Secret Recipe Club September: Kind-of-Raw Protein Truffles

Time for another Secret Recipe Club recipe - and this one is special, as this will be the last one from my side.
I joined the club a year ago and have found so many great new blogs and recipes to try, and it's been really fun participating - but I have to realize that I have started to find it a bit of a problem with the fixed posting date, taking time to comment on other posts etc. - this takes out some of the fun for me, and it is not fair to my group members that I don't get the commenting and appreciating done.
So without going into further details, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all the amazing people behind the club - Amanda who started the club,  Angie who was my hostess from the beginning, and to Debbi who took over from Angie a few months back - and the other hostesses and all the members. You have all done a great job and you can be proud of how the club works today. I hope you will continue for many months and years, and I will still be stopping by "my" group C on reveal days, to see what they are up to.

That being said - moving on to my blog-buddy this month, which is We Heart Vegan.
The women befind this blog are Brittany and Julie - I haven't been able to establish what their connection is, so I am just guessing friends :-)
This blog is (surprise) about vegan food, and has a lot of delicious and healthy looking recipes. Being vegan is something that I could never have understood just a couple of months ago - but after turning to a more or less low carb diet, and discovering raw food, I have to say that the idea is not as strange to me now, as before.
However, I could not live without bacon and the perfect steak, so vegan I will never be - but I respect and admire the people who are.

Considering the fact that refined sugar and wheat/grains have been almost removed from my diet, I had to find something that would fit into our ordinary meal plan - and when I came across the Raw Protein Truffles, I knew this was it.
I did make a few changes to the recipe - first of all, since I didn't have any protein powder at the time. I replaced it with almond flour and coconut flour, and also added a bit of Husk - but unfortunately, it turned the dough a bit crumbly, and I had to add some liquid to be able to form balls.
Also, I didn't have any maca powder, so I used yacon powder instead - and finally I omitted the cranberries, as I didn't have any.

Here is (almost) my version of the Raw Protein Truffles.

Kind-of-Raw Protein Truffles:
adapted from We Heart Vegan

Walnuts after 1 hour of soaking -
kind of scary how dark the water is!

1/3 cup coconut butter/creamed coconut (I used homemade)
4 tbsp protein powder, neutral or vanilla
2 tbsp chia seeds
pinch of salt
1 tbsp yacon powder (instead of maca powder - you could also use palm sugar for a sweet taste - I have to say that I have never tasted maca, so I don't know how it compares)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup walnuts, soaked in warm salted water for preferably 7-8 hours, but mine had to do with 4
2/3 cup raisins

This is not sand - but dough

1 cup almond (or other nut) butter

Mix coconut butter, protein powder, chia seeds, salt, yacon powder, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts and raisins in a food processor or blender till the mixture is crumbly, like coarse sand.
Transfer the "sand" to a large mixing bowl, add the almond butter and mix well.
Leave it in the fridge for an hour or two until it is firm enough to make small balls of approx. 2 tbsp each.
If you want, roll the balls in shredded coconut or serve them as is.
Or - you could use the dough as crust in a raw cake! Which I actually ended up deciding to do, so I only made a few truffles to show for SRC, and the rest of the dough has been frozen in a springform, until I am going to use it in a few weeks.

Conclusion:

The truffles taste really good, and they are full of stuff that is good for you when you need a little healthy snack, or when you want an alternative to candy full of sugar.
I don't know yet how the dough will work as cake crust, but I am sure it will be great, as long as I find something nice to fill it with.
Thanks to Brittany and Julie for a great recipe - it was fun making it :-)

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