Date balls with nuts, fruits and chocolate

This is something that I have been wanting to make and share for a few months now. These date balls have everything that I love:

Chocolate. Who doesn't like chocolate?

Roasted Nuts. Nuts about Nuts.

And

Dried fruits. My favorite- Cranberries. Sweet and tart. Perfect balance with the sweet dates.

The best thing about this is that this can be made differently every time.

You may use : White chocolate instead of semi-sweet chocolate.

Any combination of nuts or one kind only.

Any dried fruits- craisins, raisins, prunes.

Also, you may add seeds such as sunflower seeds or chia seeds

And, you may coat them with:

Powdered sugar, cocoa powder, almond meal, roasted coconut flakes.

These are the many reasons I love these date balls.

Oh, another thing, I eat these with my morning breakfast, after lunch as something sweet, as afternoon snacks and anytime in between.

 

So, for the no-recipe date balls (about 18 1inch balls), you need:

1 cup of pitted dates (tightly packed, about 16-18 dates)

¼ cup honey or maple syrup or agave syrup

⅓ cup roasted pistachios

⅓ cup roasted walnuts

⅓ cup craisins

¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

pinch of salt

For coating, I used powdered sugar, an equal mix of powdered sugar and cocoa powder, roasted coconut flakes.

This is how I did it:

Add the dates, honey or maple syrup, salt in the food processor and make a chunky paste of the dates. Add all the other ingredients and pulse just a few times to incorporate the nuts, the fruits and the chocolate chunks evenly in the date paste. This will be very sticky. Put this mixture in the refrigerator for a 2-3 hours. Put a little bit of oil in your palms before you role the mixture into balls. The oil will prevent it from sticking to your hands and will also help in the rolling process. Roll the date balls in your choice of coating and enjoy.

Hot and sweet cranberry chutney

I am so excited to start my food blog today. I am always excited about food and spices. For the last few years I have been celebrating Thanksgiving Dinner with my friends and family and this recipe has always been at the top of their favorites. 

Starting from scratch with a bag of fresh cranberries can take a lot of time, so I skip that completely and go ahead with a store bought cranberry sauce. But, I make sure I get the whole berry cranberry sauce instead of the jellied one. You don't need to tell anyone the truth and fool them easily!

Whole berry sauce

I find store bought cranberry sauce to be just flat sweet, so I spice it up. Along with a citrus flavor from orange zest and juice, orange gives it a tangy taste which you will like for sure. A little bit of ginger and chili powder adds more dimension to this sauce. Try it, its yum!!

Hot and sweet cranberry sauce 

Ingredients:

1 14oz Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry sauce can.

Zest and juice of one orange/2 clementines

1 tsp of fresh ginger paste.

1 tsp of red chili powder (modify according to your tolerance of heat).

Method:

Add the entire contents of a 14oz Oceanspray Whole Berry Cranberry sauce can in a sauce pan on medium heat. The sauce will loosen up as it will get heated up.

Add the zest and juice of one whole orange. I have used 2 clementines this time. Use any citrus fruit you have.

Add the fresh ginger paste and the chili powder and simmer the sauce for 5-10min on medium heat until it thickens up. I cannot stress enough on the fresh ginger paste. Try not to use store bought ginger paste, they have vinegar as preservative which might alter the flavor of the sauce.

Take it off heat before it gets too thick. The sauce will thicken more as it cools down.

Pour it in a nice bowl and serve.