Dates Nuts Honey Balls

Boy: «Why is the food cold and bland?»
Dad: «Because your mother put her heart and soul into it.»
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The quote about food aside, after trying out some Fruit Bio Powerballs consisting of dates, nuts and cocos flakes, I tried to recreate the recipe. Given that I did not have cocos flakes and needed additional «glue» to hold it together, I used honey. So essentially, it’s these dates nuts honey snacks grounded in ball form.

Just hack nuts and dates (can be quickly done with a bend knife). Mix. Add salt and (if desired) pepper.

Mix in honey (used rather thick one) and knead it until you have a stick mass. Latex gloves were very useful here. Once the mass is evenly mixed, just form small balls out of the material by using the palms of your hands. Then roll them in finely hacked nuts.

You see an image of the main materials below (well, except the dates).

For packaging, aluminum foil works very well.

You end up with small, easily transportable snacks. And given the ingredients, they are … well, they contains lots of kcals, but at least it’s mostly healthy.

BTW, if you buy similar dates-based balls, it pays to look at the ingredients. As someone once said, avoid food with more than three ingredients. The package that inspired me to do these balls did contain only three — dates, nuts and cocos flakes — so they were likely okay. But I did find «energy balls» on Amazon — each ball has the equivalent of a cup of coffee. And those did contain date syrup combined with a blend of different proteins (pea, rice, hemp), and a few other ingredients (acai, acerola, guarana, lucuma, maca, sunflower lecithin, yacon, guarana, germinated quinoa, germinated flaxseed). While those ingredients are from «certified organic cultivation», it doesn’t sound like a wholesome product. Especially the syrup and the protein blend. Of interest were also the ingredients which were not marked as from «certified organic cultivation» — humectant glycerin and natural flavor cherry. «Natural» flavor might sound «natural», but I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with actual cherries. They did point out their eco-seals, though — somewhat confirming my distrust of both these eco-seals and the company.

So yeah, probably better to make them yourself. Hmm, and they do taste well. 🙂