Cocoa nibs and an update on orange cocoa balls

I've just written a brief update on the Orange Cocoa Balls post, with a few different options for those of you who are interested, and I'll copy it in below to save you clicking through. And you may (or may not) be excited to hear about cocoa nibs.






I tracked down some cocoa nibs recently, I must say they were harder to find than I thought. Wellingtonians, they stock them at Moore Wilson in town, who very kindly sent a couple of packets out to their Keneperu store especially for me. I was delighted to get hold of them but can't quite decide how I feel about them. They don't really add anything but crunch to the Orange Cocoa Balls. Mind you, perhaps adding them to something cocoa-less would be a better way to test them out. *Sigh* - I suppose that means more baking...

Have you ever used them/eaten them, or do you have any ideas on what I should try them in?

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.

Yet another one of those moments: "Hey, don't do tha... oh hang on, let me just get the camera."