Raw bounty (coconut) balls

Last weekend Seb achieved another ‘first’ – he finally had enough hair to warrant his first haircut. It’s only taken a month short of 2 years to have enough hair to make it worthwhile, but he got there in the end. We took him along to Trotters in Chiswick where they had a large fish tank for him to look at and plenty of books to keep him occupied just long enough for the hairdresser to cut his hair. Seb kept remarkably still the entire time (for once!), maybe it was the sharp scissors round his ears that encouraged him not to move a muscle.

The other ‘first’ was making these flavor-full raw coconut bounty balls. I’ve tried them in health food cafes and thought they couldn’t be overly difficult to make at home when you think about the ingredients that are involved. In fact, there are only 4 ingredients in total that you need to make them so you don’t need to go out with a long shopping list either.

I can imagine this is the sort of snack that is going to split the audience like marmite does… you’ll either love it or hate it. I obviously fall into the love it category and Will falls into the ‘don’t even think about asking me to try one’ camp. I was never a fan of Bountys though, so don’t let the name put you off.

When a box of Celebration chocolates comes out at Christmas, there is still no way I’m going to pick out a Bounty (those are left for Mum – being the only one who likes them). Surely everyone just goes for the Maltesers which are far superior to any of the other chocolates in the box.

But whilst these are obviously reminiscent of a Bounty chocolate, these are far superior in all forms. The texture is more luxurious, the chocolate is richer, the coconut more pronounced but in a really beautifully natural way. If it was a competition between Maltesers and these – well that would be a harder pick.

They are packed full of goodness, taste like a real chocolate treat and I think you’ll love them.

Raw bounty (coconut) balls

Makes approx. 12 small balls

Ingredients:

Coconut centre:

½ cup dessicated coconut

¼ cup melted coconut oil

2 tbs of maple syrup ( honey, agave nectar)

Chocolate coating:

6 tbsp melted coconut oil

5 tbsp raw cocoa powder

3 tbsp of maple syrup

Extra dessicated coconut to sprinkle on the outside of the balls

Method

For the coconut centre:

Mix your ingredients in a food processor until it starts to come together a little. Add a little more oil if you don’t feel it is and place in the fridge for 5 minutes to harden up a little – this will make it easier to make the balls.

Remove from the fridge and make round balls from your mixture – you’re aiming for a bit smaller than a table tennis ball but don’t worry too much! Place the balls back in the fridge for a few minutes whilst you make your chocolate coating.

For the chocolate coating:

Place all your ingredients in a saucepan and mix together, remove from the heat.

Remove your balls from the fridge and coat them with chocolate before placing them on baking paper to harden up in the fridge again.

I repeated this process a few times so that I got a thicker layer of chocolate on the balls.

On the final layer of chocolate sprinkle on some extra dessicated coconut if you like.