Snickers Bliss Balls

You know I am a bliss ball lover right? If you’ve been in my world for more than a millisecond I’m pretty sure you do ;-)

I even wrote a whole recipe book dedicated to them… and it’s only £4!

Just sayin’ ;-)

Anyway, I was feeling in the mood for something munchy and sweet. Ok, basically I was procrastinating. (procrastisnacking- Is that a thing?)

Earlier I had found a bag of unopened red-skinned peanuts in my pantry and evidently they were on my mind since the idea for chocolate peanut bars was the first thing that entered. I have made a similar recipe before and formed them into bars then dipped them in chocolate BUT that was messy and took longer. This time I added cacao nibs (you could use dark choc chunks of you had some) and blitzed those in too.

Easy peasy, chocolatey, peanutty…

If you are a chocolate and peanut lover I highly recommend you give these a go this weekend!

Recipe: Snickers Bliss Balls

Ingredients:

1 cup peanuts
1 1/2 cups dates* (packed)
1/2 cup cocoa
2 tbs peanut butter - optional but good for all-round texture!
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup cacao nibs or chocolate chunks
Optional- a few drops caramel essence if you have it (I use Foodies Flavours buttery caramel!). Or use vanilla extract.

Method:

Bake the peanuts at ~180C for 5-8 mins until just golden and they smell good! - they do burn quick so be warned a d keep a close eye on them!

Meanwhile, add the dates, cocoa, peanut butter, salt and caramel/vanilla flavour to a food processor and blitz until the mix is blended down and a little sticky- you’ll likely need to add 1-3tbs water as you blitz.

*If your dates are very hard you may want to soak them first and drain them well before blitzing (you probably won’t need to extra water this way)

Once the nuts are roasted, add them (skins fine too) along with the cacao nibs and pulse through to chop/mix in well to reach desired texture.

Roll into balls or bars and chill in the fridge.

You could go one step further and drizzle or coat them in dark chocolate for a more snickers-like experience!

Note: if you are using chocolate chunks wait until the nuts are cold before you mix them through otherwise the chocolate will melt everywhere – unless that’s what you want! 😉

You could also make this recipe with other nuts of choice such as almonds or pistachios - ideally match he nut butter to the whole nut.

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The Festive Recipe Bundle!

A ‘Bliss’full Christmas?

With the festive season fast approaching… I had a slightly spontaneous idea to create a festive recipe bundle including a new version of my ‘top 5 recipes’ with some new favourites I have created since the first edition.

I coupled the Christmas Recipe Guides with my favourite Bliss Ball Guide (featuring loads of recipes that haven’t appeared on the blog) because, for me, Bliss Balls are the perfect Christmas homemade gift… so many of my customers and friends will likely attest to that, ha ha!

‘Printables’

The fun bonus with these ebooks is that they are designed such that you can print them (ideally on card), cut them along the dotted lines to keep on hand in the kitchen OR even better, use the recipe card as a gift tag when you present your homemade gift… that way your ‘giftee’ can make the recipe again for themselves. Fun, right? ;-)

All the recipes are vegan (of course) gluten free (some use oats so opt for GF versions) and refined-sugar free… so you have an indulgent Christmas without compromise.

*Note… I don’t want to imply that there should be any ‘food guilt’ I aim to inspire your creativity with food NOT make you feel bad about food! So go full out and eat sugar and refined foods if you want to, I just know many of us feel so much better in mind and body when sticking to mostly whole foods and unrefined ingredients if there is the option, and so if that’s you thing… I’ve totally got you covered!

The whole bundle is just £5…

You can buy it HERE (or click the pic below!)

View fullsize

P.s I’d love you to tag me on social media in any recipes you make - Instagram is my favourite hangout- I’m @johodson over there :-)

If you don’t fancy getting the guides right now, you can still get lots of recipe ideas right here on my blog… Here are a few to get you going!

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No-Bake Choc Berry Beet Balls!

I am in love with beetroot power! Aside from the fact it looks super cool with it's bright red colour, it imparts a sweetness to recipes and well as a nutritional boost. Beetroot juice is known to be great for our blood, athletes love it as a pre-work out.

In relation to other so called 'superfoods' beetroot power is actually pretty economically priced, another winner in my view. I mix it into smoothies and porridge but here I have used it as a coating for these chocolate berry balls (you could make other flavours such as choc orange).

I thought they were quite halloweeny or even Christmassy... even though I am trying to resist thinking about Christmas- I imagine they would look awesome in a bowl alongside some spiralling covered chocolate balls! ha ha

What are you plans for Halloween... will you be celebrating?

Recipe: Choc Berry Beet Balls

Makes approx 15 balls

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup packed dates
• ½ cup dried cranberries or cherries
• 1 cup cashews or almonds
• ¼ cup cocoa
• ¼ cup beet powder (plus extra to coat)
• ½ tsp cherry extract (or sub for orange extract is that’s more your thing)

Method:

Blend all ingredients together in food processor until you have a slightly sticky well blended mix.

Roll into walnut sized balls with your and dust in the beet powder. Allow to chill in the fridge to firm.