These chocolate orange chia seed balls are great for an afternoon pick me up. Make in advance and freeze to give you that energy boost on those long walks or cycles.

Makes 16 balls
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup cashew nuts
3 tbsp cacao powder
1/2 cup pitted dates, medjool are best
4 tsp chia seeds
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
2 tbsp nut butter
Zest & juice of 1/2 Orange
Cocoa powder for rolling

These choc orange bliss balls use cacao powder rather than cocoa powder (we use some cocoa powder for dusting). The main difference is cocoa powder is roasted at high temperatures unlike raw cacao which still retains the living enzymes. It is worth bearing in mind when using cacao in recipes where it is going to be cooked that you will loose the health benefits it has when it is raw.

If you are using medjool dates they won’t need soaking, for all other dates soak with the nuts, oats and chia seeds. Make sure the dates are pitted or that you remove the stone!

Method for Bliss Balls:

1. Soak the nuts, oats, chia seeds and dates (if not medjool) in warm water for an hour.
2. Drain off all of the water, but keep the water to use to loosen up the mixture if its too stiff.
3. Put the drained nuts, oats, chia seeds and dates with the rest of the ingredients and blitz in a food processor . The mixture may look a little like sand – this is normal!
4. Try working the mixture together in your hand and squeeze into balls. If its not holding together and a little of the soaking water and blitz again.
5. Divide and roll the mixture into 16 balls.
6. Sieve cocoa powder onto a plate then coat the balls in the cocoa powder.

The balls will keep for 3-4 weeks in the fridge or up to 3 months in the freezer.

If you don’t want to freeze but want the balls to last a bit longer you could replace the orange zest with dried zest and use orange oil instead of juice.