These adorable little body truffles make fantastic gifts, though I would definitely advise informing recipients of their non-edible nature sooner rather than later. A core of creamy peppermint-spiked unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) is encased in silky smooth cocoa butter, making for a rather lovely treat for the skin.
I’ve selected unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) for the cores of these truffles, but any reasonably soft, malleable at room temperature butter will work. I do recommend choosing one that has been deodorized, though, as we want the cocoa butter scent to really shine through. Alternatively, you could choose a soft butter with a scent you feel compliments cocoa butter (I have yet to find one I’d recommend for this purpose, though, as coconut oil melts far too quickly to be shaped or coated).
There are several different ways to form the creamy core into a dip-able shape. You can simply roll the butter into rounds or form it into small discs with your hands. You could use a set of small chocolate moulds, or you could pour a sheet of the unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), let it set, and cut it into shapes or squares with a knife or cookie cutters. Whatever shape you choose, I’d recommend something on the smaller side—something vaguely truffle-sized.
The chocolatey coating has to be cocoa butter, of course. I’d recommend dark cocoa butter for the maximum effect, but if you don’t have it, white cocoa butter will do nicely. You could also swirl the two. I’ve added a touch of carnauba wax to the cocoa butter to raise its melting point slightly (it’s fairly low at 34°C) and to add some gloss to the “candy” coating.
The whole process is a bit more time consuming than making a typical body butter, but the results are well worth it. Most of the time is spent waiting for things to melt or chill, and I found the hands on bits pretty darn fun 🙂 Give ’em a go, I think you’ll love them for gifts!
Creamy Cocoa Body Truffles
100g | 3.5oz refined shea butter, melted
30 drops peppermint essential oil60g | 2.1oz dark cocoa butter or pale cocoa butter + 1/64 tsp dark brown iron oxide
3g | 0.1oz carnauba waxWeigh the unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) into a small heat resistant glass measuring cup and melt over a double boiler. Once it’s melted, remove the measuring cup from the heat and stir in the peppermint essential oil. Up next, chill in the fridge until solid.
Using a 1 tsp spoon, scoop up the chilled unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) and quickly roll it into balls (it’ll start to melt, so be fast). Set on a parchment lined tray and freeze.
The next day, melt the cocoa butter and carnauba wax together over a double boiler. Remove from the heat and let cool, stirring relatively frequently. We’re looking for the stage where it’s relatively thick and silky—not-quite-pudding like consistency.
Once the cocoa butter is thick and glossy, drop the frozen unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) balls into it one at a time, turning to coat, and then scooping them out and placing them back on the parchment.
Once all the balls are coated, place them back in the freezer to set up.
You can store and gift these at room temperature (provided that’s around 21°C [70°F]), but they melt quickly upon contact with the skin. They look lovely wrapped in some cellophane, just be sure recipients know not to eat them 😉
These look delicious! It would be hard not to have a taste!
Thanks, Linda! I think you’d change your mind pretty quickly after you had a taste 😛
Hi, new to this site and going to try the truffle body butters, they look great. I bought the ingredients and also bought some cocoa chocolate, it looks identical to the dark cocoa butter and says not to be consumed. Is it the same stuff? If not, what can I use it for?
Hey Andrea! It does sound like the same stuff; do you have a link to a product page I could check out?
OMG, Marie! These are simply yummy looking and tempting to taste 🙂 The only hesitation I had by looking at them is the color of coating – it seems a little too dark. if you rub it – I guess it’s brown like chocolate and leave stains, right? I would make a slight modification to this recipe – whit cocoa and dark cocoa butter in half, to make still truffles looking but with less color. What do you think? Will they be less dramatic looking? Anyway, the recipe is so inspirational! Thank you!
Hi Veronika! I have suuuuuper pale skin and don’t have any staining issues. Cocoa butter is quite thin, so it’s easily massaged into the skin and the colour vanishes. You could do half and half, but I’ve found the resulting colour to be sort of grey/brown and unappealing looking.
Marie I agree! These look so yummy, You are a whiz at developing formulas and having them look great! Thank you for sharing with us!
Thanks, Sherri! Enjoy 🙂
OMG!!!! Seriously????
