Hi there. I own a business that specializes in organic, vegan, date sweetened chocolate truffles and am looking for any advice on how to extend shelf life or any strategies on how other chocolatiers get around the limited shelf life of truffles. Thanks in advance! 🙂
Thanks! I use coconut milk as the liquid. My Aw is .85 at last testing. I would like to get that down as my goal is to be able to ship globally and scale my business. Currently I am recommending that consumers store cold as well and also freeze as these freeze amazingly.
As these are non-dairy, what are you using as the liquid instead of milk/cream?
Many traditional techniques used to extend shelf life – such as using an invert sugar like trimoline, glucose syrup, or honey – are not going to be available to use as they may not be vegan (honey) or are highly processed (trimoline). Your best control methods are to minimize free water (known as water activity – do you know the aW of your centers?) and reduce the amount of oxygen incorporated into the centers as oxygen is required for stuff to grow.
I would also recommend storing everything cold – down to 34F if your recipe is not designed to be frozen.