Chocolate Snacking Balls

greyfurball
greyfurball Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭
edited November 2020 in General Recipes


Would you like a no-cook snacking treat you can easily make in less than 15 minutes if you have all the ingredients on hand?

This recipe uses all quality ingredients but it's great for an after school or after work snack. One or two balls is enough to satisfy even the most confirmed junk food eater.

Assemble all of your ingredients so they are on-hand on the countertop and give this one a try. IT'S A KEEPER!

Ingredients


1 cup raw pecans

1 cup medjool dates, chunked or 1 1/4 cup deglet noor dates (these are lower in fructose if you are watching your sugars)

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp allspice - (to mix your own combine 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp. clove - Combine as use as needed)

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup raw cacao powder (regular cocoa powder can be used if that's all you have)

zest of one orange

2 tablespoons organic maple syrup - if needed

_____________________

shredded unsweetened coconut (for rolling)

Instructions:

 Place pecans in food processor and pulse till chopped in small pieces (do not over-process)

 Remove lid and add dates, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, sea salt, cocoa powder and orange zest. Replace lid and pulse till a thick dough has formed. If the mixture will not form into a dough ball, add the maple syrup as needed.

 Grab a small amount of dough (approx. 1/2 heaping tablespoon) and roll the dough into a ball with your hands. Roll the ball now in the shredded coconut and place on waxed paper. Repeat until all the dough is used. Makes about 16 balls (depending on the size you make each ball.)

 To store: Place in a container with lid and refrigerate. I always like to add a piece of waxed paper (under them and over them) to help prevent the balls from drying out.

__________________________

That's it. These actually do taste better the next day because the orange zest has time for the flavor to develop in with the chocolate flavor.

Comments

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @greyfurball This looks very yummy! Thanks for posting!

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi @greyfurball - okay, Mrs. computer whiz 🤩, a few more challenges for you:

    these Chocolate Snacks... impossible to get thru the screen. - Hopefully easier than using the USB-drive, lol

    in case Above is hopeless: need to make adjustments to any recipe with over 4 to 8 ingredients , until I've memorized it.

    ---> Once nuts are chopped, go quickly rancid. - So how about plopping an almond or Brazil-nut on top of one just as you eat it.

    ---> 'SEAsalt' (before Fukushima) was a very healthy addition. Its Ionizing radiation makes it Unsafe: walk around with a Geiger-counter in a Grocery store & you will know why.

    ---> instead of Maple syrup, can honey, or Date-sugar be substituted ?

    ---> Wanna venture a Good guess as to the Nutrition facts ? of this *perfect Snackeroony* LOL

  • SherryA
    SherryA Posts: 314 ✭✭✭

    That sounds really good! I'll have to try them. Thanks!

  • greyfurball
    greyfurball Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭

    @rainbow

    well here's the answers I can give you:

    1: I have no clue what you mean getting it thru the screen unless you're trying to take a bite of my picture... If that's it I wish you a lot of luck but I'll forewarn you, give it up now and consider yourself already served. Just takes some imagination and a picture in your mind to enjoy the sensation.

    2.Actually when I made them for the store I always pressed some kind of dried fruit or nut on the top. Didn't say it here - just more calories, more money to buy ingredients and more sugar. And a hint about your nuts, if you buy raw nuts, fix one container to leave out for using and ALL the rest go into the freezer. Nuts will last about a year in refrigeration but about 4-5 years from the freezer. I buy my raw nuts by the case (it's much cheaper) and then a 2lb deli container stays out of each variety and the rest is heat sealed in smaller bags and into the freezer. Take out one bag as you need it and you never have to worry about losing the freshness of your nuts.

    3.Sea salt - it's your source. Yes there is still some very good quality salts out there you just have to confirm the source. Check out Colima sea salt. It is one of the best.

    4.Honey or date syrup can always be a replacement for maple syrup. The only difference is there is a change in flavor. As for date sugar, you've already used whole dates to make these so you will lose some of the flavor profile (maybe add a little more vanilla to compensate) and the date sugar is going to dry them out more so you will have to add in more whole dates to compensate adding the dry form of sugar. Therefore go with the honey.

