Mint-Carob Truffles--So Good, They Get a Post to Themselves

OK, not quite--the mint truffles have to share a post with this morning's sunrise. But the mint truffles are spectacular too.

This was around 9.30am--a week ago, it would have been pitch dark. It's astonishing and marvelous to me that the light returns so quickly after the solstice. We had a giant full moon too--I got outside just too late to picture it from our southwestern exposure.

As busy as I am right now, I still need some recreational kitchen time. Thanks to those coconut mounds that also got a post to themselves...

...I have also been reminded that even when I have no appetite at all, chocolate and peppermint will "do it" for me. During my crazy insomnia in the run up to the holidays, I was hitting the caffeine pills (bad, bad girl), which I usually know is a bad idea, and which exacerbated my mania at the time, so I needed my ND to remind me all over again of the many reasons why caffeine is a particularly bad idea for me.

Did you know this about chocolate? Apparently, when you consume theobromine and caffeine together (as in coffee and chocolate, a mocha, tirami su), the two of them synergize so that the stimulant effect is greater than the sum of its parts. Worth knowing...

Well, I had a bowl of homemade carob chocolate leftover from this post, and I'd made nut milk again for a special occasion recipe (coming up), so I decided to rework one of my favorite chocolate mint truffles with the carob chocolate. It's super-simple and very low in sugar, and it turned out to have an especially delightful texture-twist.

Mint-Carob Airy Truffles (mostly raw, vegan, gluten free)
8 oz homemade carob chocolate (basically cacao butter, carob, mesquite and a little sweetener and vanilla) Edit from the future: my next post after this one provides a trouble-shot carob recipe.
1/2 cup homemade nut milk of choice (this happened to be almond-hazelnut; my favorite is coconut; any would be lovely!)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Simply melt the chocolate, add the nut milk and peppermint extract, and stir together. Let sit in the fridge (or at room temperature if you live where I do) to firm up a bit, then roll into balls. For me, about 30 balls.

These are a milk-chocolate kind of color because of the mesquite--not as dark as I'd normally go for. But their taste is heavenly.
As for the texture, that is just something else! I don't know how it came out this way, but it's a little more crumbly than a traditional truffle and so airy and light inside, it's like one of those aerated chocolate bars! I wonder whether it came out like that because I had the nut milk cold, rather than room temp, when I added it to the carob chocolate.
Any ideas?

Seriously, I think I like these better than the coconut mounds, and yet they're not addictive! With the coconut mounds, I'd eat one, and of course I'd eat just one because I'm that stubborn, but I'd really really want to eat more than one! With these, I can eat half of one and be blissed out.

Go and make some!
http://wholenewmom.com/traditional-tuesday/traditional-tuesdays-nutritious-and-delicious-january-17-2011/