Healthy dessert is not a myth. In the famous words of Charles M. Schulz: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” For me, a rich and chocolaty dessert like these chocolate balls is perfection. It’s sweet but not too sweet and I especially love how very easy they are to prepare. I’m a terrible baker so for me raw desserts are just the way to go! Not only are raw desserts healthier, they don’t require any pastry baking skills. Yesss!
Natural Delight Medjool Dates
If you follow health oriented food blogs, you may have noticed a dessert trend where dates are used instead of sugar. When I first heard about desserts made entirely from dates, I was skeptical. Boy oh boy was I ever wrong! Dates are a perfect sweetener because they are quite easily masked by many flavours, especially chocolate. They are high in vitamins, fibre and potassium. With fresh Medjool dates, a little goes a long way. Medjool dates are moist and chewy so they sweeten while binding ingredients. Natural Delight Medjool dates are a very popular brand available at most grocers. Natural Delights produces high quality dates that are perfect for these types of recipes. I highly recommend!
Some of the key advantages of this dessert:
- Raw food, gives you more energy
- No added sugar
- Gluten-Free
- Totally vegan
- Very high in fibre
- Easy to prepare
- Gluten-Free
Ingredients:
- 2 cups medjool dates
- 1.5 cups walnuts
- 1 cup cacao
- 5.5 oz or (one small can) of coconut milk
- 4 dried figs
- 1.5 tbsp vanilla extract
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon ( optional)
Note: As you probably know, quality ingredients render quality results so try to use only fair trade high quality dates, cacao and coconut milk. One small can of coconut milk is pretty much the perfect amount for this recipe.
Directions:
- Add walnuts to food processor and chop them down to small pieces.
- Add dates and dried figs and pulse until ground.
- Once dates, figs and walnuts are ground, add cacao and pulse to mix it in.
- Finally add coconut milk, cinnamon and vanilla and process on the low setting.
- Remove the cover and mix the ingredients with a spatula from time to time so that you do not over-stress your food processor.
- Once all ingredients and well ground and incorporated, spoon the mixture into a bowl and freeze for 30 minutes to harden.
- Remove mixture from the freezer, roll into balls (about .75″ in diameter.) then roll balls into shredded coconut.
Serve them chilled.
Store in an air sealed container in the fridge or freezer. They will last up to two weeks.
Ps. Cats don’t really like dates so don’t worry about them eating them up but they may leave their hair behind so beware!
So there you have it! Tell me what you think in the comments below. I’d be happy to have your feedback.
Bon appétit!
-M
