Mellowcreme Hot Chocolate Truffles

My mother and I cleaned out the pantry last week. It's a scary project, with a 4 foot wide, 10-foot tall, very deep beast set into the wall to contend with. Things get lost in there, or my stepdad will stash strange (to me and mom, at least) Italian canned goods and ridiculous amounts of "junk food (namely tortilla chips, peanut butter pretzels and queso dips) that never see light of day. For some reason we also came across a single packet of instant hot cocoa mix, which neither of us saw ourselves drinking before the expiration date. When I turned to my "baker's cabinet" and found that I still had some candy corn left over, along with a piddly bit of coconut, I remembered a recipe I had pinned ages ago from the blog My Man's Belly.

Pamela had the brilliant idea of melting down the mellowcreme with a few other goodies, making balls and coating them in chocolate. I was feeling too lazy to do the whole melting chocolate and dipping thing, so I decided to just coat the balls in a cocoa/icing sugar mix instead. In place of the powdered sugar and cherries in the original, I used the hot chocolate mix and coconut. Without the half and half, I simply used almond milk (which is what I drink), but since the candy corn isn't vegan (and neither is the cocoa mix) it was purely for convenience. I think you could probably use any liquid you cared to, and since these ones used coconut and coconut oil, a dash of coconut milk or cream would have been great too!

Finally, to make the "hot" chocolate flavour pop, I added a dash of my current favourite chili pepper - ancho - which added a little "pique" without setting your mouth on fire!

Mellowcreme Hot Chocolate Truffles 
Makes 15
1 cup candy corn
1 tsp virgin coconut oil
1 tbsp almond milk
¼ cup fine-shred unsweetened coconut
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 (28g) packet hot chocolate mix (or make your own - I love Frugal Mama's)
¼ tsp ancho chili powder
1 tbsp cocoa + some for dusting
1 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting

1. Melt the candy corn and coconut oil together in the microwave (30 second intervals, stirring in between).
2. Add the almond milk, coconut, icing sugar, hot chocolate mix, chili powder and cocoa, stirring well.
3. Scrape onto a sheet of waxed paper and smooth into a uniformly thick, rectangular layer.
4. Cool until you can handle the dough, then cut it into equal sized cubes.
5. With greased or icing-sugar coated hands, roll each cube into a ball and and place in a plastic zip-top bag.
6. Add the cocoa and the icing sugar, seal the bag and shake to coat the balls completely.
7. Re-distribute the balls in one layer (keep them in the bag) and place in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes to firm up.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 65.0
Total Fat: 0.9 g
Cholesterol: 0.1 mg
Sodium: 28.9 mg
Total Carbs: 14.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
Protein: 0.2 g