I never use to be a coconut girl, I wasn’t ever fully convinced on the flavour but recently I’ve become pretty obsessed with it and now I’m eating coconut with everything! I’m having a serious coconut love affair. It’s particularly awesome sprinkled on top of my morning smoothie alongside slithered almonds and raw cacao nibs – just incredible! Wow.
Anyway given my new love of coconut I realised that I needed to start incorporating it into my sweet treats. This particular recipe for raw coconut and cacao bites was one of my first and favourite coconut experiments. It turned out a million times better than I could have ever expected. They are seriously more incredible than anything, so good that they’re replaced my cravings for raw brownies, which is a huge deal as I’ve been making raw brownies several times a week for the past year! The coconut just adds the most incredible flavour to the cacao, making each bite so unbelievably delicious. The flavours really complement each other and the amounts used in the recipe means that both flavours remain deliciously subtle, yet still present and so awesomely sweet with an almost buttery texture thanks to the addition of cashew butter. They literally just melt in your mouth! They’re the perfect speedy snack, taking no more then five minutes to make, and you can keep them in your fridge all week to make sure that you always have a deliciously healthy snack around to sate those sweet cravings!
One of the most awesome things about these bites is that they’re also bursting with protein thanks to all the almonds and the cashew butter, so as well as sating your sweet tooth they’ll also fill you up, making you even less likely to reach for a chocolate bar. While the coconut will increase your energy levels as it contains a particular type of healthy fat that is very quickly converted into fuel for organ and muscle function, giving you instant energy to help you out of that mid-day slump. So you can enjoy your sweets knowing that your body will enjoy them too!
- 1 cup of desiccated coconut
- 1 cup of almonds
- 1/2 a dozen medjool dates
- 4 tablespoons of cashew butter
- 2 tablespoons of raw cacao
- 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
Start by putting the almonds and coconut in a food processor and blend for a minute or two, until a flour starts to form. Then add the cashew butter, coconut oil and cacao blending for a few seconds before slowly adding in the dates.
Continue to blend until everything has been combined together to form a sticky mixture. This mixture can then be rolled into balls and covered in more coconut and left in the fridge to firm up for an hour or alternately you can enjoy it with a spoon straight from a cup, or be like me and eat it straight from the blender! Either way you’ll love it! If you can resist not eating the whole mixture then keep the remaining bites in the fridge in a container.
What beautiful shots (and I think these type of energy balls are definitely tricky to photograph)! I bet these were yummy – I made something similar (we called them healthy bounty bars) once – mix of dates, cashew nuts, coconut and chocolate chips) and I think they were what powered me, my boyfriend and my sister on a gruelling hike in Sardinia in 40 degree weather. I love how tasty these balls/bars are and how they are the perfect energy boost, whether for a workout or during an afternoon slump at work.
Thank you so much Sophia! I totally agree that they’re like healthy bounty bars, that’s exactly what I was thinking about when I made them and sounds like the recipe is very similar to yours
Excuse me, how is this mixture on the fingers? Would it be relatively with no trouble shaping balls, or would the mixture be over-sticky to the skin? Please advise, thank you.
Alexander, I just made these tonight, and I can tell you they were incredible, especially after sitting in the fridge for a while, and it was very easy to form balls with the mixture with slightly wet hands (I just put my hand under the tap for a second). Easy, quick and delicious! I used cacao powder to roll the balls in instead of coconut because I like the extra bitterness. This is a keeper for sure!
Thanks. I will go ahead and try making these. It’s just one time I followed a recipe, and was so mad when started shaping cookies in my hands that they just sticked and wouldn’t behave at all, even when I added olive oil to the mixture, it worked for a cookie or two, and then the same story began. Thanks for the reply, i will make sure to wet my hand a bit.
I totally understand that, it’s a nightmare when everything sticks to your hand but I promise these don’t do that!
