chocolate (date & coconut) amaze-balls

Yes these chocolate (date & coconut) bite-sized balls of yum truly are amaze-balls. They are amazing because they take some of my least favourite ingredients in the world and transform them into one of my favourite treats to eat!

As a child growing up in Egypt there were some ubiquitous foods I really, REALLY disliked. Basically I hated them. One of them was dates; I have many varied memories surrounding dates – one of the most vivid was my Mum doing a trade-off with a bedouin woman – who allowed my mum to take photos of her in her beautiful hand stitched colourful gowns and headdress; whilst my sister and I got backache gathering as many dates as we could find for her under the trees.

Dates were in every home and we were expected to eat and appreciate them, I found them either super sticky and sickly sweet, or too dry with a weird texture. Some dates managed to pull of both yucky aspects! Give me a couple of inches of sugar cane to suck on over dates any day!

The other food I hated was desiccated coconut – it was dry and made my tongue and mouth feel yucky as if sawdust was swelling as it combined with my saliva growing into a cloying suffocating ball of mush! YUK!

And then there were flax-seeds – the food of the Pharaohs. There are images of flax in flower on tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The priests wore robes made with flax (like linen) and the people ground them to create a flour. The flax-seeds we ate felt like they were grating my insides!

So, to sum up, I thought dates were too sweet with weird textures, desiccated coconut was like eating sawdust, and flax-seeds grated my insides! Yet on special occasions we collected all these unpleasant ingredients and with the addition of a blender and dark, rich chocolate they were transformed into delicious delights.

Little chocolate truffle balls of wonder; who says alchemy doesn’t exist? In spite of having my least favourite ingredients in them they were delicious, and so I called them amaze-balls. They are really easy to create, rich with chocolate, a lovely soft texture and extremely more-ish! For a sweet treat they are pretty good for you too, as they are mostly raw and there’s not much refined sugar in them!

Even though we cannot buy normal chocolate for our kids, most of us have managed to find a quality dark chocolate bar which is free-from dairy, soya & nuts. This recipe reduces the strength and darkness of the chocolate, the dates adding sweetness, and the coconut mellowing the flavour. So the rich dark chocolate becomes more palatable for children. They go like hotcakes at our parties even allergy-free children aged 4 devour them like there’s no tomorrow!

They were an old favourite on my old blog and like all the popular posts, the recipe disappeared when I transferred my site. So I have FINALLY gotten round to adding them here I really hope you make them and enjoy them as much as we do! They keep well in an air-tight container for a couple of days – they are generally eaten before we can test how long they keep well for beyond then!

If you live in a house where you can eat tree-nuts, these chocolate (date & coconut) amaze-balls are also great rolled around and coated in chopped roasted hazelnuts.

I hope you give them a go and enjoy them this weekend!
Rai x

chocolate (date & coconut) amaze-balls

• Yield:

  18 amazeballs

• Cooking Method:

  melting

• Prep Time:

  25 mins

• Cook Time:

  0 mins

Allergens:

no allergens

Dietary:

dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, healthy, nut-free, raw food, soy-free, vegan

These chocolate (date & coconut) amaze-balls are bite-sized balls of yum! Full of great ingredients which make them, very nearly, a healthy treat! They are sweet and rich and more-ish, they make great gifts and when we have tea parties the children gobble them up unaware of all the goodness they are devouring! The other bonus is that they are really easy to make. 

Ingredients:

• ½ C dried dates*
• ¼ C water
• 1 flax-*gg (1 Tbs ground flaxseed + 3Tbs water)
• 100g dark chocolate at least 70% broken into pieces
• ½ C desiccated coconut 
• TO COAT:
• ½ C desiccated coconut

Method:

1. Put your dried dates in a small bowl with the water and leave them to soak them for at least an hour before making these chocolate (date & coconut) amaze-balls.

2. When the dates have soaked for an hour, make your flax-*gg in a mug by combining the ground flax-seeds with the water; then leave for about 12 minutes to go gloopy like an egg. (I grind my own flaxseeds in my spice-grinder) 

   

3. Pop 18 tiny cases on a plate ready for your truffles to go in, and get the desiccated coconut for coating the truffles into a flat bottommed bowl big enough to roll the amazeballs around in.

4. Drain your dates, then blitz them into a sticky paste (I use the spice grinder on my Kenwood chef).

5. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water on a very low heat. When the chocolate is melted stir in the date paste, the coconut and the flax-*gg. Combine them until all the mix is dark (see photo)

6. Now you can create your little balls of YUM! The mix will roll into lovely, shiny, dark chocolate balls, pop them in the desiccated coconut, roll them about until the are covered in the white flakes, then place them carefully in the waiting cases. Pop the lid on the box and put your chocolate amaze-balls in the fridge to cool for an hour before you indulge.

Notes:

*You can use pitted fresh dates if you prefer

You can store these in the fridge for up to 6 days in an air-tight container but ours tend to disappear within 3 days - can't imagine where they go ;P. 

For a grown up treat check out my Disaronno chocolate treats! 

I reckon they taste best served at room temperature within the first 4 days of making. 

For a more adult version, why not add your fave spirit, here’s mine to guide you!

disaronno amaretto chocolate truffles

• Yield:

  16 truffles

• Cooking Method:

  melting

• Prep Time:

  25 mins

• Cook Time:

  0 mins

Allergens:

tree nut

Dietary:

dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, healthy, raw food, soy-free, vegan

These are a special little treat for you grown ups! So much of our headspace is consumed by allergy/anaphylaxis and ensuring our children eat well and get all the nutrients they need as well as all the treats we want them to enjoy - oft' we forget ourselves! So these dark delights are especially for you 🙂 On the most part they are REALLY good for you too 😉 with dates, dark choc and flaxseed - they are the healthy option - honestly x

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs ground flaxseed or ground chia seeds
• 3 Tbs water
• 7 dates
• 100g dark chocolate
• ½ C desiccated coconut
• ½ Tbs Disaronno 
• TO COVER THE TRUFFLES:
• toasted chopped nuts

Method:

1. Make your flax-egg or chia-egg in a mug by combining the ground seeds with the water; then leave to go gloopy like an egg. 

2. Blitz your dates (I use my spice grinder on my Kenwood chef). Pop a load of tiny cases on a plate ready for your truffles to go in, and a load of chopped and toasted hazelnuts or almonds in a bowl to coat the truffles.

3. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. When the chocolate is melted stir in the dates, the coconut, the disaronno.

4. Now you can create your little balls of adult YUM! Roll the mix into a ball, then pop it into the bowl of toasted nuts until it is coated, then pop into a waiting case. Repeat until all the mix has been transformed into truffles. They need to cool before they can be enjoyed.

Notes:

You can store these in the fridge for up to 6 days in an air-tight container but ours tend to have disappeared within 3 days. I reckon they taste better served at room temperature within the first 4 days of making.