No need to straddle a packet of biscuits to nurse that stinking hangover.
When these energy balls are programmed into your festive calendar, you’ll jumpstart your battery faster than immediately.
I made them on TV3’s Seven O’Clock Show tonight, so you can watch the demo here with the inimitable Lucy Kennedy (love her wicked humour).
1 1/2 cups (225g) sticky Medjool dates, stones removed
1 cup (140g) walnuts (Lidl have great ones)
1/4 cup (20–25g) raw cacao or cocoa powder
3 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
1 teaspoon spirulina powder (optional)
Pinch sea salt flakes
4 drops of culinary-grade orange oil (or zest from 1 unwaxed orange)
3 tablespoons goji berries, very finely chopped (optional jolliness)
Pulse all the ingredients except the gojies in a food processor, and not a blender. Whizz until the nuts clump together in a large dough ball. One minute should be about right. Taste and decide if it needs more orange oil to mask the taste of spirulina.
Make 20 golf ball-sized truffles or 30–40 smaller ones by rolling some dough between your palms. Place on a non-stick tray and chill until relatively firm. Once set (about 30 minutes), you can trying rolling them in the bright red goji berry dust. Raw cacao powder or desiccated coconut work well too, but the racy colour of gojies is freakishly festive. So I like these.
I pop some lolli sticks into the energy balls at this stage, so my nippers can enjoy them too.
Store in the fridge and grab on the run. And highfive my 13 year old neighbour Chitra, for sparking the inspiration for this recipe!
Photography by Joanne Murphy
An adaptation from The Virtuous Tart, Irish Cookbook of the Year 2015