Lemon Truffles
To make these Lemon Truffles, you just need to crush up lemon cookies, mix them with cream cheese, and coat them in white chocolate. It’s as easy as that for a scrumptious and easy spring dessert!
When spring and summer roll around, my craving for lemon-flavored desserts really amps up. There is something so delicious about tasting that tart lemon flavor, like in this No Bake Lemon Cheesecake, on a hot summer day!
And when it’s warm outside, turning on the oven feels so undesirable, as does stirring anything on the stove.
That’s where these no-bake, quick and easy lemon truffles come in! With just 3 ingredients and 20 minutes, you can have a deliciously tart dessert ready to enjoy. These truffles would be delicious served alongside Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting or these Key Lime Cookies for another citrusy kick.
Why Make this Recipe
- No Bake Dessert: We love when you can make a recipe without ever turning on your oven! No bake recipes are so much less intimidating than something like Chocolate Chip Cookies, because they are so easy to make!
- 3 Ingredients: All you need for this recipe is lemon cookies, cream cheese and chocolate! It doesn’t get any easier (or more affordable) than that!
- Make Ahead: If you’re hosting an event (like an Easter meal) and have too many dishes to make the day of, this is a great dessert to prepare ahead of time! Make your truffles the day before and have them ready to go on the dessert table the next day. Simple and easy.
What Do I Need to Make this Recipe?
Ingredients
- Lemon Cookies: Make sure to use crispy cookies, like the brands listed in the recipe card. You can also use oreos (with the filling!), but the texture will be different. Use this Raspberry Oreo Truffle Recipe for reference.
- Cream Cheese: Softening the cream cheese will help it mix into the cookie crumbs more easily.
- White Chocolate Chips: Feel free to add yellow food coloring into your white chocolate chips if you want your lemon truffles to have an extra festive look! Use your extra white chocolate on these Frozen Chocolate Covered Strawberries.
Tools
- Food Processor: For blending up the truffle mixture.
- Small Bowl: For melting the white chocolate chips.
- Cooling Rack: This helps the chocolate drip off of the bottom of the truffles so that they do not harden with a pool of chocolate at the bottom.
How to Make this Recipe
Step 1: Make the Truffle Mixture
In a food processor, grind the cookies until small crumbs are formed.
Add the softened cream cheese into the food processor and blend until the cream cheese and the cookie crumbs combine together into one ball of dough.
Step 2: Melt the Chocolate + Form the Truffles
Place about ⅓ of your white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for about 30 seconds, then stir.
Microwave for another 30 seconds, and stir again. If the white chocolate is still not fully melted, microwave the chocolate again for a final 15-30 seconds until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
Repeat this process each time you run out of white chocolate. Then roll the dough until 1 Tablespoon balls.
Step 3: Dip the Truffles
Dip the lemon balls in the white chocolate, using a fork or spoon to turn them until they are fully coated in chocolate.
When the truffles are coated, place them on a cooling rack. Place the truffles in the fridge for at least an hour before enjoying.
Adaptations
You can change and adapt this recipe to fit your personal preference! Here are some ways to do so:
- Additions: These truffles are fairly center with their fillings, but you can mix in some great additions to change up the flavor! Try rolling the truffles around fruit, like raspberries, for an extra fruity treat. You can also add toasted coconut flakes, walnuts, lavender, or, for a unique flavor, some ginger!
- Coating: If you don’t want to coat your truffles in white chocolate, try coating them in powdered sugar! You can also experiment with almond bark or white melting candy (use leftover melting candy to make these Easter Pretzels!)
- Garnishes: Try topping the lemon truffles with lemon zest, coconut, or nuts.
How to Get Extra Lemon Flavor
I really like this recipe because the lemon flavor is evident but not overbearing. If you like a stronger lemon flavor, there are a few ways that you can enhance the lemon taste in this recipe.
- Lemon Zest: Feel free to zest a lemon into the truffle mixture before rolling the truffle balls. This will add a lemony zing to the mix!
- Lemon Extract or Emulsion: Flavors in extracts and emulsions are very strong, so if you are going to add lemon emulsion or extract, make sure to do so sparingly.
There is no need for guess work in this recipe! Simply taste the cookie/cream cheese combo when you are done processing it and see how the lemon flavor lives up. If you’d like a stronger lemon flavor, add one of the methods above.
Make sure to start small! You can always add more flavoring, but you can’t remove it if you end up being too heavy handed in your first attempt.
How to Melt the Chocolate
The hardest part of this recipe might just be making sure your chocolate is melted perfectly before dipping your truffles. There are two ways you can melt the chocolate for your truffles:
Microwave
Using the microwave is the easier method. To do so, simply add the white chocolate to a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Mix the chocolate chips with a fork, then add them back into the microwave and repeat until the chocolate is melted.