    5.Nutrition Facts: I gave figuring that up many years ago. I just try to make sure each of my recipes are made with quality ingredients instead of junk processed items and that way I know if and when I do eat it I am at least filling myself up with good food, not trash. But just from reading a recipe I can also tell if it's a no-way recipe or if it's a limited snack item. This one, as I stated, use deglet noor dates instead of medjool and you have almost cut in half the fructose. The RAW nuts are high in quality oils and high in protein. Both of these blunt the effects of the sugar rush on your blood sugars. The spice profile, many of these are not only good for your health, they also blunt blood sugar problems. Using cacao powder, not cocoa powder loses all the additives the food processing industry throws in and it also reduces the sugar content since cacao has no added sugar, cocoa does. Then unsweetened coconut flakes adds no sugar also. So although these sound like they are a bad choice for a snack, when AND IF quality ingredients are used, I'd rather have these than anything you could ever find from a grocery store.

    And limiting to 4-8 ingredients, well can't help you there. If anything is removed from this, each item in there contributes to the great finished profile. Dropping them, well I hate bland food.


    And if you are still wanting to know exactly the itemized nutrition facts for any recipe there is lots of sites now online which will actually figure it out for you. Do a Google search and you'll get all kinds of choices to choose from.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Aawww @greyfurball See, our house is not heated (third, & hopefully last winter), so when I responded to you, I was just being my usual "cute" self. But of course you don't know me, so you did not know that I was just kidding re "getting it thru the screen" LOL - you know gentle HUMOR can get us thru all sorts of otherwise the Unthinkable. I have lots of experience in this department.

    re "wholesale Nuts in the freezer": we have VERY limited space, so no more room in the freezer. Too, from your posts it is Very apparent you enjoy a totally-different Financial situation, than do we. We visit Foodbanks regularly, which you probably do not ?

    No, I just use Iodized salt; unless using 'Potassium chloride' = much healthier for the heart.

    I LOVE your recipe, so was just curious what the Nutrition-values are. In any case, I will make some sometime soon.

    I thought that by responding the way I started, you would figger out I was just joking. Apologies for not letting you know more of where I was coming from. Enjoy a nice warm 🙂 cozy week...

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    @greyfurball they look delicious and the recipe seems easy, I’m sure they taste and smell scrumptious! Yum!

  • greyfurball
    greyfurball Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭

    @rainbow

    After I figured out you were joking (some people just hate to cook after all) it is why I added the line about using your imagination and enjoy the sensations. After all, I will admit I am one of those people who can use the imagination to figure out if I would like a recipe.

    And the rest of your response... 8 years ago I was constantly cash-strapped. The difference in my lifestyle now is a holistic physician's advice to drop all gluten, soy, dairy, corn, sugar (in any form), nuts, eggs, caffeine, sodium, legumes and a few other minor ones from my diet. I did that for 6 months minimum and then started adding back in a few which we confirmed were not bothering me.

    The difference though - I added back the quality form of nuts, eggs, sodium, limited sugars. I changed all dairy to coconut or almond form.Gluten became all gluten free forms of grains.. Any meats or cheeses I do use are all clean sources of food. The others in that list are no longer in my diet.

    So the moral here, I only bought the best of the best I could find when sourcing my ingredients which means I have no need for a grocery store. So yes, I paid more money for my ingredients. I started gardening to grow my own food. And I STARTED saving money like crazy because I am no longer in a grocery store.

    The whole process seems counter-intuitive because I pay more for my ingredients, I do all of my own cooking though and much of that is what I grow. Or there happens to be a local farmer about two hours from me that his wife does have severe allergies to many things on that list I gave. So his farm is probably the cleanest and purest form of foodstuffs you'll ever find on this planet. So once every couple of months I order and he ships.

    But the absolute biggest difference this whole process has made, when you feed your body GOOD food, your body does not want or need as much food. I eat about 1/4 of what I used to eat and I am perfectly satisfied. So that means 75% of the money I gave to the grocery store is now in my pockets ---or else in my cats since I now can afford more cat food.

    After doing that for 8 years now, well the only thing else I have changed in my lifestyle is I now have more money to save, thus more money to spend.

    Once you get into knowing and using this diet (in other words you know what to make and what not to make), you find it very easy to see there will be extra money after every paycheck. And since I've never been one to waste any extra money, it kind of just keeps stacking up in my accounts.

