Vegan Strawberry-Rose Truffles #recipe and #giveaway Kim Davis

 

KIM DAVIS:  Even though this is posting the day after Mothers' Day, I wanted to wish everyone a happy Mothers' Day, no matter if your children are human or of the fur-or-feather variety! 

I set out to make an edible gift for a dear friend of mine who recently turned 88, and landed on Strawberry-Rose Truffles. The color is such a pretty shade, plus the delicate flavor and fragrance of the rose water complements the tart-sweet flavor of the strawberries. I knew it would be something she would enjoy. However, a few years ago, her doctor put her on a dairy-free and gluten-free diet, and having never needed to eat differently, she struggled to accept the changes. She misses the tempting sweets and desserts, so I wanted to give her something to satisfy her sweet tooth. It took me a few tries to figure out how to make a vegan truffle (the crushed strawberries add a bit of crispy bite to the candy) and I finally landed on the recipe below. My husband, who must also eat dairy-free, was more than happy to sample and give feedback on the truffles and by the third round, pronounced these really good and he'd be happy for me to make more for him... I suppose I'll be making a batch for Father's Day 😀

Be sure to scroll all the way down to find out how you can win a copy of 
Essentials of Murder!

 

Vegan Strawberry-Rose Truffles

 
Ingredients
 
9 ounces vegan white chocolate chips
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
4 teaspoons rose water
1.5 ounces freeze-dried strawberries
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

 

Instructions

Crush the strawberries using a food processor, blender, or mortar and pestle into a fine powder. There will be some small pieces which is fine. It adds texture to the finished candy. Set aside.

Whisk the coconut oil and rose water together until emulsified. Don’t skip this step, otherwise the white chocolate may seize and become grainy and overly stiff. 

Add the white chocolate to a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in the microwave on 60% power in 20-second intervals. Stir in between each cycle and heat just until barely melted. Do not overheat!

Gently stir in the ground strawberries and coconut oil mixture. Once completely combined, cover with plastic wrap, making sure the entire surface of the white chocolate is covered.

Allow to come to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, then stir. Refrigerate for an additional 5 minutes if the mixture is too soft to roll into balls.

The mixture firms up quickly. If too firm, break into pieces and heat in the microwave at 60% power in 10-second increments until it can easily be scooped.

Using a small tablespoon-sized scoop, form the truffle mixture into balls. Refrigerate for 5 minutes, then roll each ball in confectioners’ sugar until coated.

Serve truffles at room temperature.

Note

If you don’t have to eat vegan, you can make this using regular white chocolate (chips or bars chopped into small pieces).

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF of the recipe!💕

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About the Author:

Kim Davis writes the Aromatherapy Apothecary cozy mystery series, and the award-winning Cupcake Catering cozy mystery series. She has also written several children’s nature articles published in a variety of magazines. Kim Davis is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

She lives in Southern California with her husband and rambunctious mini Goldendoodle, Missy, who has become an inspiration for several plotlines. When she’s not spending time with her granddaughters or chasing Missy around, she can be found either writing on her next book, working on blogs, or in the kitchen baking up yummy treats to share.

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G I V E A W A Y   T I M E !!!

I'm giving away a print copy of Essentials of Murder!

Comment below and include your email (yourname at yourserver dot com) for a chance to win a copy of Essentials of Murder. (Contest ends 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 13, 2026 and is limited to US residents only.)

Readers, do you make edible gifts for friends or family? If so, what is your favorite edible gift to give?

🎁

Happy Mother's Day

Many people probably don't know that Mother's Day was founded in Philadelphia, by Anna Marie Jarvis. Although Miss Jarvis was born in West Virginia in 1864, she left to work briefly in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then she joined her brother in Philadelphia, where she worked for a reputable life insurance company (and became their first female literary and advertising editor). Her mother joined her there in 1904, but lived only another year.

In 1908, Anna Jarvis held a memorial ceremony in West Virginia to honor her mother, as well as all mothers, and that is counted as the date of the first official observance of Mother's Day.

I wouldn't have known any of this, but I spent several years walking past the sign in Center City Philadelphia.

Ladies, did your mother teach you to cook? Did you cook a meal as a treat for her? Or did you cook side by side in the kitchen?

SHEILA CONNOLLY: I give great credit to my mother for introducing me to fresh vegetables in my childhood (at a time when frozen vegetables were becoming popular). I thought artichokes and asparagus were wonderful things, and you could even eat them with your fingers. I wasn't as enthusiastic about avocados. I was cooking simple meals before my teens, but the first full meal I remember cooking for my mother was Thanksgiving 1967--I'd watched her cook a turkey for plenty of years by then.

LESLIE: Sheila, what a great picture of you and your mother! Mine was not much of a cook. I realize now that my father's schedule played a role -- he was a traveling salesman, gone from Monday morning to Friday afternoon, meaning dinner Friday was always some version of a casserole, what she with her Minnesota upbringing called "hot dish." Ground beef, onions, macaroni, a can of tomato soup -- you get the idea. 

But boy, could she bake. My father once told me "If you want to learn to make cake, watch your Aunt Peggy. But for pie, watch your mother." And he was right. (That's her cookbook and rolling pin, now at home in my kitchen.)

