Christmas Treats - Pudding Bliss Balls

            I love making food for others. I genuinely love testing out recipes I have created, from an idea I have seen here on the internet. I struggle to follow recipes, but I love that. I feel free and happiest when I throw ingredients together that form what I envision in my head, and it works out! (sometimes it doesn’t and that’s ok).

            So this year for a few of the Christmas parties with my friends, I decided to try my hand at making healthy gingerbread men, because I’ve never tried baking them before. I also decided to try a Christmas pudding inspired little bliss ball, because I think they would look really cute on a dessert platter and would be super easy to share around with everyone.

After spending a morning in the kitchen trying to create a healthy version of gingerbread, and ending up only making a slightly ginger tasting, man shaped rock. I decided to leave it for another day and just make the pudding bliss balls. Which actually turned out really well! So I thought I’d share the recipe with you all.

Confession: I used to hate dried fruit. I would avoid anything with dried fruit in it like the plague! So the thought of Christmas pudding would always turn me right off. I have only recently, in the last few years, formed a love for dried fruits. I also love using them as a sweetener when baking, when I’m not using coconut sugar or rice malt syrup.

            I personally like to avoid a lot of highly processed foods, and any product with a crazy long ingredients list, because I don’t feel as good when I eat them to often. I love using whole food ingredients when I am cooking or baking, that doesn’t have any sneaky additives or unnecessary ingredients, also choosing organic when I can.

Although these little puddings have 2 cups of dried fruit, they aren’t too sweet. Which I think is perfect in a season where a lot of the food is often very rich and very sweet. They are a perfect little afternoon or after dinner treat on Christmas day or at a Christmas party.

Pudding Bliss Balls

Plant-based - Dairy Free - Gluten Free

Makes: 35 small balls or 18 larger balls

Time:  Prep- 15-20 mins

Setting- 30 mins minimum

Ingredients:

- 1 cup dates

- 2 cup almonds

- 1 cup sultanas

- ¼ cup goji berries

- Zest of ½ a lemon

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1 tsp ground ginger

- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

- ¼ tsp ground clove

- Pinch Himalayan pink salt

- 1 tsp maca powder (optional)

- 1 tsp mesquite powder (optional)

Topping: (optional)

            These little pudding bliss balls taste amazing as they are, but if you want to go that little bit extra and decorate them you could do either of these chocolate options, and then top with goji berries:

- 50g dark choc melted (will no longer be plant-based and dairy free, unless you choose to use a vegan chocolate)

Or

- Carob dairy free chocolate

            - 4 tbsp coconut oil, melted

            - 3 heaped tbsp carob powder (could also use raw cacao powder)

            - 1 tbsp liquid sweetener (I used rice malt syrup)

            - 1 tbsp unhulled tahini

            - Pinch of Himalayan pink salt (optional)

            - Pinch chili flakes (optional)

- 70 goji berries (2 for each pudding, you’ll only need around 36 if you are doing a larger shaped bliss balls)

Method:

- If your using dried dates, soak them in boiling water to soften and re-hydrate them a bit. If your using medjool dates, or a similar fresher variety, you won’t need to soak them.

- Pop the almonds into a food processor, and blitz them by themselves first to get them broken down a bit, aim for a coarse crumb.

- Drain the dried dates well, squeeze the water from them and add them into the food processor, along with all the other ingredients except for the goji berries. Blitz this up until the mixture has combined to a point where it is sticky and is able to form a ball shape. You can decide how finely chopped you want all of your ingredients, but I kind of like that you can see different chunks of ingredients.

- Once you’re happy with the consistency, add in the goji berries and stir them through the mixture. 

- Spoon out around a tablespoon of mixture at a time and roll it into solid ball shapes. Lay these out on a tray or a plate and pop them in the fridge to firm up. It also helps set the chocolate when the bliss balls are a cool temperature.

- If you do decide to decorate your bliss balls, you can melt the dark chocolate and spoon over half a teaspoon on top of each bliss ball, or combine the ingredients of the carob chocolate in a bowl and spoon over half a teaspoon on the top of each bliss ball. When combining the ingredients for the carob chocolate, mix them until just combined, as it tends to split if you over mix it.

- Lastly before setting the pudding bliss balls in the fridge, top each one with two goji berries for that little finishing touch.

- Store the pudding bliss balls in the fridge in an airtight container.

Let me know how you go if you do try these out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #cinnamoncourtney so I can see all of your recreations!

Merry Christmas xo

‘My life is too short not to do what I love’ – Robert Holden