This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles – the perfect sweet treat to give as a holiday present. Easy to make, they are naturally sweetened with dates, loaded with fiber from the hazelnuts, sweet-tart flavor from the cranberries, fresh and light citrusy orange taste and rich chocolate flavor from the cacao powder. These truffles are healthy, low fat and sinfully delicious!

Raw Date And Orange Hazelnut Holiday Truffles
Raw Date And Orange Hazelnut Holiday Truffles

Hi everyone! Happy Monday!

With just 3 days away from Thanksgiving, I’m really excited to start getting ready for Christmas! It is my number one favorite holiday and I’m very excited to start Christmas shopping and of course Christmas cooking.

Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles
Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles

Every year around the holidays, I kind of get in a “diet mood” and try to eat healthy, light foods for at least a week before they start. I know that I will not be able to keep myself away from all the good stuff on Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I try to loose a few pounds before that. It works well for me and after all I don’t feel guilty for eating too much Pumpkin Roll  or cupcakes.

You know I love baking sweet treats, but today’s recipe is really simple, absolutely no baking involved. These raw date and orange holiday truffles are soft, rich and have slight orange flavor. I decided to call them “holiday” truffles, since for some reason I associate orange flavor with Christmas.

Raw Date And Orange Christmas Truffles
Raw Date And Orange Christmas Truffles

These truffles take only 15 minutes to make, but need to be chilled for at least 15 more, because dough is a little sticky. You only need 6 ingredients and a food processor. If for some reason you don’t have a food processor handy, you can try to finely chop the nuts and mash dates with a fork and you’ll still be able to make good truffles, just remember that the texture will not be very smooth.

The inspiration or this recipe came after I saw a Raw Chocolate Orange Bars recipe on Helen’s Blog Scrummy Lane. Her 5 Ingredient Raw Chocolate Orange Bars looked awesome, healthy and easy to make and I decided to give them a try. I knew from the beginning, that I was making truffles, not bars, because I just like the idea of small bites. Of course I adjusted the recipe to my taste and I’m really happy with the results. I guess you can’t go wrong with the chocolate- orange combination.

Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles
Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles

I wanted to make these raw chocolate orange truffles with cashews, but when I was getting ready to start making them, I realized I was out of raw cashews. Of course I had raw hazelnuts at home. I always have some in my pantry, since I’m from Europe (originally) and hazelnuts are very popular there, and more important they are my favorite nuts! And after replacing cashews in this recipe with hazelnuts, then I made one more adjustment. Since these are holiday, “Christmas” truffles, I used dried cranberries in them. The cranberries I used are sweetened with fruit juice, and did not make my truffles overly sweet, which was perfect!

Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles
Raw Date And Orange Truffles

After you make the dough for your truffles, I recommend using a small cookie scoop (or even a measuring tablespoon) to scoop out  truffles with the same size. Then you roll them into balls and chill them for at least 15 minutes.

These raw date and orange holiday truffles taste pretty good on their own, but if you’d like to bring them to a holiday party or even wrap them up and give them as a Christmas present, I recommend that you decorate them. I rolled some of mine in cacao powder and some in Christmas sprinkles, to give them the desired holiday look.

Raw Chocolate Orange Truffles
Raw Chocolate Orange Truffles

I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did!

Thanks for reading CookingLSL! To stay up on what’s going on in my kitchen, you can follow me on:
Pinterest
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
and sign up for e-mail updates, to receive more recipes (link in the sidebar).
 
Want to save this recipe?
Just enter your email and get it sent to your inbox! Plus you’ll get new recipes from us every week!
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Raw Date And Orange Christmas Truffles. Healthy, vegan and gluten free, Christmas truffles in a bowl, with white, red and green sprinkles.
4.86 from 7 votes

Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles

By Lyubomira from CookingLSL
Raw Date And Orange Holiday Truffles – healthy, gluten free and delicious! Perfect to wrap as a gift for Christmas!
Prep: 15 minutes
Total: 15 minutes
Servings: 12

Video

Ingredients 

  • 1 medium orange zested and juiced
  • 12 medium Medjool dates pits removed
  • 2 oz (57 gr) dried cranberries
  • 5 oz (142 gr) raw hazelnuts (or any raw nuts of your choice)
  • 1 oz (25 gr) raw cacao powder
  • 1 tsp coconut oil melted
  • optional- 1/2 tsp orange liqueur of your choice

Decoration:

  • any holiday cookie sprinkles of your choice and cacao powder

Instructions 

  • Line a plate or baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • In a medium bowl combine dates, cranberries and half of the orange juice. Let them soak for 10-15 minutes.
  • In a food processor (powerful blender) combine hazelnuts and the rest of the orange juice and process until nuts are finely chopped.
  • Transfer chopped hazelnuts to a bowl.
  • Process soaked dates, cranberries and orange juice for 1 minute.
  • Combine date-cranberry mixture with hazelnut mixture. Add cacao powder, coconut oil, orange zest and liqueur (optional). Mash everything together until a homogenous mixture is formed.
  • Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out balls from the dough, then roll them by hand and place on prepared baking sheet (plate) lined with parchment paper. Chill for 15 minutes.
  • Take out of the fridge and roll truffles in toppings of your choice. (I used cacao powder and Christmas sprinkles).
  • Keep truffles in an air tight container, refrigerated.

Nutrition

Calories: 156kcal, Carbohydrates: 23g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Potassium: 307mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 17g, Vitamin A: 60IU, Vitamin C: 7.2mg, Calcium: 36mg, Iron: 1.1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Tried this recipe?Mention @cookinglsl or tag #cookinglsl!
 
raw-date-orange-holiday-truffles
And I have a very exciting Giveaway going on: Pay Your Holiday Bills Worldwide Giveaway ($700 Paypal Cash or Amazon).
 
Cash-Giveaway
 

You May Also Like:

Hi! I'm Mira.

I share simple, mostly low-carb and Keto recipes, that don't take a lot of time to make and use mostly seasonal, easy to find ingredients. I'm a supporter of healthy eating, but you'll also find some indulgent treats too.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

64 Comments

  1. Ohhhh they look SO CUTE! Can you believe I’ve never had date truffles before? I need to try ’em ASAP! 🙂

  2. Mira, I’m so happy that you liked my bars enough to put your own Christmas spin on them! You’ve definitely convinced me to make truffles with my mixture next time I make some. I love the idea of adding some alcohol, too …. delicious!

    1. I definitely saw those chocolate orange bars of Helen’s and they got the wheels spinning in my brain. I can’t believe things like chocolate bars and truffles can actually be pretty healthy overall. What will you marvelous ladies come up with next?!? Gasp. I love how you sweetened these with medjool dates Mira, I’ve heard they are absolutely delicious and sweet and everything wonderful, I need to brave the grocery store today to get some! Beautiful photo’s as always =)

      1. Thanks Laura, I’m glad you like these! I’ve recently discovered Medjool dates and they work perfectly for healthy chocolate bars and truffles 🙂

  3. I love the Christmas-y touch you made to this! They look so beautiful and delicious! Pinned!

  4. These truffles sounds delicious. Must be very flavorful with orange flavor. Have tried some dates truffles before, with white chocolate. Delicious as well.

  5. These look so delicious….but what do you do with the melted coconut oil? Am I missing this when I read the recipe?
    Thanks.
    Pauline.

    1. Thanks for stopping by Pauline! Sorry I just corrected it- you add the coconut oil to the nut/date mixture, it makes balls moist and soft.

  6. Hi Mira, how are you?

    I love truffles, and these ones besides beautiful they might be too delicious. I like this recipe a lot.

    xo