Having just completed a Whole30 recently, I was looking for a healthy treat when in Adelaide over the Australia Day weekend. I don’t know who coined the name “bliss ball” but it encompasses little packages of bliss in the form of a fruity nutty fudgey thing which are, indeed, very yummy to eat.
Almost always raw, these little treats are a great way to extricate yourself from the habit of diving for processed sugar when looking for something sweet. But unfortunately, the very nature of them relies on the heavy use of dried fruit to hold them together, which is a very condensed form of sugar, albeit natural.
So I avoided all of the gorgeous gluten-free and Paleo treats that I saw at the wonderful Adelaide markets and beyond, and sought out some bliss balls. But I was in for a shock. Foremost, I couldn’t believe how expensive these things were, some costing up to $6.50 each for a golf ball sized snack. Next; the amount of fruit – the popular ones were at least 80% dried dates, they were so sweet I couldn’t palate them, which was a good thing because of the size – eating a whole one of these in a single sitting would send me into a diabetic coma!
I tried ‘low fructose’ versions which didn’t have any dried fruit in them but they were pasty and non-descript. All of this “research” led me to coming home and making a ‘low fructose’ one of my own, which still tasted great, had good texture and fulfilled my hankering for a treat.
I have based these on raw cacao butter and coconut butter as most bliss ball recipes rely on the heavy use fruit or coconut oil (kept frozen) to hold them together. Using cacao butter circumvents the need to use copious amounts of dried fruit or keeping them in the freezer. Apart from being a very stable saturated fat, cacao butter is full of anti-oxidant compounds, including oleic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid and you can get it at your health-food shop.
Bliss balls are subjective – everyone’s idea of bliss is different – this is an interpretation of my own!
30g linseeds 100 almonds, raw or toasted 50g sunflower seeds 40g dried figs 1 tab psyllium husks ½ teas cinnamon 1 tab protein powder 80g raw cacao butter 40g coconut butter 1 tab cacao powder 30g dark chocolate stevia to taste* Mill the linseeds, cacao butter and chocolate on SP 10 for 10 seconds. Add the nuts, figs and seeds and pulse a few times so they are not too fine. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix on SP 3 REVERSE so that some texture remains. Depending on how moist the figs are will depend on how wet the mix is. You may need to add a few drops of water to scoop tablespoon sized balls and roll in coconut or sunflower seeds or sesame seeds. They are best kept in the fridge. *You may not need the stevia if you use a protein powder that is already sweetened.
clevercook 
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