Ready in 15-20 minutes

Makes about 15-20, easy to scale up

These are amazing – sweet but not overly so, adaptable with different tastes, rich in protein and complex carbohydrates and fibre.  And they pass the child/teenager test. Make them neatly, coat them in cocoa powder or dessicated coconut, put them in a pretty box and they could be a gift!

They are also something that children can have fun making and inventing flavours, choosing things to decorate them with.

All the ingredients are long life store cupboard ingredients which is a bonus.

Ingredients

• 14 Dates, stone removed
• 6 tablespoons ground almonds
• Splash of water
• 4 tablespoons oats
• Optional flavours – 
  • cocoa powder (1-2tbsp)
  •  replace 1-2 tbsp ground almonds with the same of dessicated coconut
  •  orange zest (add to your taste)
  •  chopped dried cranberries (works well with orange zest)
  • mixed spice for a Xmas taste
  • Grated carrot and ground ginger
  • Cocoa and chopped crystallised ginger

Preparation

1. Put the stoned dates and ground almonds into a food processor or the processor fitting on a handheld blender with a splash of water. (If you have too much water you get a softer, ganache like texture).
2. When you have sticky mixture that seems quite well blended then add the oats and whizz again.  You can add your optional flavours here or mix them in after. Spices and cocoa can be added here, if you want bits of cranberry/orange zest/carrot noticeable in the final balls then mix in afterwards.
3. When you have a mixture that you can form easily into balls then tip it into a bowl, add any additions that give texture as well as taste and mix them in.  
4. If you want, you can roll them in a range of things e.g.  cocoa powder, icing sugar, dessicated coconut, chopped nuts, hundreds and thousands (coloured sugar seeds), toasted seeds, sesame seeds……you get the idea.  Be creative.