I know they’re insanely incredible once they’ve been in the fridge – they taste like fudge, it’s awesome! Love your idea of rolling them in cacao powder too, the bitterness must be yum – I have to try that! Thank you
The mixture is really easy to shape and really doesn’t stick to your fingers! I hope you find the same when you make them
Brilliant, gonna make these soon hopefully. I made a wonderfully addictive raw fudge you may be interested in!
Oh yum I’d love to know about the raw fudge – thank you
Hope you one these!
I cannot get enough of these, they are so addictive!!! I can’t stop praising them enough, sorry for commenting again. I wish everyone would try them and they would know what I mean! Pure pleasure! I am about to eat the last ball, which will be even better now that it was in the fridge for two days. Don’t ask me how I managed to keep my hands off (well, trying to control calorie intake). This has got to be my all time favorite healthy dessert! I wish everyone would taste the awesomeness of these! Ella, you are genius! I love your taste! And yes, I think the cacao powder makes it even more luxurious, I LOVE it! I am spreading the recipe of this goodness to everyone!
I love how much you love them! Thank you
I’ve made them twice this week already – totally addicted too and my flat mates keep asking for more!
These ones looks absolutely delicious! Yumm. Have to definitely make a try! Thanks for sharing and what a beautiful page you have. Filled with wunderful inspiration! Happy to have you on instagram as well (I am xxkatrin). Big hug!
Thank you Karin! I’m so happy that you love the blog and find it so inspirational, makes me so happy to hear
I love your instagram too! Have a wonderful weekend xx
I’m dying to try these but I need a substitute for cashews because I can’t eat them
could I use peanut butter instead? Or will the flavour be wrong? P.s. loving the page, you are pinned to my desktop 
Hi Ashlee I’m sorry to hear about your allergy to cashews but yes you can absolutely substitute it for any other nut butter, I’ve tried almond butter in there and it tastes amazing so I would guess that peanut would be awesome too!. I’m so glad that you love the blog so much, thank you
These were so delicious!! I cant believe how simple they are, and they are so rich, one ball satisfies my sweet tooth. Thanks for the recipe.
I love looking at your blog, its full of such colourful simple healthy inspirational recipes! You are very talented!
Thank you so much Sophie, that’s so kind – I’m so glad that you love it and find it inspiring! Totally with you on these coconut and cacao bites too, they’re so awesomely simple and satisfying
I love having deliciously healthy things to sate my sweet cravings!
Hi Ella, I’ve just come across your blog and think it’s brilliant, thankyou!
Where can I buy cacao powder? I’m in London, but having a hard time finding it. I’ve used green & blacks organic cocoa powder, which doesn’t say it has sugar in, but I’m not sure.
Thanks x
Hi Amy! I’m so glad that you found the blog and that you love it! In London I buy my cacao powder either online from goodnessdirect.com or from one of the planet organic shops – if you haven’t been they are literally like heaven, best shop ever! It seems expensive but each packet lasts you at least six months even if you use if regularly as you only need such a small amount for each recipe, which is awesome! Green and blacks cocoa powder doesn’t have any sugar but the way that cocoa is made removes almost all the original goodness of the cacao sadly. Hope that helps!
Hi Ella, could you use almond butter instead?
Hi, yes you can absolutely swap cashew butter for almond butter
Hi these sound fantastic, can’t wait to make them
I am just wondering how many calories are in each ball roughly?
Thanks x
Hi Amanda! I’m so glad that you like the look of these and hope you love them when you try them. Sadly I have no idea about the calories as I don’t count them at all, if you take a look at my ‘Food Philosophy’ section it should explain more about why I think this!
I just made these bites. The whole process wasn’t so smooth as I expected and it took me so long. I realised that was because of hand blender. I would need more powerful one in order to make such desserts or butters which I also want. I had to add more coconut oil and also more cocoa powder but probably because of too much desiccated coconut. Anyway, i managed to make them even not so perfect as it looks in your pictures and thank you for sharing because it is a very lovely and healthy recipe!
Yes sadly I think it’s too much for a hand blender! But I’m glad they turned out well in the end!