No-Bake Lemon Truffles

Bite into these bright lemon truffles that are so easy to make - no baking or cooking required! These make for a sweet and tart dessert that's simple for any occasion or celebration.

What are Lemon Truffles?

Dessert truffles are usually made with cake mix, cream cheese, cookies or a combination of these ingredients. But not these lemon truffles! This recipe is based around sweetened condensed milk, powdered milk and powdered sugar. Of course, being a lemon truffle recipe, this recipe wouldn't be complete without a lots of lemon juice and lemon zest.

These truffles are a great addition to any dessert table, special occasion or get together. I love making them for birthdays and get togethers and have guests take some home with them.

Jump to:

• What are Lemon Truffles?
• Why You'll Love This Recipe
• Ingredients You'll Need
• How to Make No-Bake Lemon Truffles
• Truffle Variations
• Equipment You'll Need
• Storing the Lemon Truffles
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Top tip
• No-Bake Lemon Truffles

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• So easy to make. There's no need to bake a cake or grind up any cookies with this recipe - the lemon truffles are all mixed together without any additional steps.
• Perfect to make ahead. This is a perfect recipe for entertaining or bringing to a party since you can make them the night before or even a couple of days ahead of time. Just store these in an air-tight container and see the storage note below.
• Great to make with a group or with kids. This recipe can get a little messy, but nothing too bad. Include your kids or a group and have fun with it - as long as everyone is wearing disposable gloves for easy clean up!

Ingredients You'll Need

• Lemons. This recipe calls for the zest and juice so make sure you zest the lemons before juicing them.
• Powdered milk. Helps keep the truffle "batter" together.
• Sweetened condensed milk. This will bind together all the ingredients in the truffle.
• Powdered sugar. Mixed with the powdered milk, powdered sugar helps keep the batter together.
• Kosher salt. Just a pinch to balance out the sweetness.
• Vanilla extract. A must for any sweet treat. Always use a good quality vanilla extract.
• Granulated sugar. This will be the coating for the truffles and also provide a little bit of a crunch!

How to Make No-Bake Lemon Truffles

1. Mix ingredients. In a stand mixer, mix the powdered milk, sweetened condensed milk, powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt until it just comes together.
2. Chill in the fridge. This "batter" can get messy so chilling it in the fridge for an hour helps make it easier to handle. Chill it in a container with a lid, or cover the container with plastic wrap, to make sure the truffle mixture doesn't absorb any other lingering fridge odors.
3. Make the truffle coating. Pour the granulated and the lemon zest on a plate and mix it well together. This will be the coating for each truffle - giving the final product a crunchy, lemony bite.
4. Scoop. Scooping and rolling are the parts where things can get a little messy so make sure you use gloves in this step! Using a small spoon, scoop up the truffle "batter" and dunk it in the mixture of sugar and lemon zest, using another small spoon to help release it from the first spoon, if necessary. It's totally fine for the truffle to be a "glob" at this point - it will be fixed in the next step! Roll the "glob" in the sugar mixture using your gloved hands.
5. Roll the truffles. Remove the truffle "glob" from the sugar coating and roll it in your gloved hands, always trying to give it a ball-like shape, and place in a mini baking cup. These baking cups will help keep the shape of the truffles. Store in the fridge for up to four days and keep them in the mini baking cups so the truffles keep their shape.

Truffle Variations

These truffles are easy to customize to many different flavors! Try some of the ideas below and let me know what you thought of these:

• Other citrus fruits. Lemons, limes and oranges are easily interchangeable in this recipe! Simply swap the lemon juice and zest for lime or orange juice and zest.
• Chocolate chips. Remove the lemon juice and zest entirely from this recipe (and coating!) and add about half a cup of mini chocolate chips to the the truffle "batter."
• Peppermint. Great for the holiday season! Remove the lemon juice and zest entirely from this recipe (and coating!) and add about a teaspoon of mint extract to the the truffle "batter."
• Coating. Instead of granulated sugar, try rolling the truffles in powdered sugar for more of a crinkly effect. You can also try cocoa powder for added dimension where the flavor is right, like for an orange chocolate, mint chocolate or even a chocolate chip truffle!

Equipment You'll Need

• Zester. This is my favorite zester - its thin but makes it easy to maneuver to zest not only lemons but other ingredients such as nutmeg or even parmesan cheese!
• Stand mixer. The easiest way to make these truffles is in a stand mixer or handheld mixer. However, you can also mix the ingredients by hand with a spatula or wooden spoon but be prepared for an arm workout!
• Disposable gloves. Call me dramatic but I simply refuse to make this recipe without gloves. They make the truffle rolling step so much easier and make clean up oh-so easy.
• Mini baking cups. To help keep the ball shape of the truffles, these mini baking cups are a must. They're also perfect for storing in the fridge since they're easy to stack inside an airtight container.

Storing the Lemon Truffles

These lemon truffles can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about four days. They may harden up the longer they're stored so let them thaw out for about 30 minutes at room temperature before serving if they're a bit too hard for your liking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did you try out this recipe? I'd love to know how it went! Leave me a comment and rating below or tag me on Instagram at @AFabulousBite!