Christmas Morning Balls
If you need a little something whilst opening the presents or indeed, in the weeks leading up to xmas, these antioxidant-rich morsels should sort you out. Bursting with selenium for fighting infection and protecting against cellular damage, they also carry a teeny tiny caffeine hit – so heed the name and don’t consume late in the day if you are sensitive to caffeine or have sleep issues!
MAKES 10-12
Ingredients
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons of cocoa
2 teaspoons ground coffee
1 tablespoon chia seeds
*Try and find raisins that have don’t have canola oil in them
Method
Put the nuts and coconut chips into a food processor and blend for 3-4 minutes until well crushed. Add in the raisins and coconut oil and blend for another minute or so. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until well combined.
Roll mixture into balls with your hands and place on to baking paper — you might need to really push the mixture together to get the balls to come together, just work with it, enjoy the mess! Pop them in the fridge to harden up and store there until needed.
For that festive look, garnish with a little dark chocolate, a cranberry and a baby basil leaf – if you are taking them to work, they’re best just left plain so as not to call attention to them, hopefully you’ll have leftovers ;-)
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January 28, 2014
Would these work without nuts? Due to allergies…
January 29, 2014
Hi Rachael – yikes no nuts! I haven’t tried making them without nuts but if I was to, I’d probably add an extra cup of Coconut Chips and 1/2 C Sunflower Seeds as a replacement? Maybe an extra tbsp of Chia Seeds too? If you try it, I’d love to hear how you get on!
February 14, 2014
I’m new to this so sorry if I sound dumb – what are Coconut Chips? I’m keen to use your recipes as you are New Zealand based (I’m in Christchurch) – can you recommend anywhere in particular for buying Paleo friendly ingredients?
February 15, 2014
Hey Rachael – Ceres makes a good coconut chips product – actually probably the only brand I’ve seen in NZ (but I could be wrong).
http://www.ceres.co.nz/Our_Products/Ceres_Organics/Baking/CategoryID/269/ProductID/13708
http://www.ceres.co.nz/Stockists
If you can’t find them, just substitute with any dried coconut, just make sure it hasn’t got nasty extras in it. The chips, for some reason, just seem to blend up easier – but I just go with whatever’s in the pantry.
CG xx
March 21, 2014
Thanks I found them. They’re really yummy just to nibble on too!
October 29, 2015
Hi Rachael…I am just getting myself acquainted with the paleo way, and of course I start with desert! How long would these keep in the fridge or could they be frozen? I was thinking of making them ahead of time for Xmas Day. Beautiful recipes by the way!
November 2, 2015
Hi Luen — go you! I make big batches of these and store them in the freezer for months so they would definitely last until Xmas day if you made them now. They don’t freeze up super hard, so you can eat them straight from the freezer whenever you fancy! Enjoy!