One way to bribe me...

[cherydactyl]

Vegan Truffles

Thanks to the lovely tammylc for finding this company in a discussion of non-dairy truffle making on one of her recent posts. Tammy makes great and interesting truffles herself. I got illyaa some for Father's Day this past June. She included flavors like chile pepper. They were awesome, or so he reports...I only got to try half of one.

Comments

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

BTW, I'd be happy to experiment with some options for you. Ann Arbor's probably a pretty good market for vegan truffles, so it would serve me well!

[vretallin.livejournal.com]

You'd get my business as a vegan. :) have some for U*Con? ::hopeful look::

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Well, if I'm aiming for a truffle batch around Hallowe'en, then yes, I could probably have some for U*Con.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Are you hardcore vegan, or just vegetarian non-dairy? Because I've just learned that some processed white sugar is not vegan, and I'm not sure I can find out which kinds of chocolate use which.

(Apparently, some processing plants use a bleaching process for cane sugar that involves the use of charcoal made from animal bones. It's far enough dervied that under Kosher law it's considered non-meat, but is still of concern to some vegans.)

[vretallin.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it then. :) Tis cool. I appreciate the thought and your willingness to try. :) I avoid the animal proteins altogether. So pretty hard core overall. If I knew more about truffle making I might be able to recommend a vegan chocolate, but I really don't know what kinds you need to use. Worse comes to worse get some cacao nibs and go from there. ;)

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to do some research and see what chocolate vegans tend to approve of. So do you avoid all white sugar, then, because it might be filtered with bone char?

[vretallin.livejournal.com]

I don't use sugar at home. I use agave nectar and well when I am out and about and eat things like bread, I just don't think/worry about it. I am vegan for health reasons less political/social issues.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

I found a bunch of brands that are easily available to me, and check out as fully vegan - Dagoba, Green & Black, Tropical Selection.

See page here: http://www.chefsresource.com/20qtalstaind.html

Some of the ingredient list include "sugar" with the source unspecified, but others specifically mention that they use beet sugar, or non-processed cane sugar. So the experiment can proceed...

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Oops - wrong link in my last post. Try:
http://www.veganunlimited.com/food-chocolate.html

[vretallin.livejournal.com]

Mmm Green and Black...wonderful wonderful stuff. :) Yayy easly available.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested if you try it. Sounds like I'm not the only taker either. :)

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I got this lead for a vegan truffle recipe, in case you're interested, via vegancooking...cheers!

http://pakupaku.info/sweets/chocolate_truffles.shtml

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are a million recipes for vegan truffles out there. Some use various soy products, some cashew cream like this recipe, and others (like Lagusta) coconut milk. I'm inclined towards starting with the coconut milk, as it feels less "fake" than the others. I just realized that I did actually did make some vegan truffles for New Year's Eve last year, before I ever embarked on the organized truffle making adventure. I wanted to try making some coconut-curry truffles, and used coconut milk instead of cream. It worked reasonably well, and I'd like to try again now that I have more experience.

[vretallin.livejournal.com]

Cocounut is wonderfully rich and I think is better than the soy products, those aren't so good for you anyway.