These are perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth who also wants to cut down on sugar and processed foods. All totally natural ingredients here and a couple of these should satisfy any post-lunch chocolate cravings or keep you going during full on exercise sessions. They’re also a great source of fibre (from the dates).

These are taken from Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Super Food book, but I’ve been flexible with one or two of the ingredients as I didn’t have any pumpkin seeds, only had Deglet Nour dates and puffed brown rice isn’t that easy to come by where I live!

The mix looks like sticky bird feed. Don’t be put off!

A bit of coconut coating will help

Starting to look more like human food…

The finished balls look pretty appetising

Makes about 20   |  15 mins

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp dessicated coconut
• 30g golden linseed (or flax seeds – same thing)
• 20g puffed rice (unsweetened)
• 50g whole almonds
• 80g pitted dates (not the dried, chopped ones from the baking aisle)
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 heaped tsp good quality cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp clear honey
• Juice of 1 orange

You will also need…

A food processor or blender

Method

1. Sprinkle the dessicated coconut onto a plate or shallow bowl.
2. Place the linseeds, puffed rice, almonds and dates in a food processor and blitz for a few seconds to get things going. Add the turmeric, cinnamon, cocoa powder and a pinch of sea salt and blitz again.
3. Now add the vanilla, honey and half the orange juice and blitz for a minute or twoAdd , until it starts to come together. You’ll need to stop a couple of times and scrape down the sides and make sure everything gets fully processed.
4. Add another squeeze of orange juice if you need it and do one final blitz. The mix should by now have come together as a rather sticky mess. The linseeds won’t really blend down, but don’t worry, that’s fine.
5. Wet your hands and start rolling the mix into small balls. Jamie says you’ll get 24, but I got 20 and wouldn’t have wanted to make them any smaller.
6. Drop them in the coconut and roll them around to coat fully. These store well for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge, but they’re not likely to last that long!