This is probably my most often-made, sinfully delicious, raw-food sweet treat. With raw and organic dates and nuts as the base, they are based on the LARA health food bar. Mine are better I think. :) They are perfect for the road. The problem is avoiding eating them all before you leave home, which for me is challenging. Although they are raw vegan and packed with nutrition, be aware they they are also sky high with calories, fat, and sugar (albeit good fats and sugars).  You can indeed have too much of a good thing with these babies! A basic recipe follows below, but I personally don’t measure so much. It depends on the water and fat content of the nuts and dates, as well as the quantity of other goodies you elect to put in. Variation ideas for the recipe follow later. Actually, there are so many variations that none of my balls ever turn out the same!

Ingredients (for basic recipe):

• 1 cup of nuts
• 1 1/2 cups of coursely-chopped dates
• 1/4 cup or more of cacao powder
• 2 tbsp or more of cacao nibs (optional)
• a pinch or two of Celtic salt
• agave syrup (used to bind if mixture is too dry)

Directions:

Ideally you should soak and dehydrate all nuts except cashews. Soaking makes nuts easier to digest and activates dormant enzymes. Dehydrating brings back the crunch that soaking took away without cooking them. If you are using a wet or fattier nut, such as Brazil nuts, you will need to add more dates and/or other wet ingredients.

Blend the nuts up until you get what looks like a powder at first glance. Unless you have one of those fancy high-speed processors, you will still get lots of nut pieces. Next, add the cacao powder and nibs and any other dry ingredients (such as coconut flakes) and blend in with the nuts. My food processor dies under strain, so I try to chop my dates as much as possible before adding them to the dry mix. Actually, until you get used to making this, I recommend processing the dates completely separately first, putting them aside, and then processing the nuts (no need to wash between; you don’t want any water remaining in the plastic/glass container before the nuts go in anyway) Pre-soaking your dates is a great idea (you can chuck the soak water into your morning green smoothie!), but I like small date chunks, and even if you drain the dates well, they are still rather gooey. Experiment though, and see what works for you. After the dates are incorporated, I add in any other wet ingredients such as flavour extracts. The agave goes in last, just a teaspoon or so if needed at all, to help bind the ingredients.

If the mixture has formed a giant ball in your processor (this is usually enough to overheat my machine!) then you are more than ready to form little balls or bars out of the mix. I like my mix a little drier (save the food processor!) and check the mix by making a sample ball. If it holds together well without being wet and mushy, it’s perfect! It’s easier to add wet to dry, so start conservatively with the dates and wet ingredients. You can freeze these suckers, or you can even dehydrate them for a drier texture, but that takes a lot of electric energy and they’re more than tasty enough as is. I would wrap them up in saran wrap to avoid freezer taste. You can easily pop them into your lunch box that way, too. If you don’t like them so hard, they keep well in the fridge too.

Way to Make Variations:

1) Use other dried fruit, such as figs, raisons, cranberries, cherries, apricots, or non-sugar dried tropical fruit in addition to some percentage of date mixture. In my experience at least half should be dates, though.

2) Use different nuts! I’ve tried all of the following, using whatever is in the cubbard: walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts… Did I miss any?

3) Add other raw vegan superfood powders, such as  a teaspoon or tablespoon of maca, lucuma, carob, or mesquite (white carob) in addition to the cacao powder (or replacing some of it)

4) Add spices such as cinnamon, cayenne pepper and ginger. Don’t forget sea salt in your basic recipe, by the way – it brings out the chocolate flavour!

5) Add coconut flakes as part of the dry mix. If you mix turns out wetter than desired, you can roll your cacao date balls up in them.

6) Add extracts: orange, vanilla, almond, peppermint…

7) If you need even more binding power and don’t want so much sticky sweetness, you can add a teaspoon or so of raw nut butter (This adds more fat though. Joy, joy.)

8) Don’t use cacao at all. (An less common choice for, cacao freak that I am.)

Some Variation suggestions:

Tropical: Use tropical fruit bits and use raw cashews for the nuts. Add 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime zest, and 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice to the mix. Drop the cacao.

PB & J: Replace  1/4 cup dates for 1/4 cup dried cherries or cranberries; use raw peanuts for the nuts. Drop the cacao.

Blueberry Bliss: Use 1/2 dried blueberries and 1/2 dates; use almonds for the nuts. Add 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, and a tsp of almond extract to the mix. Drop the cacao.

Cashew Cookie Dough: Use cashews nuts and twice as many dates.

Pistachio Heaven: Use raw pistachios and almond extract.

Mayan spice: Use any nut, add lots of cinnamon and cayenne pepper (careful, this is potent!)

I love dates because I love brown sugar. Dates taste like brown sugar candy, and they are a delicious and healthy way to satisfy one’s sweet tooth. One date has a mere 23 calories and is loaded with nutrition. Dates are an excellent source of carbohydrates (great for pre- or post-workout), contain no cholesterol, are high in fiber, and boast a wide range of nutrients, including calcium (32 mg per serving), Magnesium, Phosphorous, Potassium, Iron, Zinc, Copper, and Manganese. Dates also contain vitamins A1, B1, B2, B3, B5, C and more than 20 different amino acids; they help in the digestion and assimilation of carbohydrates, and help to regulate blood sugar levels and fatty acids content in our bodies.