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Raw Chocolate and Cashew Bliss Balls

Here’s the latest recipe which I made for last Saturday’s Yoga Nidra workshop.  A really tasty, healthy snack and as it is raw chocolate they are fairly rich so you do not need too many to enjoy the taste!

We all know how powerful chocolate can be particularly from our intuitive emotional response to it.  Here are a few chocolate facts which further explain our natural response to the pleasure of chocolate…

  • Chocolate contains over 300 chemicals including a vast range of vitamins and minerals (calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium).  It contains phenylethylamine which is released naturally in the body when you fall in love and is also considered to be an aphrodisiac.
  • The smell of chocolate promotes relaxation, it significantly reduces theta activity in the brain which is associated with relaxation.  (Source: International Journal of Psychophysiology, 1998).
  • Chocolate also contains dopamine which is a natural painkiller. Serotonin which is found in chocolate produces feelings of pleasure. Chocolate has over 400 distinct smells.  A rose has only fourteen and an onion just six or seven.
  • A cup of hot cocoa (using pure cocoa powder) has more than double the amount of antioxidants as green tea and four to five times more than black tea. (Source: Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 2003).

Ingredients:
1 cup of cashews blended until smooth (or you can cheat as I did and buy cashew butter)
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 dates (pitted and soaked for at least 4 hours or you may wish to buy chopped dates)
2 tablespoons raw cacao powder (raw chocolate)
1 cup of desiccated coconut for coating

Place all of the ingredients,except for coconut, into a mixer and mix until smooth.  With your hands roll the mixture into small balls.  Then pour the desiccated coconut onto a chopping board and roll the balls in it to top.  Place the balls on a plate and refridgerate until hard.

Tips:
Raw cacao powder and cashew butter can be found at your local health food store.

Make a batch and keep them in the fridge, they make a tasty snack across the week and saves eating too much processed chocolate!