These snacks are dense and satisfying with an irresistable chocolatey-cinnamony flavor. Perfect as a between-meal snack or as dessert with a cup of tea. Brian affectionately refers to them as “nut balls.” Mmmm, appetizing!
I started with this recipe and tweaked it to suit my tastes. Here’s my version:
Cocoa-Nut Coconut Snacks
- 1/2 cup each:
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Hazelnuts
- Pumpkin seeds
- 5 dates, pits removed (use 6 dates if yours are small)
- 1/2 cup shredded or flaked coconut
- 2 Tbsp virgin coconut oil (It’s best if the coconut oil is not totally solid; mine was liquidy with chunks & that worked well.)
- 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (Use the good stuff, please. Ghirardelli is my go-to cocoa powder.)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut to roll the finished snacks in
Grind the nuts and pumpkin seeds in a food processor until ground into a fine flour. Dump the nut flour into a mixing bowl. Grind the dates and coconut in the food processor until they make a uniform paste; it will look lumpy but if you touch it the texture will be sticky and pastey. Add the date-coconut paste to your mixing bowl and mix with the nut flour. Add cocoa powder & cinnamon and mix well. Be sure to break up all the lumps in your cocoa powder! Finally, add the coconut oil and mix very well, until it is completely uniform. Compress the mixture into balls and then roll them in the shredded coconut. I found that the best technique was to really squeeze the mixture hard and form the compressed lumps into balls with my fingertips because the mixture is kind of crumbly and doesn’t respond well to rolling. Use your powerful grip and pretend you’re making diamonds out of coal! Refrigerate your snacks to firm them up. They should also be stored in the fridge, in my opinion, to maintain freshness and because I think they taste better cold. Also, if you live in a warm climate they might lose some of their integrity if they get too warm because of the coconut oil turning into a liquid. Enjoy!
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