About Orange Creamsicle Truffles
This little food blog has been helping me learn to cook for the past two years, but even before then, I was all about cursing Pinterest for new recipes. I’d get lost in my feed for hours, just scrolling and scrolling, saving every photo that looked somewhat edible for that one day where I could schedule in “All The Time In The World” to make “The Very Best Recipes From Pinterest.”
But alas, that never happened. Because like most Pinterest users, I only made a fraction of the recipes I saved. And of those recipes, I had more than my fair share of epic fails.
Thank goodness an old friend of mine is a good sport and will eat just about anything.
However, there were a few recipes that stood out during these “dark times” of my culinary experience. Some of those recipes I still make to this day.
Like these adorably delicious orange creamsicle truffles, for example.
I still remember the first time I made these truffles, way back before we bought our first house. I was making them for a party, and had already bragged told everyone I would be doing it… so, of course, when it was time to get to cooking, I wanted nothing more than to back out of it. I was buckling under the pressure.
I mean, I was doing everything right. Like a good little cook, I had all the ingredients spread out before me, and all of my tools were within reach… and yet, there I stood in the middle of my kitchen, eyeing the oranges and my brand new zester.
I was completely at a loss. I had never zested a fruit before.
Actually, this whole scenario makes for a great analogy for how I seem to stumble through life. Don’t know how to do something? That’s okay, let’s make a bunch of promises I don’t know if I can keep and wing it on the fly.
Sure, this could end badly. But it could also end up outstandingly awesome.
I’m happy to say that this story ends with the latter of the two, because after a few YouTube videos I was zesting my way to glory.
And despite all my trepidation, these truffles were easy. Zesting the fruit is probably the hardest part, I’m sure many of you already know how easy that actually is.
When I first made these truffles, I made two batches: the first one I included the orange zest in the truffles (because I didn’t read the directions properly) and the second batch I made sure to not include them.
Everyone at the party seemed to like both types of truffles, but I’d still recommend not including the zest. The texture and taste is more consistent with what you’d expect a creamsicle. The recipe instructions are also written this way.
So there you have it! A super easy creamsicle treat that still has the appeal of a fancy confectionery.
Can you coat these truffles in chocolate instead?
Yes, you totally can!
Many readers have done this and have talked about it in the comments. Scroll down to see what they thought.
To coat the truffles in chocolate, I’d recommend forming them into balls first, freezing them, and then coating them in melted chocolate.
Notes & tips for these orange truffles
- For these truffles, I highly recommend using Ghirardelli brand chocolate. Time and time again, it always works best for me!
- Love orange creamsicles? Then you might also like this Orange Creamsicle Cocktail or these
More great candy recipes
How to make orange truffles
This next part is only a photo tutorial of the recipe steps. If you’re looking for the full recipe measurements and instructions, scroll down to Recipe Details.
Step 1 – To start off, add the chopped white chocolate to a container you can seal (like Tupperware). Also have a mesh strainer and a spatula handy.
Step 2 – In a small saucepan, melt the butter, then toss in the orange zest. Stir occasionally until the butter starts to bubble, then cook for one minute, stirring constantly.
Step 3 – While continuing to stir, add the whipping cream to the saucepan. Cook for another one or two minutes or until bubbles begin to form along the edges; you don’t want the cream to boil or it will burn. Remove saucepan from heat.
Step 4 – Working quickly, place the strainer on top of the bowl with the white chocolate. Pour the hot orange cream mixture through the strainer, then use the spatula to press the cream through. Once you’re done, you should only have the orange zest in the strainer (which you can discard.)
Step 5 – Let the white chocolate rest for one minute, then pour in the orange extract and orange food coloring (if using). Use a spatula to gently stir the white chocolate until it’s smooth and creamy. Be patient with the stirring; the heat from cooking the orange cream should be enough to completely melt the white chocolate.
Step 6 – Cover the orange truffle mixture and place in the refrigerator for a few hours or until mixture is firm to the touch.
Step 7 – To begin, place some powdered sugar in a bowl and in another sealable container. Bring out the container with the orange truffle mixture and use a cookie scoop to scrape out a small ball. Roll the truffle mixture between your hands to smooth out the shape, then drop the ball into the first bowl of powdered sugar. Toss the truffle to coat, then transfer it to the second, sealable container. Repeat this step until you’ve used all of the orange truffle mixture.