    So I've spent my entire life scraping by but now I'm actually in a position to say I have money I don't know what to do with (since I just don't have the personality to waste it.).

    I got shoved into this lifestyle overnight but then my health was miserable. I was willing to do anything to feel better and this worked. I still have a few minor troubles but hey this body has had a pretty rough life so I figure I'm scraping by pretty lucky.

    Most people just see sticker shock when they compare organic to non-organics. But if you truly commit to eating, living and breathing a clean life, there is many more ways you get to save money that before the grocery store, the pharmacy, the doctor's office, the dentist's office and a whole host of other locations which always took it.

    Sorry to be preaching here but it truly does work.

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    @greyfurball these look delish!

    I make an easy 3 ingredient snack ball aka fat bomb that I love myself.

    3 cups coconut flakes

    1 cup coconut oil

    1/2 cup of local honey

    Roll in ball or press into cookie shape. In winter I can leave out for a while but typically keep in fridge as the coconut oil will start melting.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @greyfurball

    I'll just bet if you laid out what you just posted in a book format, you could pocket a whole lot more by turning it into an E book.

    Your facts are tangling my brain so I will have to re read it a couple of times between chores but I can already see the abstract and amazing path to grocery store freedom, and much more. Abstract because I am not the one that lived what you described. Amazing in that once I can see it from your point of view, I too will be pocketing a lot more and giving walmart a lot less. I have come to hate our local store as they are always moving things, always out of many things and I do not trust their so called 'organic' stuff.

    Thanks for the info in that post and I cant wait to try your recipe.

  • greyfurball
    greyfurball Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭

    @silvertipgrizz

    Many people don't think of it but since I garden I don't need the produce dept.. I never get anything from the deli, bakery, cleaning supplies. cosmetics or toiletries, meat dept. dairy aisles, cereal or snack bar aisles. I have no need for anything there which comes out of a bag, box or can (almost all have soy or MSG in them anyway.) I make all my detergents and fabric softeners, bleach alternatives etc so I need none of that stuff.

    So about the only thing I ever get in a grocery store is some cat treats and litter. Every once in a while I will get some good quality wet foods if that store has it. That's why I say a grocery store just is not needed.

    As for organics in a store, do yourself a favor and stay away from them. Grocery stores are fed by mass food processing. Sure they might be organic beef. But they don't tell you they are feeding the animals organic soybeans (which happen to be from a GMO source in this country). Or they are eating corn or other low quality grains. Poultry and pork has the same problems. All of this food is still from CAFO's, the outfit is still using inferior foods which they just happen to call organic.

    The other problem in this country, most outfits purchase their organic feeds from an import source (it's cheaper). Imported grains do not have the same restrictions as the USDA organics board tries to follow. Plus what's the use of feeding organic corn to a chicken which is still stacked full of cages housing about 25,000 chickens. They are kept in filth so grow unhealthy but they still end up in the grocery store with an organic label.

    Eggs from a filthy chicken house are no more superior than a non-organic feed. So organics in a grocery store is just a label that big Ag has paid off the right hands so they can use the label. None of this is ever in the news is it?

    So finding a clean source which is usually a small local farm is so very necessary. It takes a little extra work but once you find some vendors you can trust you'll find this way of living is so much easier. And eventually you will find you are saving money because you don't have to buy all that stuff you can easily make yourself right at home with just normal ingredients which is often in your house to begin with.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2020

    @greyfurball - Yes, like you said you are preaching, & in our case, no less to the choir... -

    You made Assumptions..., that have absolutely no bearing on our reality, hence there is No 'moral' either. So I sent my response via PM. -

    I know you thought you were 'helping'. And I still love your recipe.

  • Heidi
    Heidi Posts: 29 ✭✭✭

    These look delicious. Going to make some today!

  • burekcrew86
    burekcrew86 Posts: 248 ✭✭✭

    Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing these!😋

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Okay now...I can't take credit for this as I have learned about this from a few herbalists, but why not add powdered herbs & make these medicinal too?

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @Laurie Yes!!! I agree. Powdered anything. Ashwaganda, shatavari, turmeric, astragalus, ginger, rosehips, maca, eleuthero. Even cayenne.