Friday, November 12, 2010

Mocha Date Nut Balls

Coffee-Cocoa-Nut Bites

You've probably all eaten or at least seen something like this before, seems like everyone has a personal recipe and there are probably a billion recipes for this kind of snack out there on other blogs, so have a look around, but this is just my personal favourite and maybe some of you will like it too. It's a quick and very easy recipe and a good way to get your daily nut fix throughout the week, so I make a new batch every week and usually eat 2 of them per day. The good thing is that you don't need a powerful mixer or food processor at all, I use an attachment with my immersion blender and it works just fine. You can eat them plain or crumble them over a bowl of müsli or oatmeal instead of nut butter. Yumm!

Coffee-Nut-Bites-One

Ingredients
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup almonds
5 x dates, pitted
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbl flax seeds
1 tbl Dutch cocoa
1/4 tsp instant coffee
1 tbl + 1/2tbl water
Popped amaranth or other for coating (see notes)

1) Dump all of the ingredients, excluding water, into your food processor and blend to the desired texture, I like some crunch (see photo below).
2) Add water and blend for another couple of seconds, this is just to distribute the added water, you could also use a spoon or fork for this.
3) Form into balls (approx. 1 tbl per ball) and roll in popped amaranth.
4) Use an air tight container to store these in your fridge.
Done!

(Makes approximately 13 balls)

Coffee-Cocoa-Nut Bites


Notes
Almonds I used the cheap kind from the baking aisle instead of whole almonds. You can use raw whole almonds with or without skin if you want.
Dates Adjust amount depending on the kind of dates you're using, mine were medium sized.
Raisins Raisin haters can leave these out and just add some more dates instead or reduce the amount.
Coffee Instead of instant coffee, you could replace the water with freshly brewed espresso.
Coating I had some popped amaranth around, I like it for it's neutral taste and apparently you can even make this yourself: How to pop amaranth @ eHow. Alternatives: grated coconut, cocoa powder, toasted sesame seeds, cookie crumbs, chocolate shavings or sprinkles, oats.


Coffee-Cocoa-Nut Bites
This is what the 'dough' should look like, just slightly wet.


Coffee-Cocoa-Nut Bites
Where's Waldo?


5 comments:

  1. I'm so glad I found your blog. I love your photography. So clean and minimal!

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  2. These look amazing, again!

    Luckily I always have some popped Amaranth in my cupboard (I love to mix it with my cereals), Alnatura sells it.

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  3. Oh yummy! And such pretty pictures!

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  4. @Tisi: Yeah, I got mine from Alnatura as well.

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