Step 8 – Seal the bowl with the truffles and freeze for 20 minutes.
Step 9 – Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Details
Orange Creamsicle Truffles
Delicious orange truffles that will remind you of all the creamsicle treats you had as a kid. Easy to make and a great snack for parties!
Ingredients
Instructions
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To start, put white chocolate chips in a small, wide container you can seal (like Tupperware) and set nearby. Also have a mesh strainer and a spatula within reach.
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Add unsalted butter and orange zest to a small saucepan and warm over medium heat. Once mixture begins to bubble, let cook for about 1 minute, stirring frequently.
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Add heavy whipping cream to the saucepan and quickly stir. Continue stirring for another 1-2 minutes or until bubbles begin to form along the edges of the saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat.
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Pour orange butter mixture through the sieve over the white chocolate chips. Use the spatula to press the orange zest into the mesh, getting out all the oils and flavor you can. Discard the orange zest.
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Let mixture sit for one minute, then add orange extract and food coloring (optional). Whisk until "most" of the orange chocolate has melted. It's okay if a few pieces remain. If the white chocolate still won't melt, try using this method. Important: white chocolate doesn't always melt well in the microwave, so be careful if you nuke it!
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Cover orange truffle mixture and place in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours or until mixture is firm enough to handle.
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When ready, add 1/4 cup powdered sugar to a new container (whatever you will be storing the orange truffles in) and another 1/4 cup to a small bowl that's set nearby. Using a spoon, scoop about a heaping tablespoon of orange truffle mixture and use your hands to roll it into a ball. Drop the truffle into the bowl with the powdered sugar, toss to coat, then put it in the prepared container. Repeat until all of the truffles have been formed. TIP: I like to work in batches of five - scoop out 5 tablespoons, roll 5 truffles, roll in sugar, place in the container, wash my hands, then repeat.
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When truffles are formed, seal your container and give it a good shake, covering the truffles with the remaining powdered sugar. Set truffles in the freezer and let set for 20 minutes.
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Serve truffles immediately. For best results, store orange creamsicle truffles in the refrigerator until ready to eat. They can also be stored on the counter, but truffles may absorb powdered sugar coating over time.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy.
I love orange creamsicle. It’s a favorite childhood flavor. I am so glad you took the plunge and attempted to make these darlings – and became a bit of a zest master in the process! haha 😉
Haha, me too! They ended up being totally worth the risk 😀
Whoa! I think my an old friend of mine (and I) would love these!! How fun! They seem easy to make, and what a treat!
😀 Thank you Patricia!
These look so amazing. I’m not an orange lover, but I felt like tasting these babies straight away! Maybe it will taste great with vanilla, coffee or mint extract – what do you think?
I think those would be great options! They’d probably be good with any other fruit flavors you can find an extract for, too 😀
This sounds like something out of my dreams! Orange is one of my favorite flavors, and these look amazing. I will have to try them soon!
Thank you Mary! 😀
I love truffles but never thought of making them as an orange cream great idea =)
😀 Thanks Adriana!
So yummy going to make as Soon as possible.
Thanks Stacey 😀 If you make them, I hope you like them!
This is an all time favorite flavor for myself, kids and grand kids!!! Cannot wait to make and try these!! Thank you for the recipe!
No problem Nena! If you make them, I’d love to hear how they turn out 😀
They look delicious and would love to make them. How strong is the white chocolate flavor? Not normally my favorite kind of chocolate.
Donna
Hey Donna! My an old friend of mine feels the same way as you about white chocolate and he still enjoyed the truffles. I wouldn’t say they were his favorite candy I’ve ever made, but he didn’t say a word about the white chocolate flavor (and he would have if it bothered him!) I’d say the flavor is certainly “there” but the orange helps balance it out. You could always use a little more orange zest if you’d like to ramp up the orange flavor, too.
Do you think they would work for a bake sale?
Hey Jody! I think they would, though you might want to bring a cooler with some ice to keep the truffles slightly chilled until they’re ready to be put out on display. I’d recommend only putting out what you need and chill the rest until you have room on your table/dish.
can these be frozen ahead of time, like a month?
