Cherry Chocolate Energy Balls

Mmm I love cherries! They are for sure my favourite fruit and if I could, I woud eat them every single day! Well I guess I almost do, because I found frozen cherries at Super Store and now I have cherries in a lot of my morning smoothies!

I got the idea to make these from Alternate Roots Organic, they make about 5 different energy balls and their chocolate cherry ones are by far my favourite, and in close second is the mint chocolate chip. After buying them from the store a couple times I thought “I could probably make these!” So I got looking on the internet and came across a link to “Make your own Lara Bars”, that got my attention because the energy balls were basically just that – round Lara Bars. So I clicked on the link and wow, they were super simple to make too! Just almonds, dates and raisins, really basic ingredients that I already had in my cupboard.

I of course made some changes to the recipe wanting it to be a chocolate cherry flavour, but that was easy enough! I decided to add some cashews in there along with the almonds to make it a little more nutty flavored. For me I think just almonds would have been too bitter tasting. Also I added some cocoa powder for the chocolatiness and I substituted the raisins for cherries! Presto chango! Yummy cherry chocolate balls!

I would highly recommend using a food processor for this recipe and not using a standard blender or magic bullet. The mixture becomes very thick and could burn out your motor, even in my Vita Mix it stalled out and I had to give her time to cool off.

Ingredients - 12 balls 

½  cup almonds

½ cup cashews

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ tsp vanilla powder

10 dates, de pitted

¼ cup dried cherries

In a high speed blender or food processor, pulse almonds, cashews, cocoa powder and vanilla into a flour. Add the dates and pulse until well blended. Stir in dried cherries and form into balls. Refrigerate for 20 mins. Enjoy!