Everyone needs to have a treat every now and then. If it ticks the healthy and satisfying and moorish boxes all at once, even better. I found these Organic Dates on sale the other day and had to do something with them.
All of the flavours in these little morsels of goodness meld together beautifully and nothing overpowers. I could have called them Coconut-Chocolate-Date-Nut-Truffle-Balls, but Bounty Bites just sounds nicer to me… Make sure you don’t miss the alternate recipe combination at the end!
They could even be shaped into little ovals instead of rounds and make for an alternative to the 50 thousand tons of chocolate being left by bunnies all over the world this weekend. Happy Easter!
Bounty Bites
Ingredients:
- ½ cup dried coconut*
- ½ c raw almonds
- 2 Tbsp flax seed*
- 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa [or cacao] powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp rolled oats
- 2-3 Tbsp tahini*
- 1 heaping cup [12 large, 180g] dates
Under 100 words:
Blitz all dry ingredients except coconut, blend in dates and tahini, roll tsps of mixture in coconut. Try not to eat all of them in one go.
Full Method:
Remove pits from dates. Set coconut aside on a small plate or bowl.
In a food processor chop the almonds till they are almost as finely ground as you want them to be in the final mix. Add flax seed through oats and pulse until well combined and nothing is too chunky.
Add the tahini [using 2-3 Tbsp depending on your personal taste] and the dates, and pulse to combined well with the dry ingredients. The mixture at this point will turn into a big’ol sticky ball – big tip, make sure everything is chopped up before you add the dates and tahini, because all you will be able to manage is to get it mixed, there is no more chopping to be had!
Scoop out teaspoons of the date mixture and roll into balls. Press lightly into coconut and roll between your hands again to make sure it sticks. They will keep in the fridge pretty much indefinitely but you will be hard pressed to make them last that long. Makes 25-30
Notes:
- If you have desiccated coconut use that, my cupboard only contained shredded so I pulsed it in the food processor a few times before all the other stuff got blitzed up. Try to find it without sugar [please?] and if you can get organic it won’t have any sulfur dioxide as a preservative.
- Flax seeds [aka linseed] is fantastic for Omega 3 but unless it is ground it does no good and goes straight through [ahem]. It gets ground with everything else but if you have the flax seed meal around just use that instead.
- If you don’t have any, or possess a hatred of it, substitute the tahini with almond spread or even peanut butter. You will probably want to add a teaspoon or two of water as well though.
- I only have a small 2 cup processor and it was really full proving to be a bit of a challenge – If you’re in the same boat, do the dates in 2 batches and mash it together afterwards with a spoon, if you have a large processor, you’re in luck.
Bonus version: This one is a bit more Choc Truffle with the coconut on the inside instead. Set aside 1 Tbsp of the cocoa on a small plate. Include the coconut with the dry ingredients and pulse it all together, before the dates and tahini are added. Roll the bites in the cocoa powder to finish.
Ummm, looks and sounds delicious. I will have to try it. What (again) is tahini and where can I get it?
These look heavenly! I’ll be making them for a party this weekend, thinking of serving with a spiced tea. Thoughts/alternate suggestions?
Hi Mila – hope you enjoy them! I love them with green chai tea (straight up, no milk or sweetener) so spiced tea would definitely suit. Cheers!
Thanks for the recipe. I enjoyed these. I put less tahini cause I make my own from whole sesame seeds(I can’t get regular in bulk) and it turns the tahini quite bitter. But I think that the bitterness of the tahini actually plays along with the bitterness of the cocoa, and so you can’t really tell it apart, making this a grown-up dessert in my opinion(especially since I reduced the dates somewhat). I was also stingy with the almonds, replacing some with walnuts and sunflower seeds, and upping the oats, making the dessert a bit cheaper ;). Put some water to bind it all, and a dash of coconut oil to make them more coconutty. Not big changes, just some minor stuff to make them ‘my own’. All in all, I liked them; thanks again.