Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I love chocolate and peanut butter, separately, together, it doesn’t really matter. So I was devastated this week when I found out that soon, probably this week, I would need to go on a low oxalate diet; chocolate and peanut butter are two of the foods not allowed. 

This is the story of how it all went down. If you aren’t interested in my medical issues, just scroll on down to the delicious truffle recipe. 

It all started this week when my nephrologist was analyzing a urine sample I had dropped off at his request that morning. Around noon he asks me to immediately come to the hospital to get a CT scan; my urine had tiny crystals of oxalate suggesting I had a kidney stone. Half an hour later, the doctor is giving me literature on kidney stones, a fun funnel to strain my urine, a prescription and a low oxalate diet guide. Then he sends me down to radiology for my scan and I’m sent home. 

A few hours later the doctor calls to tell me I definitely have a small kidney stone. He tells me there is some underlying GI issue/syndrome that has caused my kidney stone, and quite possibly my gall stones back in 2009. As to what this undiagnosed issue is, he is unsure, but he will be discussing it with my GI doctor. Also, this stone is not causing my daily chronic pain, but it probably accounts for the severe night pain attacks I suffer where my body temp drops, I break out into a cold sweat, and it feels like someone is squeezing all the air out of me. 

 I admit I’m extremely nervous about passing this stone; I hear it can be quite painful. I’m drinking all kinds of fluids, juice, water, tea, Gatorade, even adding lemon to help breakup the stone and hurry along the process. I’ve got a bottle of painkillers within arm’s reach for when the pain starts. I just hate the waiting and not knowing when it will be over. 

Once I pass the stone, they will analyze it while I start on the low oxalate diet. Basically, all the foods I eat and love are going to be forbidden to me: green leafy veggies, sweet potatoes, whole wheat, berries, eggplant, chocolate, peanut butter, walnuts (any nuts), chai tea, etc. How could healthy eating cause a kidney stone? I don't understand. I have no idea what I’m going to eat. I’d just go back to being vegan, except soy and soy products are on the list of foods to avoid. But I’m used to rearranging my diet due to my GI issues, so I will just have to sit down and plan my meals more carefully. Until then I’m stuffing myself with all my food favorites, including these truffles. 

  

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles 

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8 oz unsweetened chocolate 8 oz semisweet chocolate 

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat free) 

~3-4 Tbl peanut butter (I used natural) 

1 Tbl bourbon vanilla 

 

toppings, coatings: 

Dark chocolate chips or wafers, for melting and dipping 

Cocoa powder, for rolling 

coarse sea salt sprinkles

finely chopped nuts 

In a 4 qt glass measuring cup, add semisweet and bittersweet chocolates along with the can of sweetened condensed milk. Microwave (on defrost setting) in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. (Or melt over a double broiler). 

 Once chocolate is melted, stir in the peanut butter and vanilla. Since natural peanut butter is naturally kinda runny, it mixed in fine. (If using a brand like JIF or Skippy, I’d melt the peanut butter before stirring it in). 

At this point you can put the mixture in the fridge for a couple hours. 

Roll into balls and dip in melted chocolate. Or roll into cocoa powder. Or both, whatever. 

Since I wanted mine to be heart shaped, I buttered an 8x8 glass dish and pressed the mixture evenly into the bottom. After setting up in the fridge I used various sized heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out shapes. I gathered up the scraps and repressed them into the dish until I had used up all the chocolate. With the little bit left over that I couldn’t squish out I rolled into a few balls.

I rolled some of my truffles in cocoa powder, sprinkled some with sea salt, but mostly I just topped with some heart shaped sprinkles because that was easiest for me to do since I had other treats I needed to make. Source: adapted from the Pioneer Woman