Hey Terrie! Yes, these can be frozen – I’ve frozen them up to 3 months before.
Any way we could substitute for the heavy cream? I really want to try these (my favorite flavor!) but cannot think of buying a pint of cream just for 3 Tablespoons. Maybe Condensed milk? I can make use of the rest of that. Your thoughts, please!
Hey Nan! For the substitution, you could maybe “make” your own heavy cream – melt 1/3 cup butter and add it to 3/4 cup milk. There’s also a couple more ideas here: http://www.enkivillage.com/substitute-for-heavy-cream.html Condensed milk might be a little too sticky & thick sub for the heavy cream in this recipe.
Do you think rolling in dark cocoa powder would work instead of pored sugar? Or would that be too bitter?
I love chocolate covered orange peels but they are no fun to make so-these look fun to make!
I’m thinking rolling these into little logs and dipping 3/4 in melted dark chocolate would be awesome. I like the mix of orange and chocolate.
This sounds AMAZING, Susan! If you do this I’d love to hear how they turn out 😀
Hey Kathie! I think I’d be interesting to try, but not sure how it’d turn out. I think you’d still need some sugar to combat the bitter – maybe a combo of both? Could mix a small portion and just taste test with your finger the sugar / cocoa powder and see how it’d be before rolling the truffles in it.
The white chocolate isn’t safe for my family’s allergies, but there are a couple of brands of chocolate chips that they can have. Am thinking of making these with chocolate chips. I do love chocolate and orange together. Has anyone done this?
How many truffles did this make?
Hey Sierra! This recipe should make about 25 truffles, give or take a few depending on size variations.
My mom loves creamsicles but I’ve never seen orange extract. Could you use orange juice since it’s such a little bit? We always seem to have that. I’m afraid we will spend the money on the orange extract and only use it to make these and if I don’t make them to often, then it won’t be orange for to long. At least we have orange juice all the time and it is orange.
Hey Gail! I haven’t tried this, but I understand what you mean about the orange extract. It’s usually a tiny bottle, but I’ve only ever used mine to make these truffles. As for using orange juice or other substitutions, this page has some good suggestions: http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f10/substitute-for-orange-extract-53036.html
When I put the choc mixture in the refrigerator, the butter came to the top. I did leave it in longer than specified. Could this be the reason for this happening?
Hey Sharon! That’s odd – I’m actually not sure why that’s happening. Refrigerating for 1-2 hours makes it almost completely solid so I’m at a loss as to why the butter would separate. It should firm up long before it has the chance to do that. What was the consistency before you put it in the fridge?
I left the mixture in the fridge for an hour. It is very crumbly when I scoop it out to make the balls. Is this normal?
Hey Kim! I could maybe see it being crumbly if it managed to become completely solid in the fridge – was that the case? And I think you should still be able to roll it into balls with a little bit of persistence. If nothing else, you could microwave it for a small amount (think 5-10 seconds at a time) and see if it softens enough to manage.
Yes, I think it got a little hard in the fridge after only 1 hour. I managed to get them into little balls, and they were a huge hit! I’m making them now for Christmas and left them in the fridge for about 30 minutes and they were much easier to scoop out!
Another question-I’ve made a few batches of these, and a couple of them seemed kind of grainy. Have you noticed this problem? What could be wrong? Thanks for your reply and for this amazing recipe!
I’m so glad they were a hit, Kim! 😀 As for the crumbly consistency, that’s a new one for me – I might need to play with this recipe a bit more to see if I can track that down. I didn’t make a batch this December (first time in a while!) so the recipe isn’t as fresh in my memory as it usually is.
Hi, Chrisy. Thanks for the recipe, I LOVE creamsicles! Just tried to make these and ran into a bit of trouble, wondered if you could offer any pointers? As another person commented, my batch started to separate in the fridge. I left the mixture in for the recommended 60 min. After taking it out of the fridge, I had great difficulty getting the balls to form. The mixture basically turned to mush in my hands! I’ll be the first to admit that I am a novice in the kitchen, so I suspect that I’ve done something wrong here rather than there being an issue with the recipe. Just wondered whether you could give me any suggestions as to where I might have gone wrong. I would love to try these again, the mixture itself is delicious, it’s just the consistency that’s off.
