Got a sweet tooth? Here’s a good challenge – ever tried cutting out baked goods and other sugary treats and replaced them with dried fruits and nuts for a week?
The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.
Matthew Arnold
Here’s a sweet way to feed your sweet tooth, with a little chocolate variation to make it even sweeter. All you need is good dates, dried coconut, a little nut butter, and of course, rich, healthy and incredibly satisfying hemp hearts. Combine these ingredients and enjoy a hit of sweetness before a workout or for dessert. Delicious with a spot of tea! Even your mother-in-law will like them.
Because everyone deserves a little sweetness in their lives.
The Less:
Sweet dates are an ancient food prized for their gooey natural sugars. Substitute these for refined sugar and consume less of the white stuff. Nutritionally, these treats will fill you up longer, meaning you can eat less of them to satisfy your craving. More sweetness means less deprivation. Less deprivation can only be a good thing. Because who wants to feel deprived?
The More:
More satisfaction from nutritious nuts and seeds means more sustained energy through the day. Hemp hearts, nut butter, and coconut provide long burning fuel that fills you up for longer. That means more time for all the other sweet things in life.
Date Coconut Bliss Balls:
- 2 cups pitted dates, soaked in water 6-8 hours
- 3 tbsp Pumpkin Seed Butter (you can substitute almond or cashew butter)
- 4 cups dried coconut
- 6 tbsp hemp hearts
Here is how:
Soak dates for 6-8 hours prior to preparing in enough water to cover.
When ready to go, heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread 2 cups of coconut onto a cookie sheet. Roast the coconut in the oven until fragrant (about 4 minutes) and turning brown. Remove from oven to cool in a bowl. Drain dates and add to blender. Blend dates to a paste (you will need to stop the blender to make sure you get it all blended, do not worry if there are a few chunks left). Do not add any additional water to the dates when blending.
Remove dates into a large bowl, making sure to scrape them all out from the blender with a spatula. Combine roasted coconut, plain coconut, and hemp hearts in a bowl. Add this mixture to the date paste one cup at a time, stirring with your hands. Add pumpkin seed butter – keep stirring! Don’t be shy with your hands..the mixture should be firm enough to roll into balls.
Roll into one inch balls with your hands until all done, yum….good work!
If you are adding chocolate, melt some high quality dark chocolate over boiling water (I do this by melting the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl over a pot of bowling water). Dip the balls into the melted chocolate by hand and set on a parchment paper lined flat pan. When done, set the balls by refrigerating until the chocolate is firm.
A little rustic presentation is okay. Unless you are serving the Queen of course. (Then – and only then- you might need to obsess about such things).
Though this won’t be relevant – these will store indefinitely in a sealed container in the fridge!
These aren’t totally raw, as the roasted coconut takes care of that, and you certainly can’t classify chocolate as raw – but they can be if you want to skip those steps. I use Omega’s pumpkin seed butter….so good and they add a little sea salt to it.
I’d love to hear how you find bliss.
Yours in Less,
Yum! These look so good! Where do you find hemp hearts?
Thanks for coming by! Hemp hearts are found these days in most health food stores alongside the flax seed products (they should be refrigerated and you should buy them this way) – they are so so good for you and provide a ridiculous amount of energy! If you can’t find them you could also grind up some cashews really fine and use those too
Good luck! Thanks again!
Well…YUM!
Thanks they are! Thank you also for the follow – hope to see you again! Cheers ~ Shira
Oh yeah, I’m gonna be making these soon! I’ve never tried pumpkin seed butter so this just gives me the perfect excuse to go buy some =)
Excellent!! Even my 14 year old daughter LOVES these – totally all ages approved! I love pumpkin seed butter on rice cakes with a date thrown on top. Totally barbaric but totally delicious!! Hope you enjoy
Cheers! ~ S
YUM! I will have to try these! I’ve had a little jar of pumpkin seed butter since Christmas that I haven’t been using too much and anything with dates and coconut just calls my name so I’ll have to make these soon!
Pumpkin seed butter is so good…these turned out a little browner than normal because I was forced to use roasted seed butter as my local Choices Market was out of the Omega stuff. The Omega (if you can get your hands on it) will make these a beautiful green color…..heaven. I hope you enjoy them Gabby!
Oh so rawesome! A great recipe I must share with my clients!
Just a short note: to Shira and followers, hemp hearts if you are in need for supply at wholesale prices I work direct with our canadian hemp farmers here, if you need supply let me know I can send you direct wholesale prices if you need hemp. I am happy to provide savings to you & your loved ones!
Shira, once again I love your stuff you are putting out!! Great recipe I must share with the hemp out girls, we are always seeking more hemp recipes this one looks delish!!!
That’s so awesome Teri – I would totally buy hemp hearts from you – and yes, please do share! I love this recipe for the simplicity – only 4 ingredients and hemp hearts amaze me as a clean fuel. So amazing. I’ll message you when I need to buy more!! Thanks Teri – love your enthusiasm, you are so kind!
These look delicious! And perfect for passover – I’m starting to collect recipes already. Yum, thanks for sharing!
So glad you like! They taste as delicious as they look…..I love these around 3 pm when I just need a little something – thanks for stopping by!! ~ S
These look so good Shira! x
Oh they SO are! Thanks! Love your garden shots today, btw!
Thanks for liking my blog. Yours is very interesting and well written. Indeed, we are very blessed here in the western world. When we grow to accustomed to excess in our lives, the very things that were intended as blessings, begin to weigh us down. I love this recipe, it reminds me of something I made a while ago but lost track of the recipe. I’ve never tried hemp hearts but I’m obsessed with pumpkin seed butter. I’ll give them a try!
I hope you get to try them! I love having them in my fridge when I need a little sustenance. Thanks for your kind and thoughtful comments – I appreciate them very much! I realized now at this point in life that I wanted to become more aware, and hopefully engage others in the process as well! I do hope you will stop in again! Thanks again! ~ S
Shira, I woke up in the middle of the night and starting thinking of making these and worried I wouldn’t know where to find you (and your recipe). Glad I did…I’ll follow you now:)
Thank you Amy! Glad you found me again too
I hope you love the bliss balls, they are so worth it!
These are amazing…with a little dip of chocolate, they taste just like almond joy candy bars but with none of the processed glop! I just found your blog and love it…so creative…I’ve tried a few things already…what I’d we do before the Internet?
I know, right? So glad you found me – and enjoyed these date balls! Wonderful to hear!
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