This recipe comes from Facebook friend, Loree Lund. These are one of her favorite energy foods – no-bake, natural, and easy to whip up in no time.
Chocolate Balls – Basic Recipe:
8 oz baking chocolate (unsweetened)
1 c nuts (I usually use walnuts)
1 c peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 c honey
1 c raisins (or dates)
(Natural and/or organic styles of all the above is preferred, but it is up to you. Vitamin cottage has almond butter for a very reasonable price)
Directions:
* Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave (stir every 30 seconds to avoid burning it)
* Mix everything together – I use a food processor. You can be strategic about this, depending on how “chunky” you want the raisins and nuts. I process everything quite a bit to make the balls fudge-like, but they are also good if the raisins and nuts are left chunkier. (Some people like to know specifically what they are biting into). Whatever you do, it is a pretty thick, almost doughy consistency, and if you use a food processor, it goes around the processor in a big revolving blob. If you choose to just stir, it will build your upper body strength. For the cherry ones (below), I add the cherries toward the end so that they remain somewhat whole.
* Press into pan and refrigerate for a little while
* Cut into bars, or roll into balls… your choice. I grind up some almonds into almond meal and mix with cocoa powder, then roll the balls in the almond/cocoa mixture to give them a truffle-like appearance. If you do this, roll all the balls first, then dust them with the powder… otherwise it becomes a very messy ordeal. AND, if you do it this way, I find that rolling the balls is a good thing to do while watching your favorite show or a movie.
* I say they taste best refrigerated, but they don’t NEED to be refrigerated. If you like them fudgey, they are better when cold. They chunkier ones work better if you want to tote them with you while hiking or something.
Variations
I usually measure out my ingredients on a scale, so these recipe variations use gram measurements instead of volume measurements. You can use an online conversion tool to get an approximate idea of how many cups to use.
Basic Recipe in grams:
150 g raisins
175 g walnuts
256 g peanut butter
250 g honey
6 oz bar of unsweetened chocolate
Cherry Choco Balls
180 g almond butter
120 g raisins
6 oz bar of unsweetened chocolate
175 g walnuts
250 g honey
190 g dried, unsweetened sour cherries (I get them at Vitamin Cottage)
Coffee Choco Balls
180 g almond butter
4 oz bar of unsweetened chocolate
140 g dates – chop them up real well
175 g pecans
250 g honey
3 g espresso powder (I got this from King Arthur Flour)
1 tsp coffee extract
1 Tbsp vanilla
If you come up with new recipes, let me know! The possibilities are endless. You don’t have to use chocolate… you can use sesame seeds, other dried fruit, sunflower seeds, flax, hemp, chia… add some spices… some kind of grains/cereals… who knows?