I have to try this!!
Enjoy!
I find the truffle chocolate “coating” to be a bit too black for my taste. How would I go about lightening it and how grams of white cocoa butter would I need? BTW, I was thinking of making a Ferraro Rocher inspired scrub ball.
I think you can use regular cocoa butter and add cocoa powder. That would be a good alternative. Or even dust the tops or roll the entire truffle in cocoa powder…
Marie I can’t wIt to try this!!!!
I would be quite concerned about the solubility of cocoa powder in cocoa butter—soaps I’ve made with it have had a nice grit to them that makes for a nice touch of exfoliation in a bar of soap, but likely wouldn’t be so nice in a body butter truffle. Do some tests if you decide to go this way 🙂
Can I sub beeswax for carnauba wax?
In this case you can, but you won’t get the same hard, glossy finish.
I wouldn’t recommend diluting the dark cocoa butter with light—I’ve found the resulting colour to be a sort of insipid greyish brown that’s not all that lovely. If you don’t like it, I’d just go all white and use white cocoa butter.
Just got so hungry…haha Looks bomb! Such a creative idea!!
😀 Thanks!
So now that I’ve added dark cocoa butter to my shopping list– I have to make these for my sister that lives in town. She adores shea butter and besides body butter, this would be just the thing. I think I’ll do them in both regular and dark chocolate to mix it up a bit and to remind her not to eat them. This is just gorgeous!
Enjoy ’em! I can’t wait to gift them this Christmas 🙂
Do you use the body truffles like you would use whipped body butter? Does the dark coating stain your skin at all?
I just glide them across my skin and rub the oil/butter in. The dark cocoa butter can leave some dark streaks with direct application, but once you rub it in there’s nothing left as far as colour goes, even on my pasty skin!
These do look delicious and yummy! My concern is they will probably melt in my temperature in South America. I wonder if a little beeswax is incorporated how well it will affect its melting point?
The melting point for these to totally liquify will be in the high 30’s, but you might find they’re quite soft in the low 30’s. You could try adding some beeswax to the shea butter filling and extra carnauba wax to the cocoa coating, but it’s hard for me to recommend amounts as my familiarity with these ingredients is based on an ambient temperature of about 21°C.
And you’ll give the recipient some real truffles, too, right? Because these look so yummy I’d have to munch on something immediately if I saw them in person.
That’s probably a good idea… just make sure the labels are super clear! 😉
This sound heavenly, where can I purchase dark cocoa butter?
Saffire Blue carries it—the link is above in the big box 😉
I can make real truffles. But do I want to make real truffles after making these goodies? I might have to make the real truffles first. LOL Then make these so I can eat the real ones because I’ll be so tempted. 😀
Ha! Just don’t mix them up 😉
So, this may be a silly question, but how do you use them? Do you cut/squish them and use a cut side to rub on the skin? Do you just use the whole thing like a lotion bar?
Hi Marissa! I’ve been gliding them across my skin and massaging them in 🙂 You can cut ’em in half if you like, but you definitely don’t have to.
I just discovered your site and fell in love with this idea! Thanks for sharing it. I am non my way to try it out. 🙂
Welcome, Lise! I look forward to DIYing with you 🙂
I tried making these but the cocoa butter coating kept slipping off. What am I doing wrong?
Hmm. Did you change anything? Make any substitutions?
Hello Marie! This looks awesome as always 🙂 I was just wondering how many body “truffles” does this make? I’m trying to figure out if buying the dark cocoa butter is worth it lol 😛 Thanks!
Hey Alana! That is entirely dependant on how big you make ’em, so it’s impossible for me to say. That said, dark cocoa butter is definitely not worth the purchase—just make your own by adding a wee bit of brown iron oxide or cocoa powder to normal cocoa butter 🙂
How does this only have 38 comments?! I’m probably never going to make these but I clicked on it anyway because it was so pretty. I think this thumbnail and the one for your whipped shea meringue are the best prettiest ones.
Ha! Thanks, Mylan 😀
Marie, do you have a video of this particular DIY – the cocoa body truffles?
Many thanks, Anuradha
I don’t—videos are always very clearly linked inside the blog post with big buttons and the like 🙂