Cashew Butter Truffles - Happy Mother's Day

On the heels of Shrimp Week, it just seems to be logical that I should have...

 "The side dishes of Shrimp Week - Week"

And what more logical place to start than with one of the desserts of Shrimp Week.  This recipe was born out of a desperate need to portion control a big 3 pound tub of salt free cashews I found and could not resist.  I brought them home, and in about a day I had eaten nearly half.  I love cashews.  But I needed to enjoy these slower, or that Rhode Island size ass of mine would quickly become the size of Massachusetts.


So in reality, since I have more will power with a box of chocolates, and can eat these one a day, these are really diet food for me!


Nothing terribly fancy here.  I made some cashew butter (think peanut butter, just better) and coated with chocolate.  And with all the benefits of dark chocolate in the news lately, these are becoming HEALTH and diet food!

Homemade cashew butter comes together VERY easy with a food  processor.  Unfortunately, nothing is easy here, as I do not have a processor.  But I do have a blender.


I also wanted to have a chocolate colored center, lighter than the dark chocolate (which was easy to do).  So I was making chocolate cashew butter...


So, I cleaned the rum out of the blender and added...

1/2 pound Cashews
2 TBS Honey
1 TBS Peanut Oil
1 TBS pour-able Chocolate Sauce 


And blend away.  In the blender, I still had some chunky bits left in the butter, but that was OK, added a bit of color and texture.

Now, it's time for your wonder twin powers to activate... form of a 3/4 inch ball.  I made 16 balls, so i could make 16 truffles... OK, I actually made 18 balls, but I had to taste test them.


While all this was going on, I started melting chocolate.  Any good quality chocolate works fine.  I bought a dark chocolate, with a hint of chili pepper mixed in.  Not enough to hurt, just a hint of something extra.  No one ever comments about the pepper, but they all commentated on the extra.

You can melt in a microwave, but I have better luck in a double boiler.  Sounds intimidating, but all that means is that you take a large pot, fill about half way with water, and float a smaller pot inside the larger pot.  Get the water hot, and add the chocolate to the smaller pot.  Eventually (took about 20 minutes), the chocolate melts and does not burn.  Works perfect every time.


Drop a ball into the chocolate and roll around to coat...

Cool them in the fridge.  Here in paradise, it is so humid that the chocolate melts quickly, and would probably never set up if room temp.


I crushed up a few cashews and rolled the top in some.  I also coated a few with shredded coconut.  Personally, I liked the ying/yang look of adding a couple whole cashews on the top.

Enjoy my version of diet food!  One of these a day is better than a pound of cashews a day.


Happy Mother's Day...