Chocolate Date Balls

These decadent date balls pack a decent chocolate hit. They have a lusciously smooth texture and are naturally sweet with no refined sugar. 

Gluten-free / nut-free / soy-free / dairy-free / egg-free / preservative-free / sugar-free 

Today boasts perfect picnic weather: the sky is broad and intensely blue. As I went out to collect the mail a few minutes ago, I found the grass bathed in sunlight, warm underfoot. In the deep shade of our Lilly Pillys, a cool, gutsy breeze mussed my hair like a doting parent. On days like this, I find it very hard to stay at my desk and do my work like a sensible grown up. I am (dutifully) back in front of my computer screen, but before returning to the kind of productivity that pays the bills, I’m taking a moment to reminisce….

Yesterday, I sat on a rug with my friends and their little ones under the gum trees at Mt Coot-tha, chatting and laughing, fending off cheeky sandwich-stealing kookaburras. After a game of cricket and a treasure hunt, it was time for cake…but not for me. Sugar and I aren’t the best of friends. If I limit my intake, I feel awesome and full of beans. So (except on very special occasions) I swap the cake for a treat with no refined sugar. This time, I’d packed a batch of my scrummy chocolate date balls. Thanks to a cheeky technique, they have a lusciously smooth texture that melts in your mouth. They taste naturally sweet from the dates and pack a decadent choc hit from the lashings of rich, dark raw cacao.

It only took me 10 minutes to whip up these lovely little treats. They keep in the freezer for a couple of months or in the fridge for up to two weeks. They travel well (especially when popped straight from the freezer into a lunch box). You can eat them straight from the fridge or freezer (they’ll have a firm, fudgy texture); however, they’re best eaten at room temperature when their texture is luxuriously soft and smooth.

Chocolate Date Balls Recipe

 INGREDIENTS

• 450g fresh Medjool dates (weigh them at your grocery store, or grab one of those 1lb tubs)
• 40g Nuttelex
• 1½ teaspoons unhulled tahini
• 1 teaspoon ground organic cinnamon
• decent pinch finely milled salt
• 2½ tablespoons raw cacao powder (I use Power Foods Organic Raw Cacao Gold Powder).
• ½ cup sulphite-free organic desiccated coconut, finely shredded

METHOD

1. First, you need to remove the pits from the dates. Using your hands, tear the dates in half: you will then be able to see and easily remove the pits. 
2. Place the dates and Nuttelex in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the dates are heated through and softened (a few minutes). When they start to smell amazing (like sticky date pudding) and collapse, leaving their gooey, toffee-like insides all over the spoon, they’re ready for the next step. 
3. Place the hot dates in a food processor (I find the little processor that came with my stab blender to be the perfect size). Add the tahini, cinnamon, salt, and cacao powder. Blend well. The mixture will clump together into a ball. Turn out into a bowl and knead gently with your hands for a few seconds to ensure the cacao is evenly incorporated. But be careful: the mixture may still be quite hot! 
4. Set up three bowls in a row: one with water, one with the date mixture, and one with the desiccated coconut. Put your container at the end. Now your production line is ready to roll (pun intended).
5. Dampen your hands lightly in the water, pinch off a heaped teaspoon of the mixture and roll into a ball between your palms. Drop the ball into the coconut. Once you have 3 or 4 balls, roll them around in the coconut to coat evenly, then pop in your container. Dampen your hands in the first bowl (to remove any coconut stuck to your fingers and prevent the balls from sticking to your hands) and repeat the process until you’ve rolled all the mixture. If you find any fibrous pieces of date in the mixture, discard them to ensure a smooth texture.
6. Makes around 24, unless you snack a lot during rolling.

There’s something so charming about portable food, isn’t there? It’s humble, approachable, and appealing.

And look how one batch fits perfectly in the container…that makes my organised mind tingle with the happies.

The treasure hunters off in the distance.