Recipe: Coconut-Date Energy Balls
I love these little balls — they are sweet without being too sweet, and are rich with coconut meat and coconut oil. I store them in a cookie tin and sometimes bring them in the car with me when I know I’m going to be running around doing errands or other busy-ness. Their balance of good fats with natural sugars means they give both an immediate lift but also sustained energy until the next real meal can be had. They also make a nice sweet for after a meal, a good snack during a meeting, or a welcome addition to a lunchbox. They are great for kids to both roll and eat! They need to be kept cool or they will soften or melt.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup date paste or 1 1/2 cups pitted dates
- 1/2 cup coconut spread (available from Wilderness Family Naturals)
- 3 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/4 cup dried coconut plus more for rolling the balls in
- Optional: zest of a lemon or small orange.
Procedure:
In a food processor, process the date paste or dates for a few seconds or a minute or so. If using dates, they should be processed into a chunky paste.
Add the coconut spread (and the optional zest, if using) and pulse a few times until the two ingredients are mixed.
Melt one tablespoon of coconut oil in a very small pan, and then start the processor and pour the melted oil in through the top while the processor is running. Add the 1/4 cup sundried coconut and process for 5 or 10 seconds more. Then turn off the processor.
Remove the blade and then the processor bowl from the processor. You can either leave your mixture in there and work from that, or transfer the paste to another bowl to work from.
Put on some good music or a book on tape, or get a friend to help you, or call up a friend so that you can chat while you roll the balls. This is a repetitive and mindless task and though it shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes, it’s nice to have a distraction. Or you could be very zen about it and focus entirely on the task!
To roll the balls, pick up a very small handful of paste and press it in your hand. It should stick together. Then take the paste and press and roll it into a little ball, about one inch in diameter. Put the balls on a plate as you roll them.
When you have finished rolling all the balls, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and remove from heat.
Now take each ball and do this: put it in the little pan with the melted coconut oil. Shake the little pan so that the ball gets covered with coconut oil. Take the warm oiled ball and immerse it in the dried coconut flakes so that it gets covered with coconut. I do this by just putting the ball into the bag of freeze-dried coconut and rolling it around. Put the ball back onto a clean plate or straight into a cookie tin. Repeat with all the balls until they are all covered with coconut. Store in a cool place and eat as desired!
Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection — book by Jessica Prentice
Jessica Prentice is both a professional chef and a passionate home cook. She currently conducts cooking classes, writes a monthly New Moon Newsletter on her Wise Food Ways website, and offers monthly Full Moon Feasts in the Bay Area. She is a Bay Area chapter head for the Weston A Price Foundation for wise traditions in food, farming, and the healing arts, and a founding member of Three Stone Hearth, a community kitchen in the Bay area. Her new book, Full Moon Feast, is about food and culture.
Recipe adapted from Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection by Jessica Prentice. Copyright Jessica Prentice 2006 Chelsea Green Publishing Co. Used with permission.