I love making energy bites to take with me to work to share with my work colleagues so I decided to come with a new recipe I haven’t tried yet (obviously involving cacao!). These cacao and roasted hazelnut energy balls went down really well in the office I recently got a new blender/food processor and could not wait to test it out on energy balls as my poor old food processor just could not cope with medjool dates!
I added peanut butter to this recipe to help bind them together and I love the texture it provides. You could use hazelnut butter for this recipe to enhance the flavour or even almond butter but I opted for peanut butter as it is so much more affordable.
These delicious little bites can be kept in the fridge or at room temperature, I definitely recommend eating them straight from the fridge as it gives them an amazing chewy texture!
Makes approximately 15 energy bites
INGREDIENTS:
100g hazelnuts
200g pitted medjool dates
1.5 tbsp coconut oil, soft but not melted
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
Pinch of salt
Optional extra: cacao powder to roll the energy bites in
METHOD:
- Start by preheating the oven to 150oc and lining a baking tray
- Spread the hazelnuts out on the baking tray and roast for 10-12 minutes until they are fragrant and starting to brown
- Leave the hazelnuts to cool for 10 minutes
- Once cooled roll the hazelnuts between pieces of kitchen paper to remove as much of the skins as you can
- Next place them in a blender or food processor and pulse until they are finely chopped
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the blender or processor and pulse again until the dates have broken down and everything has combined
- The mixture should be crumbly but stick together between your fingers
- Take a small amount of the mixture (approx 20 grams) and roll it between your hands to form a ball shape
- Cover a plate with clingfilm (stops them sticking) and place the energy bites in the fridge to set before enjoying!
- For best results store them in an airtight container
