Date Balls
Date balls are delicious guilt-free snack balls loaded with the goodness of dates, nuts, seeds and everything else you love! They are vegan, gluten-free and made with all natural ingredients. No added sweeteners and fats! If you don’t eat nuts, make these date balls with seeds or with rolled oats.
This recipe requires only 2 basic ingredients – good quality soft dates like medjool and your favorite nuts or seeds like almonds, pecans, walnuts or cashews.
Nut flours like almond or cashew flour also works here and keep the date nut balls lighter in texture.
You are free to use various kinds of seeds like sesame/ tahini, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, melon seeds or pumpkin seeds.
These date nut balls taste good even without any flavorings. But a dash of vanilla extract or little ground spices like cardamom, cinnamon or even chai spice will take the flavor profile to the next level.
Dehydrated coconut flakes, cocoa powder, dried fruits like figs, cranberries and apricots also add different flavor and texture to your date balls.
You can make the date nut balls in a food processor, chopper a mixer/grinder or even without any of these. If you have softer kind of dates like medjool, you just don’t need an electric appliance.
How to Make Date Balls
It is optional to heat dates. Heating softens the dates and increases the shelf life if you want to store the date balls at room temperature.
1. Add 18 to 20 pitted dates to a pan and heat them on a medium flame until hot and soft. Alternately you may heat them in the oven. Pit the dates and spread them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Place it in the center of your oven and heat for 7 to 10 mins at 350 F /175 C, until hot. You don’t need to preheat the oven.
2. Toast ¾ cup nuts in a pan until nutty and crunchy. Transfer to a cooling tray. Toast ¼ cup seeds on a medium heat until crunchy and nutty. Cool them completely. Here I used pistachios, 2 tablespoons flax seeds and 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds. You can use whatever you like.
3. Add the nuts and seeds to a food processor and pulse them until broken. I powder the flaxseeds separately to a fine powder, using a small grinder. We prefer a meal like texture in our date balls so I process them longer.
4. Add the dates, ½ to ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract or ground cardamom and process until the mixture comes together. Taste test and add more dates to make it sweeter or more nuts to make it less sweet.
5. Scoop out 1 heaped tablespoon of the mixture and roll to balls. Roll them in coconut if you want.
6. Store date balls in an air tight jar up to 2 weeks at room temperature or in the refrigerator for a couple of months.
Pro Tips
If you store your dates in refrigerator, you may heat them up in a pan, an oven or in the microwave for 60 seconds. This helps to soften them.
On a medium flame, toast the nuts in a pan until they smell nutty and turn crunchy. Alternately you may microwave them for 2 minutes. Cool them completely.
Roughly chop mixed nuts like almonds, cashews, pistachios, pecans etc. If you want you may replace some of the nuts with seeds of choice.
Deseed medjool dates and add them to a plate. Mash them well with a fork or your fingers. Incorporate chopped nuts and desiccated coconut or coconut flakes if you wish.
Mix and knead them with your fingers to bring together.