Balls.

When you desperately need a hit of something after dinner that doesn’t taste like hippies.

Faff Factor: 3.5/5 * Flavour 3/5 * Fridge to Face: 25 mins

(Recipe from Sarah Britton’s ‘Naturally Nourished’)

Ingredients:
1.5 cups walnuts
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1/4 tsp fine salt
2 cups pitted dates, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp unsweetened coconut, toasted

Method:
– Toast walnuts for approx 10 mins @ 350F. Remove and cool.
– Pulse walnuts in food processor until finely ground. Add cocoa, salt & pulse again.
– With food processor running, drop dates, one at a time, into machine. Aiming for a mixture that looks like cake crumbs, but sticks together when pressed. If it doesn’t stick, add more dates.
– Add 1 tbsp of coconut & vanilla, pulse again.
– Make a ton of tiny balls (mini-cookie scoop helps), and roll in remaining coconut.
– Freeze balls until ready to eat.

Modify:
– Add a sprinkle of chia and/or hemp
– Handful of rice crispies into the mix
– Roll in cocoa instead of coconut
– Add roasted, crushed almonds or pumpkin seeds

Faff Notes: You could easily press the mixture into a tin and cut out squares, but who doesn’t love balls! I use a small cookie scoop for quantity, then shape using my hands. I made a double batch so I’d have lots in the freezer.

Flavour Notes: I had higher hopes…but still better than NO chocolate… However, kiddo fail, she wasn’t interested. They’re good for that ‘full stop’ after dinner, something a bit sweet, a bit chocolaty, right out the freezer, after dinner, with a hot cup of builder’s tea.