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
- Sprinkle the dessicated coconut onto a plate or shallow bowl.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
