Name: Lemon White Chocolate Truffles
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 18
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 250g good quality white chocolate; 4 Tbsp heavy cream; ½ Tbsp lemon zest; 1 ½ Tbsp lemon juice; ¾ cup shredded coconut, for rolling

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Decadent lemon white chocolate truffles, full of zesty lemon flavor. Made with white chocolate ganache and fresh lemon tossed in shredded coconut.

These easy white chocolate lemon truffles taste so delicious and, they’re so easy to make! Perfect for white chocolate and lemon lovers. Make them ahead of time and give this lovely treat as an edible gift or on a special occasion.

These are easy no-bake, creamy truffles, and you only need 4 ingredients for these lemony treats.

Ingredients

Just 4 simple ingredients are needed for these lemon chocolate truffles! Find the amounts for the list of ingredients in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

White chocolate – The kind of white chocolate is important. Using a good quality sweet white chocolate is best. I use Whittaker’s white chocolate. Do not use compound white chocolate.
Heavy cream – a heavy whipping cream (or pouring cream) is used. This helps to melt chocolate and creates a smooth and biteable truffle.
Fresh lemons – both zest and fresh lemon juice are used in this recipe.
Shredded coconut – the truffles are rolled in shredded coconut at the end. The coconut works so well with the lemon and gives an almost tropical touch.

White chocolate truffles

If you’ve made homemade truffles with dark chocolate ganache before, you might notice that a lot less cream is needed for white chocolate ganache truffles. White chocolate doesn’t set as hard as dark chocolate so you need less cream to be able to scoop it.

These truffles use a small amount of cream compared to chocolate because I wanted white chocolate truffles that were stable enough to be rolled and coated in coconut, without the need for a coating of chocolate around them. You can also roll them in icing sugar.

White chocolate truffles use a ratio of about 4:1 of white chocolate to cream. Once set the truffles will be perfectly biteable with a creamy texture, but firm enough to hold their shape.

lemon white chocolate ganache in a glass bowl

Equipment

These truffles are the easiest to make in the microwave. Usually, when making a chocolate ganache, the cream is heated and poured over the chocolate, then left to sit. This melts the chocolate. However, for this recipe, there is only a small amount of cream so it needs a bit of extra help when it comes to heating the chocolate.

Once the hot cream mixture is poured over the chocolate, it can be microwaved in small 5-10 second increments in a heat-safe bowl to further melt the chocolate.

Alternatively, you can use a double boiler to create a hot water bath to help melt the chocolate.

cream being poured over chopped chocolate

Lemon infused cream

There’s both lemon zest and lemon juice in these lemon truffles.

The lemon zest is used while the cream is being heated. Adding the zest to the cream while it’s being heated helps to infuse extra lemon flavor.

Once the cream is ready to be poured over the chocolate, the lemon zest can be sieved out or left in. I usually leave the zest in, as it adds extra pops of lemon flavor throughout the truffle. For an extra lemony kick, you could add in a few drops of lemon oil, but I find the fresh lemon flavor is best.

Step-by-step instructions

Making the ganache

Chop the white chocolate up into small pieces. This makes it much easier to melt.

In a small saucepan, gently warm the cream along with the lemon zest. Let it come to a simmer, don’t boil it. Straight away take it off the heat.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. If you want to remove the lemon zest from the cream, pour it through a sieve when pouring it over the chocolate.

Place the bowl in the microwave in increments of about 10 seconds, folding it together gently after each time until most of the chocolate has melted.

Keep stirring until the chocolate has melted and incorporated with the cream.

If you have no microwave, balance the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water on low heat. Gently fold the chocolate and cream together until incorporated.

While the mixture is still warm, stir through the lemon juice.

Chilling the ganache

Pour the ganache into a flat dish and place it in the refrigerator to cool. The flat dish will allow the ganache to cool and firm up faster.

Leave it to chill for around 2 hours. At this stage, it will be still fairly soft but firm enough to begin rolling.

Use a small spoon or small cookie scoop to scoop up small amounts of the lemon truffle mixture and roll it quickly in between your hands to form a ball. Coat each ball in shredded coconut or powdered sugar and place them on a plate or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Work quickly as the warmth of your hands will melt the ganache. If too much white chocolate mixture gets stuck to your hands, wash them in between rolling to make things easier or dust them with powdered sugar. If you’re making truffles in a warm environment you may need to chill the ganache again in between rolling.

Chilling the truffles

Place the finished truffles back in the fridge and let them chill for a further 3-4 hours until firmed up.

Storing

The truffles will hold their shape at room temperature but they have a longer storage time in the refrigerator.

At room temperature, the truffle can be stored for up to 4 days in an airtight container, while in the refrigerator it can be stored for up to 2 weeks.

Additions and substitutions

These easy lemon truffles can be tweaked to suit your tastes.

Try them with –

lime, orange, or yuzu instead of lemon to make yuzu truffles, orange truffles or lime truffles
dip them in chocolate instead of the shredded coconut. Either more white chocolate or a coating of dark chocolate
Roll them in flaked almonds or other nuts for a little crunch.

a plate of lemon truffles, one with a bite out of it

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