Healthy snack? Little treat? Why not both? This kumara bliss balls recipe ticks all the boxes for nutrition, texture and flavour. Double the recipe so you don’t have to fight for your share.
These bliss balls were originally developed for a client with specific requirements. They had to be no-added-sugar, the amount of dried fruit per ball was limited and they had to include kumara (New Zealand sweet potato). The testing phase proved challenging, turning out bland, mooshy bliss balls. Even with a brain-exploding amount of cacao, the chocolate flavour was very meh.
Luckily, in the recipe developer pit of despair I took a half-hearted look at ‘On Food and Cooking’ (McGee) and found a few transferrable tips. Then a bit more experimentation, and finally, a bliss ball to rival the very best. Let’s discuss:
Troubleshooting Bliss Balls
Bliss balls not chocolatey enough. To bring out chocolate flavour you need fat and sweet. To increase the available fat (which also improved the texture), I added olive oil, then used the food processor to extract the natural oils of the nuts and seeds. Give that almond flour some decent time in the processor. You don’t need to make almond butter (although, you ‘could’), but blend until the colour deepens.
Bliss balls not sweet enough. This issue was resolved by following the cardinal rule: use only medjool dates. It’s night and day between medjool and the cheaper deglet noor dates for sweetness.
Bliss balls too soft / too firm. Issues with texture come down to the kumara and the dates. Both vary in water content depending on method. Dates may be soaked or not, kumara may be steamed from fresh, or microwaved from fresh or frozen. You can see in these clips from the video how ingredient prep affects the mix.
After your first batch you’ll have a better idea of what you might like to tweak.
Bliss balls kind of bland. Salt helps here, and you can change up the dried fruit. I found tangy fruits like tart apricots and cherries provided a nice edge to the flavour. A shot of espresso may be a welcome addition too, if coffee flavours are your thing.
Speaking of coffee, these bliss balls go perfectly with one as a work day energy boost. Or has it been a ‘need a little treat’ day? Here’s your little treat. You absolutely deserve this, and don’t forget what I said about using medjool dates. They are the secret to bliss ball success.
Sara
xx
Kumara bliss balls video
Recipe card
Kumara Bliss Balls
Equipment
- 1 Food processor
- 1 Bowl
Ingredients
- 8 Large Medjool dates
- 90 grams Chopped dried fruit (tart cherries or apricots work well)
- 80 grams Cooked kumara (sweet potato)
- 50 grams Almond flour / ground almonds
- 40 grams Sunflower seeds / hemp seeds
- 30 grams Cacao powder (tbsp = approx 10 grams) regular cocoa powder also ok
- 1 Tbsp Light olive oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla essence
- ¾ tsp Salt
- Dessicated coconut for rolling (optional)
Instructions
- If your dates are not soft you may want to soak them. Put them into a bowl and pour warm water over them. If you are not soaking the dates, pit them and chop into quarters.
- Cook your kumara by steaming or microwaving until it is soft then set aside to cook and dry out a bit.
- Put the almond flour, half the sunflower seeds, olive oil, vanilla and salt into the food processor and process until the mix starts to darken a bit. You are pulling oils out of the nuts and seeds, this improves the flavour.
- Add the cacao/cocoa powder and kumara. Start the processor and add the dates in increments. Stop the food processor every minute or so to prevent overheating.
- When the mix is fully combined, transfer it to a bowl. Depending on how wet your ingredients were, it may be a thick dough or a firm lump at this point. If it looks too wet to roll, add some coconut.
- Stir through the remaining sunflower seeds and chopped dried fruit ( I use clean hands) then form into balls, rolling each in desicated coconut as you go.
- Store in the fridge for snacks. They will get more firm over time.
Thanks for this. It looks ideal, using kumara/almond flour instead of loads of processed nuts. I’ll try it out with avocado oil.
I’ve made this twice so far. The recipe is fool-proof (like your others) and delicious. Not oversweet and the bliss balls are the right texture – in no danger of falling apart. The avocado oil was not a good idea – too bitter so I’ve used a very mild olive oil this time round to good effect.
I used deglet noor dates as I didn’t know where to get the medjool ones and luckily I enjoyed the degree of sweetness as it turned out.
Thank you so much for this feedback. You’ve motivated me to get the next post up! xx