffles

 
In the town where I attended college, a small chocolate shop sat on the very edge of downtown, right where the business-filled streets began to bleed into the roads with tiny two- and three-bedroom residential houses. The man who opened it originally owned a store in San Francisco, but he moved up that location up north when the city condemned his original building to construct the new San Francisco Giants baseball stadium.  

Their loss!

His cute college-town shop contained three large glass display cases, all full of every type of chocolate confection imaginable: truffles, fudge, dipped Oreos, turtles, almond clusters, dipped pretzels, English toffee, and even painted chocolate bowls. And that was just one case!
 

 
Every time a customer entered the store, the owner walked out from the back kitchen area to set out a plate of tiny squares of fudge. He usually sliced up his famous three-layer fudge for the free samples, with stripes of white, milk, and dark chocolate. It’s nearly impossible to find really good dark chocolate fudge near where I live, so I always bought a big slab of that individual flavor whenever I stopped by!

Along with the plate of free fudge samples, the owner always added one of his famous pyramid-shaped truffles to every order “on the house,” and he let you choose the flavor that you wanted. If you bought enough treats, he sometimes added a second or third. With dozens of options in the display case, it usually took me a few minutes to pick out that bonus one!
 

 
Since I no longer live in that college town, I can’t stop by the chocolate shop to get my truffle fix this Valentine’s Day, so I made my own instead! These Dark Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Truffles, to be exact. They taste just as rich and decadent as those ones from the fancy chocolatier, but they’re much healthier and really easy to make!

Which could potentially be very dangerous…
 

 
These healthier truffles begin with unsweetened cocoa powder. Yes, regular ol’ cocoa powder! Stick with the plain unsweetened variety. I do not recommend using Dutched or special dark cocoa powder in these truffles. Because you’ll use so much—two full cups!—the truffles will already taste really dark without those other types.

So no heavy cream to heat and no chocolate to melt… Which makes the process incredibly simple, and clean-up is a breeze. Always a plus in my book!

 
The truffles are held together with a combination of unsweetened applesauce and pure maple syrup. I know, it sounds a little crazy… But it totally works! The applesauce gives the truffles their almost fudge-like texture, but I promise that you can’t taste any fruity flavor. Just pure dark chocolate!

As for the maple syrup, be sure to buy the good stuff! Skip the pancake syrup or sugar-free syrups; both of those contain refined sugar or artificial ingredients, which we’re trying to avoid in this clean eating recipe. Pure maple syrup is sold in thin glass jars or squat plastic jugs, and the only ingredient on the label should be “maple syrup.” You can also find it online!

Note: These truffles taste very dark, similar to 72-75% dark chocolate. If you prefer something a little lighter in flavor, substitute additional maple syrup for some of the applesauce.
 

 
The base of the filling consists of Greek yogurt and Greek yogurt cream cheese. I found my Greek yogurt cream cheese at Safeway (their own Lucerne brand), and many Walmart stores sell this brand as well. If you can’t find it, Neufchâtel (⅓-less fat) cream cheese will work as a substitute.

To sweeten the cheesecake base, you’ll use vanilla crème stevia. It’s my new favorite ingredient! Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly. It’s very concentrated, so a little goes a long way! This is the type that I buy, which is sold in a small bottle with an eyedropper, and you can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. (You’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
 

 
Before adding the fresh strawberries to the bowl, you’ll purée them with a little water until smooth, then cook that mixture on the stove until it has reduced. You must cook the strawberry purée! If you mix the purée straight into the cheesecake base, it adds too much liquid from the fresh strawberries, and the truffles will be very hard (and messy) to assemble. I promise they’re worth the extra step!

To assemble, you’ll freeze the filling first. Just dollop tiny scoops onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, and pop that in the freezer until the filling is completely hard. This trick makes rolling the chocolate around the filling much easier! Just don’t make the little dollops too big, or else it’ll be difficult to completely mold the chocolate mixture around them. I found that a slightly rounded scoop using my ½-teaspoon measuring spoon was the perfect amount.

Then roll, roll, roll… Chill… And…
 

 
Eat!
 

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