Valentine Day's Special : Orange Zest + Wine Chocolate layered on Valentine Red Coconut. - Vegan

I love colors. I love oranges (even my perfume is orange). I love wine. And I also like dark chocolates.  Lots of people like milk chocolates but I can never bring myself to eat them. High-taste is a one way street after all :).

Anyways  I wanted to make dark chocolate with oranges ala lindt style but with no sugar and no apparent calories.

This recipe of mine is inspired from Richa's cool blog   - do check out she has some really awesome valentine day's ideas: http://www.veganricha.com/2013/02/zesty-pink-coconut-chocolate-bites.html 
I really love her recipes - her vegan pasta is house favorite.

My adaptation of her recipe is here :
1) Chocolate Layer:  I used my simple 5 minute recipe http://aratikadav456.blogspot.in/2013/02/date-chocolate-truffles-vegan.html. Except that I added lots of orange zest to it.
(orange zest is grated orange peel).
Recipe of chocolate in Brief:
Ingredients - 
- Dates (15),
- chocolate powder (2 table spoons, I use cadbury choc powder),
- wine (optional),
- orange zest (again optional but I won't have it any other way:)),
- coconut oil

a) In a mixie run dates, orange zest with chocolate powder. Add a little coconut oil and a spoon of wine if it is too dry.
b) Heat the mixture in microwave for 30 secs. If dates not well-done mash them with spoon. Can add a little spoon of wine again if it is too dry - dont let the chocolate be too wet.

2) Red coconut layer:  For the color of the mixture I just ran the beetroot in a mixie  with water and strained the water to get the red color.
Recipe of Valentine Red Coconut in Brief:
Ingredients- 
- 3/4 cup grated coconut (I used fresh, one can use dry coconut too),
- 3-4 spoons of orange zest,
- 1/4th cup oats (ground),
- 2 teaspoons sugar,
 - 1 tiny beetroot.

a)  On a tava (flat pan) - roast coconut so that it is dry. Remove. Roast powdered oats so that they change their color a bit.
b)  Grind beetroot in a mixie with water. Strain the red colored water, add 2 teaspoons of sugar in it for syrup and boil it a bit so that it becomes little viscous.

Coconut mixture and chocolate together.

c) Add b) to a) on the tava in a controlled way so that it is not too wet and take it out in few minutes when the mixture looks cohesive and done.



Put coconut mixture on a butter paper or newspaper and flatten. Put chocolate on top of coconut mixture. You can sprinkle some chocolate powder on top and make it more dark :).

That's it. Cut and decorate with orange zest!!

Oh no! It's that time of the year again.

The recipe is so simple that I had to give it a complicated name to make it sound exclusive. Anyways, happy Valentine's day to anyone who cares :)!

Date + chocolate truffles - Vegan

Time to make 5 mins.
Now this is really a winner. When I was making it I thought it would taste like dates but it tastes like nice lovely chocolate.

Ingredients:
1) 15 dates (deseeded)
2) 2 tablespoon chocolate powder ( I use Cadbury's cocoa powder)
3) Coconut oil (I used parachute - no seriously I did but a pure coconut oil parachute bottle and I use it) but you can use any oil like olive or groundnut oil
4) Dry coconut powder (optional - but I love it)
5) A spoon of wine or rum (optional)
Steps:
1) In a blender blend dates and cocoa powder. I added a little coconut oil for it to be together. Also secret ingredient was a a spoon of wine. You can also add lots of orange zest to it and it will be yummy.

Now this was a problem for me as when I blended the dates were not blending properly. Then Priya suggested that we can microwave it. And I microwaved it for 20 seconds and mashed it with a spoon and it was fine. Maybe my dates weren't soft that's why But make sure the dates are mashed well.

2) Apply some coconut oil in hand and roll small balls of truffles. Roll them on coconut/dark chocolate.

3) You can eat them as soon as you make or refrigerate and eat.