I was recently inspired by a new reality show my friend has been working on, “30 Days Dry“. To sum it up, the show is based on one persons vices and the willpower they posses to overcome them. They follow the person around with a camera for 30 days and document the process of staying abstinent. I asked myself, “what are my vices?” That was simple. Sugar and baking.

I decided to challenge myself for 30 days. No sugar, no baking. The first week was hell. No baking = no blogging either. I realized how much free time I actually have when I’m not baking or blogging. I was a trooper though and I was determined. A few trips to the gym, a couple books and an evening spent organizing my closet helped me make it through my first week like a champ.

The following weekend was when the wheels started turning… “What if I found a raw dessert recipe? Technically, that’s not baking, right?” Call it cheating or whatever, I have no regrets. The recipe I came up with was fantastic! The following recipe was modified from Ani’s Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake recipe.

Almost Raw Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Truffles
Yields 25 truffles

Ingredients

• 3 cups walnuts
• 2/3 cup of unsweetened cacao powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 cup of pitted medjool dates
• 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk
• 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries

Instructions

• Combine walnuts, cacao powder, salt & cinnamon in a food processor. Pulse until coarsely mixed.

• Add the dates and pulse again for about a minute. Mixture should stick together well.

• In a small sauce pan, combine raspberries and non-dairy milk. Stir on medium heat until raspberries form a thick liquid. Sieve or strain the mixture to remove any chunks if preferred (I skipped this step). Return strained mixture to pan and add one cup of chocolate (OK, so I cheated with the sugar here). Stir until mixture becomes smooth. Turn off heat and set aside.

• Form nut & date mixture into golf ball sized truffles.

• Dip in chocolate sauce while still warm and place on a cooling rack in the fridge to firm for an hour or more.

• Voila! Enjoy.

When I originally found this recipe, I thought “Dates? Hmmm… I don’t know.” My great grandmother’s Christmas fruit cake came to mind. I promise you, this is nothing like that.

These are moist with a light nutty texture, have a slight sweetness and that chewy, thick, brownie-like, stick-to-your-teeth, yumminess about them. The raspberry chocolate coating gives your taste buds that tart little bite at the end. While they are rich, they aren’t sickeningly rich.

I’m not gonna lie. I’m not real big into the raw food thing. I fully support raw foodies, I think the concept is awesome and some of the artwork and creativity put into certain recipes absolutely blows my mind though. I feel like raw food is an acquired taste and reserved for more sophisticated palates. Vegan chili fries aren’t exactly what I call sophisticated and that’s definitely more my style. The thing I liked about this recipe is that it doesn’t taste like any of the raw food I’ve tried. Maybe it’s the chocolate? After all, chocolate makes everything better, right? Raw foodie or not, this recipe is a must try considering it only takes a few simple ingredients and very little time. Who knows? Maybe raw desserts may change me into a raw foodie after all…

Probably not.

Happy truffling!