Tuesday 27 August 2013

Orange Cocoa Balls

You're a tough crowd you lot. I'm very excited about some of the sugar alternatives I wrote about recently, but wasn't greeted with a long list of rapturous responses. Being mostly Kiwis, I'm thinking you're probably just excited on the inside. So. Keep up the excitement everyone...

The challenge with many of these sugar alternatives is how to swap them for sugar when a simple straight swap won't work. I see my experimenting with them in two ways. 1. -  using them in new and different kinds of recipes where other people have done the hard work or swapping in the new ingredient is an easy swap, and 2. - fiddling around with favourite, standard recipes to include the new ingredient but still getting the consistency right.


Today's recipe is something I haven't really made before, and is an easy swap - it uses rice syrup instead of honey, and I've made a couple of other small adjustments.


Do you like what my new macro lens can do? I know the white is a little blown out, KH probably wouldn't have let that one pass.

A friend of mine brought an evening snack round recently and told me they were called "Energy Balls" and weren't really that exciting. Brilliant! Is that how people think of me now? No, I'm sure you don't, and I thought it was hilarious, and also fairly accurate. BUT, we don't always have to be eating double chocolate cream balls or something, and these have their place in life. I actually find them quite good for a mid afternoon snack.

I took out the dried fruit from the original recipe (as it's loaded with fructose) and added some orange zest and cocoa powder. There is some orange juice, which is also fructose laden, but it's barely a drop, especially when spread across each serving. I'm quite keen to get my hands on some cocoa nibs actually, and they would be great in here.




Orange Cocoa Balls 

1 cup ground almonds
2/3 cup rolled oats
3 Tablespoons rice syrup (or honey).
1/4 cup orange juice (approx half an orange)
1 Tablespoon cocoa
Grated zest of half an orange
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
(shake of chia seeds optional)

Simply mix together and roll in to balls. Roll in extra coconut, or in cocoa powder, or half in each.
(For half of the above recipe I used 1 tablespoon cocoa and 1 scoop (ie tiny pinch) of stevia



Here's the update to Orange Cocoa Balls:

Post Script: For those who don't use ground almonds, you can substitute it with "oatmeal" - ground up rolled oats that you can make at home with a food processor or mini chopper. One of our readers, Frank, has made this recipe and used a combo of walnut, almond, linseed and pumpkin seed, and suggests that if you need to avoid nuts you could use ground seeds only. Thanks Frank!

If you'd like your cocoa balls to be a little sweeter, try adding a couple of tablespoons of glucose (remove 2 tablespoons of ground almonds/oatmeal).

I've tried adding coca nibs too, and the jury is still out on these. They add a bit of crunch, but not an exciting flavour (you can't fool yourself that you are eating chocolate). They're certainly good for you though.


14 comments:

  1. I have to admit, when we came to see you I didn't know what to bring! And if I did bring baking I would definitely feel the pressure to substitute and explain what was in the treats... just so you know. Thank goodness for hummus eh (and these tasty looking morsels)! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's ok I do eat sugar sometimes! And I hate to put the pressure on. But the hummus was particularly awesome - Reuben was excited by the kumara. And I'm a little bit pleased to change people's mindsets, and habits, a bit. Do you know you have just reminded me I had a dream that I was tucking in to some pudding, and someone said "oh Angela I have cheese and crackers here." Ha ha ha!

      Delete
  2. Just beautiful!

    From the title I thought they'd be naughtier - these look substantial and proper-food-ish - I can totally see snacking during the day on these. Alternate with breakfast cookies... :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll get some in the cupboard for Monday.

      Delete
  3. I am writing this recipe down now (yes, I am so old school!), they sound delicious, and I'm always looking for yummy but healthy treats to have on hand when I need a wee something. Thanks for doing the hard work, Angela x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wonderful! Handwritten recipes are lovely.

      Delete
  4. these look delicious but we have to be nut-free =0( what could i replace the almonds with?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a tough one! I'm looking in to it but no luck so far. One big problem is that they are not cooked, so flour is not really an option.

      Delete
    2. One suggestion I have found is a mixture of coconut flour and tapioca flour - you can find quite a few of these kinds of flours in the baking section at our favourite supermarket.

      Delete
    3. i wonder what that would taste like? they look so delicious! i really miss nuts! too risky to have them in the house though. i've just seen your post on sugar alternatives too. i can't get past not knowing where and how glucose is made. clearly my research skills are lacking. and i've just bought some quinoa to try out. i am really hoping my kids will try it with us!!

      Delete
    4. Oh! Well what an interesting question about how glucose is made! I will happily look in to it. No matter what the answer, it is still better for us than sugar. Now I have been thinking more about your almond flour dilemma. I sort of thought you could do all oats, but the texture would be awfully rough. I blitz rolled oats in my mini chopper (the thing that came with my stick blender) and that would get you a fine powder very similar in texture to almond flour. I don't know if it would be too oaty, but well worth a try. You could also try glucose to help add something powdery, and to mix it up a little. Could try half a cup of blitzed oats (oatmeal I believe it's called) and 1/2 cup glucose. Shall I try it for you? :)

      Delete
  5. Hey Beautiful!
    I know you specialise in sugar alternatives but I was wondering what you might suggest as alternative to oats. As a coeliac I adjust a lot of recipes to make the gluten free friendly but I have no idea what to substitute oats with. Quinoa....? More nuts....? I would love to be able to try these and introduce the to the kids. They eat just about everything I put in front them.
    You are doing a fabulous job! Thank you!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lana. Ground nuts would be a really simple and great alternative. My only hesitation is that I think we can eat too much almond flour - so if they're in all sorts of other things as part of your family's daily diet I'd want to at least perhaps try a different nut. Otherwise, be brave and experiment with other flours. Perhaps quinoa, I haven't used it in baking. Perhaps coconut, I know it is rather drying so try a half size recipe, and increase the liquids a little. Good luck and tell me how it goes! xx

      Delete