Thanks again for the recipe! I will re-attempt it at a later date.
Hey Lindsay! Another reader that ran into this problem said they left the candy in the fridge for 30 minutes and it was easier to work with. I think what might be happening is that the candy becomes too hard, and while you CAN still scoop it out and work with it, the extra effort of rolling hard candy into balls causes it to melt (and turn into “mush”) – does that sound like what happened with yours? I think I might need to add a note in the recipe to check the candy after 30 minutes. The candy should be firm enough to hold shape but soft enough so that you don’t have to handle it very much to roll it into a ball.
I tried these and they turned out great!! The only thing I did different was dip them in white almond bark after tipping them in powdered sugar. One question I do have is, why does the butter need to be chilled/cold? Seems odd that if it’s going to be melted that it would need to be chilled
Hey Pam! I’m glad they turned out so well, and I love your tip about the almond bark 😀 As for the chilled note, I agree that reading it now it seems a little confusing. I think my original intent was to stress that the butter didn’t need to be softened before using, but looking at it now, that’s probably clearly implied by NOT saying to soften it 😀 Hindsight is 20/20 sometimes!
These sound very similar to french truffles but with white chocolate and powdered sugar instead of bitter cocoa powder.
This recipe sounds VERY adaptable. The zest would give it fresher flavor but probably could be optional if needed. (it’d still make it better tasting… richer, better flavor. Like using real vanilla beans instead of just extract) You could use any flavoring at all from the looks of it. I may experiment. my boyfriend makes an amazing keylime cake with lemon frosting. maybe make some keylime and lemon ones (I’d totally call them lemondrop truffles) … hmm… IDEAS! Thank you!
I’d also like to try this with oreo cookies and roll them in the crumbs.
I have had similar issues with “disappearing” powdered sugar. Solved the issue when I found non dissolving powdered sugar at King Arthur Flour. I use it for dusting cookie etc when I want a nice presentation that lasts!!!
Look fantastic I wiil make these and try some with a cover of dark chocolate. Thanks for the recipe.
i thought of the same thing with the dark chocolate!
Why did mine come out Soooo greasy?
I tried these and they came out a little grainy. Not sure why. Do you have any thoughts on this?
I see this is an older post, just found it on facebook and so glad I did. Sounds wonderful. We love orange chocolate, so I may try dipping some in chocolate rather than the sugar. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I followed the directions but, I had to use a teaspoon to scrap the mixture and then roll it in my hands into a small ball. My were only a tespoon size very little.and I only got 18. mine were nowhere the size of yours in the picture.
I’m going to make them for the end of the summer Bunco party! I bet these would be good at Christmas with Peppermint!!
You crack me up……I will make this recipe. I love truffles. But you may want to proofread. Early on you are”cursing Pinterest”….really? swearing at? No. I’m betting “cruising Pinterest” Much better. Keep up the good work, it’s fun to follow.
Yeah, and seemingly the bloggess doesn’t read her comments – or care that she has such silly errors on her page… 🤦♀️
The butter seperated! What did I do wrong??
Help… the butter seems to have separated and now my orange mixture is surrounded in oil! I did microwave the chocolate because it wouldn’t melt, but only a tiny bit. Also, the c exam mixture didn’t go through the strainer easily, it was clumpy,
What should I do, I’m making these for a bake exchange!
Same thing happened to me! Now I don’t know what to do. The butter separated and I didn’t microwave.
This is terrible….everything separated! Followed your instructions exactly! Now nothing to show for all that chocolate 😡 What a waste!!
Oil separated, work w chocolate daily, followed recipe exactly.
What a waste.
For those of you who had issues with separation, did you use butter or margarine? The latter is made with oil and water, and will most definitely separate when melted.
I can’t wait to make these!
made these in the summer to celebrate my 5 years of cancer free only colored them pink instead and everyone LOVED them. I am now making them for Christmas and will be coating some in chocolate and trying out some other flavors as well thank you for the recipe ….:)
Can u substitute powered sugar and put the truffles in white chocolate
I love anything creamsicle I will definitely be making these but maybe try to low carb them as I am diabetic. Thanks.
I am also a creamsicle lover, made these, they turned out perfect. Thank you for the recipe.