At Christmas, following her German heritage, she baked literally a dozen varieties of cookies, taking gift plates all over town. I just finished writing the 5th Food Lovers' Village Mystery, set at Christmas, and it was great fun to channel her when Erin and her friends hold a cookie exchange. (Mr. Right enjoyed testing a few Christmas cookie recipes in April, too!)

DARYL:  Sheila, my mother learned to cook after college. I remember finding letters from her to her grandmother (still have them) boasting that she'd learned to make meat loaf and green jello with fruit inside. [Her meat loaf was great; the jello...I'll pass!]  After that, however, she became a whiz. She was very bright. She could follow a recipe. She had just never learned to cook as a girl because her mother did it all. I fashioned my character Jenna, in the Cookbook Nook Mysteries, after my mother (as far as that trait was concerned). I'm sharing a photo of my mother and my sister, at Christmas. My mom loved to entertain guests, and Christmas was her favorite time. She set out ham and cheese and crackers and then threw together some terrific appetizers. No one went home disappointed. Did she teach me to cook? A bit. I make a mean spaghetti that is her recipe and a great margarita!  LOL. But honestly I learned to cook when my parents divorced, and Mom went to work, and someone had to get food on the table. I became quite good at steak and mac-n-cheese. I could throw together a salad. And I made chocolate chip cream pies to sell to the neighborhood. Happy mother's day to all. May you love them fully if they are still alive; may you remember them fondly if they have passed on, as mine has. 


MARY JANE aka Victoria Abbott  I love these stories of your mothers and your early cooking. Until I was married, I could only make tuna sandwiches and coffee.  My mother was a gifted cook and I wish I had a picture of her in the kitchen, but then she wouldn't have been wearing one of her glam hats. Here we are on Mothers' Day, a million years ago.

 My mother-in-law and Victoria's other grandmother, a girl from the mountains in the north of Italy, went on to become  brilliant in the kitchen and once cooked a meal for the Queen. 

When they would visit us at the same time, they could get into the kitchen and cook AT each other, competitively.  I would just hide out on the sofa reading (and worrying about shrapnel) and enjoy the results.  Victoria and I channeled her Maffini grandmother (who is still alive at 95) and her auntie into our Signora Panetone character. "Eat! What's the matter? You don't like it.  Many of the recipes from both sides are still family favorites.  Mothers' Day always makes me happy/sad.  I hope you all enjoy the day with the mums who are still with you and the happy memories of the ones who aren't.

LUCY: They cooked a meal for the queen?? Wow, MJ, my mother's cooking wouldn't have made it past the back gate LOL. To be fair, it was the 50's, and Mom worked full time and raised four kids. She loved to eat, and made sure we all got fed, but she didn't love to cook. We were all about cans of vegetables, roasts, and potatoes. And Leslie, the same casserole recipe that your mother used! She had some high points in her repertoire, usually involving a great buffet of little sandwiches, fruit, and cookies. And she went all out for Christmas cookies too.

 My hat's off to all these mothers who raised amazing daughters!


Linda:  I'm sensing a bit of a trend here. I don't think my Mom enjoyed cooking although I never asked her. She just made sure we were fed when we needed to be. Sunday after church it was always a roast with mashed potatoes and canned green peas. Most weeknight meals included the necessary potatoes, veggie, often canned cream corn or for a treat -- niblets, and some meat. Unless there was fish. My Dad loved to fish and growing up on the B.C. coast, there were plenty of salmon in those days to oblige him.

Where Mom really shined was Christmas. She'd bake amazing-smelling Swedish cookies and breads in preparation and then on Christmas Eve, our meal would be potatoes, peas, and a Scandinavian delicacy (depending on who you ask -- don't ask my sister!) called Lutefisk. I remember it all with fondness.

I've grown into cooking over the last few years, much as my character, J.J. Tanner has. Although I think she's better at it!

Here's to all our Mom's be they with us in person or in memory. We cherish them. 

Krista: Like Roberta, I'm very interested in hearing the story about cooking for the Queen!

Food and cooking were a very big deal in my family. I remember my father telling my mother that I would never learn to cook if she didn't start teaching me. My mom was a devoted follower of Julia Child and bought all her cookbooks. I didn't start cooking much, though, until I lived on my own.


Someone once said to me that my house was like the United Nations because celebrations

were full of friends from all over the world. My mom and her friends cooked and baked and took great pride in their dishes. They were truly the original domestic divas.

I am very blessed to still have my mom with me. These days I do the cooking and baking, and she seems pretty happy about that. 

To all the moms who are with us, and those whom we remember with such love, Happy Mother's Day!




Peg:  Such fun hearing these stories about your mothers!  My father was very much a meat and salad sort of person (no potatoes even--I think he invented the low carb diet)  but he did love the dishes my mother made that came from her mother--goulash, chicken paprikash, stuffed cabbage (my grandmother was Hungarian.) Dessert was something we only had on special occasions so she didn't do much baking.  

 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

If you have a favorite memory of your mother

we'd love to hear it!

Leave us a comment and we'll choose a winner
(by random number generator)
of two Mystery Lovers' Kitchen recipe packets--
one for you and one for your mother
(or to give as a gift in her memory).