In this case, only melt about ⅓ of your chocolate at a time so that the chocolate does not harden before you can coat all of your truffles.
Double Boiler
If you do not want to use your microwave, you can make a double boiler to melt your chocolate on the stove instead!
To do so, place a large pot of water on the stove and fill it with water. Bring the water to a boil.
Then place a large bowl over the top of the pot and pour in the white chocolate chips. The steam from the boiling water will warm the bottom of the glass bowl and melt the chocolate.
In this case, you can melt all of your chocolate at once because the double boiler will keep the chocolate melty as you dip your truffles.
Expert Tips
- The recipe calls for chilling the lemon truffles for about an hour before eating them. Truthfully, you can eat the truffles as soon as the chocolate hardens (around 5-10 minutes in the fridge), but the inside truffle will have a stronger texture the longer that they chill.
- If your truffles aren’t coming out of the chocolate beautifully, you may need to add some oil into the chocolate to get a thinner coat. I recommend adding about 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil into the white chocolate chips. Feel free to add more or less depending on preference, but keep in mind that the more vegetable oil is in the chocolate, the easier the chocolate will get soft when removed from the fridge.
- Feel free to pipe some extra white chocolate (even colored yellow!) into a small ziplock bag and drizzle the chocolate over the lemon truffles for an extra beautiful effect!
- You can use this same recipe but substitute crispy gingerbread cookies to make Homemade Gingerbread Truffles!
- I use a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop (#60) to get uniform-sized truffles.
Recipe FAQs
Because these Lemon Truffles have cream cheese in them, make sure to store them in the fridge. Keep the truffles in an airtight container. They will last in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Yes you can freeze your leftover citrus truffles! To do so, lay out the truffles on a cookie sheet and place them in the freezer for a few hours until the truffles are frozen solid. Then remove the truffles from the cookie sheet and place them in a resealable bag. They will stay good in the freezer for up to 3 months!
If the cream cheese in the truffle mixture becomes too warm, the truffles may become hard to roll or may coat your hands when you try. To fix this, simply chill them in the fridge for 20 minutes or so until the dough can hold its shape again.
Did you enjoy this Lemon Truffle recipe? If so, make sure to check out these other recipes we picked out just for you:
Lemon Truffles
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Small Bowl
- Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- 14 oz Crispy lemon cookies, I used Stauffers but you can also use Tate’s Bake Shop
- 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 16 oz white chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a food processor, grind the cookies until small crumbs are formed.
- Add the softened cream cheese into the food processor and blend until the cream cheese and the cookie crumbs combine together into one ball of dough.
- Roll this dough into 1” balls (smaller than a golf ball).
- Place about ⅓ of your white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for about 30 seconds, then stir. Microwave for another 30 seconds, and stir again. If the white chocolate is still not fully melted, microwave the chocolate again for a final 15-30 seconds until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Repeat this process each time you run out of white chocolate.
- Dip the lemon balls in the white chocolate, using a fork or spoon to turn them until they are fully coated in chocolate.
- When the truffles are coated, place them on a cooling rack. Place the truffles in the fridge for at least an hour before enjoying.
Notes
- Lemon Cookies: Make sure to use crispy cookies, like the brands listed in the recipe card. You can also use oreos (with the filling!), but the texture will be different. Use this Raspberry Oreo Truffle Recipe for reference.
- Cream Cheese: Softening the cream cheese will help it mix into the cookie crumbs more easily.
- White Chocolate Chips: Feel free to add yellow food coloring into your white chocolate chips if you want your lemon truffles to have an extra festive look! Use your extra white chocolate on these Frozen Chocolate Covered Strawberries.
- The recipe calls for chilling the lemon truffles for about an hour before eating them. Truthfully, you can eat the truffles as soon as the chocolate hardens (around 5-10 minutes in the fridge), but the inside truffle will have a stronger texture the longer that they chill.
- If your truffles aren’t coming out of the chocolate beautifully, you may need to add some oil into the chocolate to get a thinner coat. I recommend adding about 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil into the white chocolate chips. Feel free to add more or less depending on preference, but keep in mind that the more vegetable oil is in the chocolate, the easier the chocolate will get soft when removed from the fridge.
- Feel free to pipe some extra white chocolate (even colored yellow!) into a small ziplock bag and drizzle the chocolate over the lemon truffles for an extra beautiful effect!
- You can use this same recipe but substitute crispy gingerbread cookies to make Homemade Gingerbread Truffles!
- I use a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop (#60) to get uniform-sized truffles.
