Sunday 3 March 2013

Not-really-Rum-Balls...

In the interests of full disclosure I should probably preface by saying that not only do I love to knit, but I also love to cook. For many years I worked professionally as a chef and although it has been some time now since I worked in a commercial kitchen, lately I have rekindled my romance with food.

I think it is really easy for cooking to become a chore, especially when you have a day job, a household to manage and a demanding family; at the end of the day all you really want is to get something that resembles a healthy meal on the table and for everyone to actually eat it.

Without going into too much detail about my diet and my crazy hippy ideas about food, let's just say that my aim of late is to make healthy, nutritious snacks that I can eat instead of the omnipresent processed crap. If my kids will eat it too then I know I'm onto a winner!

One such winner, which also has the husbeasts seal of approval, are these little chocolately nuggets of deliciousness:


Chocolate, coconut and peanut butter balls!

I guess I keep teasing people with awesome photo's of my scrummy food because I get a lot of recipe requests which I always mean to honour and usually fail to do so.
So, in the interest of keeping  you people happy I thought I'd better do the right thing ;-)

Raw cacao, peanut butter and coconut balls
1 cup organic coconut shreds or chunks
1/2 cup organic sugar-free peanut butter
1/4 cup organic rolled oats
1/2 cup cashews or other nuts of choice
2 Tbsp rice bran syrup (you could use maple, honey or agave)
1 Tbsp raw cacao
1 Tbsp coconut oil
5 or 6 fresh dates, chopped
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup desiccated coconut, to roll balls in


Combine the coconut shreds, nuts and oats in a food processor and process to fine crumbs. Add all other ingredients and process until it starts to clump together. 
A tip is to start with less dates and add more if you need them. Maybe even try 4 to start with. I used 5 in this batch.
Roll tablespoonfuls into balls and roll the balls in desiccated coconut. Refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours)
These little gems will last a couple of weeks in the fridge, that is, if you don't demolish them all first ;-)

Can I finish by saying that my super fussy 8yo son will actually eat these and thinks they are just regular old biscuit-and-condensed-milk rumballs. Total win!

Guess what else I made today :-)



1 comment:

  1. Yummo!!! We love creating healthy ball snacks like these :D We change them every time, and put different ingredients - making them nut-free if they are school/kinder snacks.

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