45 Calorie Chocolate Truffles-Stevia in the Raw Review and Giveaway

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No, you don't need glasses, you totally read that right. These chocolate truffles are deliciously decadent AND they are only 45 calories a piece! Woot! I seriously feel like I found the holy grail of chocolate truffle recipes. And the reason for this recipe's waist line approving awesomeness is its secret ingredient...Stevia! Stevia In The Raw, to be exact.

Stevia In The Raw is a 100% natural, zero-calorie sweetener. Have you ever tried it before? This was the first time I have ever used it, and I was pleasantly surprised with the ooey gooey, melt-in-your-mouth results. Stevia is a natural extract from the leaves of the Stevia plant. You can substitute Stevia in most recipes that call for sugar a well as to sweeten up hot or cold drinks. So basically, happy taste buds + happy waistline = happy dance!

I was sent a few In The Raw products and asked by the In The Raw company to try out some of their Au Natural recipes from their website. P.S. Can I tell you how great their recipe archive is!

Since I love to have treats on hand when we host play dates, I thought these Chocolate Truffles were the perfect thing to make for a play date we hosted for friends last week. I think you'll like them too, especially the low-calorie aspect thanks to Stevia In The Raw.

Chocolate Truffles (makes 36 Truffles)

6 oz dark or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup heavy cream

3 packets of Stevia In The Raw

1 tsp pure vanilla (or 2 tsp orange liqueur, brandy, or rum)

3 tablespoons unsweetened ground chocolate or natural cocoa powder

Heat cream and Stevia In The Raw in small saucepan over medium heat until bubbles appear around the edge, or microwave until cream is almost boiling. With chocolate in a medium sized bowl, pour half of the hot cream over chocolate and stir slowly until chocolate is melted, about 2-3 minutes. Add remaining cream, vanilla or other flavoring, stir gently until mixture is blended and silky. Cool truffle mixture to lukewarm, about 20 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chocolate is firm, 4 hours up to 24 hours.

Line jelly roll pan with wax paper. Take cold truffle mixture from refrigerator and scoop in generous teaspoons. Roll chocolate into a ball and place on baking sheet. If truffle mixture gets too soft return to refrigerator until firm again. May need to rinse hands with cold water and dry them after 10-12 truffles. Cover rolled truffles loosely with foil and chill until firm, 1-2 hours, or up to 3 days.

To serve, place ground chocolate or cocoa powder in a small bowl and roll truffles until well coated. Serve immediately, or cover with foil and refrigerate up to 4 hours. Serve directly from refrigerator.

Per Serving ( 2 Truffles): 90 calories, 9 g fat (5 g saturated fat), 6 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, <1 5="5" dietary="dietary" fiber="fiber" g="g" mg="mg" p="p" sodium="">

Recipe adapted from In The Raw website

For this recipe you can use dark chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, just try your hardest to get premium chocolate...the good stuff...so your truffles are truly decadent in flavor!

I used Stevia In The Raw in bulk, not the packets. So I used about 1 1/2 tsp of Stevia In The Raw to equal the 3 packets. I thought the truffles were just the right amount of sweet with this, you could always add more but remember you can't take it away!

First, chop your chocolate up and place it in a medium size bowl, set aside.

Heat your heavy cream and Stevia In The Raw in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbles start to form around the edge.

Then pour 1/2 of the warm heavy cream/Stevia In The Raw into the chocolate and mix until the chocolate is melted.

Once your chocolate is melted, add in the rest of the heavy cream, vanilla or other flavoring you have chosen and mix until the chocolate is nice and silky. Let cool in the refrigerator for 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

Once the chocolate is firm, scoop it into generous sized teaspoons and roll it into balls. Place them on a lined jelly roll pan.

Rows of chocolatey heaven, I tell you!

Cover the truffles loosely with foil and chill until firm, 1-2 hours or up to 3 days.

To serve, place your cocoa powder into a small dish and roll each truffle until they are well coated.
These get melty quick, so either serve them immediately or put them right back in the fridge until you are ready to eat them.

Seriously so good. Truffle-y goodness, oh yeah!

So I took this picture of my goodies and uploaded it to the 'Au Natural In The Raw' App via Facebook to pixelate my image. This is a neat new app they have to help you show off your delicious creations as we all know we love to take pictures of the food we make and share it with our friends and family. Food photography using In The Raw products are so Au Natural they are too hot for the web, get it? Hahaha!

And here is my pixelated image. Oh, now doesn't that look so hot it's deliciously obscene? When you go to the app to upload a photo you can give just the right amount of coverage to your Au Natural photos and you will also be able to view all the other cool food pictures uploaded and pixelated there as well. There is a slider at the top of the gallery where you can unpixelate the images so you can see what foods are hiding behind that mysteriously sexy coverage.

Don't you want to try this now too? Head on over to the 'Au Natural In The Raw' App here, and give your food photography just the right amount of coverage, it's fun!

Okay, now for the giveaway! Go and visit the In The Raw website, here, and leave me a comment telling me which recipe you'd like to make for your chance to win a $100 Cooking.com gift card.

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

"b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the

following unique term in your tweet message: ""#SweepstakesEntry""; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post"

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 9/10/12-9/30/12.

Be sure to visit the In The Raw page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggersí reviews and find more chances to win!

XOXO,