Christmas Bliss Balls: Cranberry, Pistachio, Coconut & Salted Caramel

Easy recipe for energy balls or bites flavoured with cranberry & orange, spiced pistachio, coconut and finally salted caramel. These Christmas bliss balls are fantastic for healthy snacking and giving a boost of energy whenever needed.

If you’re running out of time to make biscuits but want to give homemade gifts this Noel, these Christmas Bliss Balls may be the answer. They’re not only delicious but are refined sugar, dairy and gluten free and easy to make. Rolling the balls in green pistachios, red cranberries and white coconut make them look wonderfully festive.

Christmas Bliss Balls

Time has been even more of an issue than usual for me this year, so whizzing up a load of these Christmas Bliss Balls has been a bit of a life saver. I usually bake several batches of biscuits and cookies for Christmas gifts, but these chocolate pistachio biscotti are all I’ve managed. Luckily, everyone loves these no-bake goodies and the only people who can’t eat them are those that have a nut allergy.

The basic bliss ball mixture is nuts and dates. For these Christmas bliss balls, I’ve used cashew nuts as the flavour is generally less intrusive and in this instance I wanted my added flavours to stand out. But you could just as easily use almonds, hazelnuts or any other favourite nut.

Christmas Bliss Balls – Four Different Flavours

You can of course just make one flavour, but it’s not that much more effort to create four different ones. And the contrasting flavours and colours makes them extra special. The basic mixture is the same for all, it’s just a case of dividing it into four, mixing in some extra ingredients and rolling them in a different coating. The worst thing about making these Christmas bliss balls is the washing up.

• Cranberry – added some chopped up cranberries and orange zest to the mix, then rolled in cranberry powder.
• Pistachio – added some Christmas spices to the mix, then rolled in ground pistachio nuts.
• Coconut – added some desiccated coconut to the mix, then rolled in some more coconut.
• Salted caramel – added some raw cacao powder, maca powder and a touch more salt to the mix, then rolled in chopped raw salted caramel chocolate. This Loving Earth organic chocolate is a new one to me and I was interested to try it. It’s made from cacao butter, cashew nuts and coconut. I wouldn’t say it tasted much like chocolate, but it was nice.

Vegan Christmas Bliss Balls

I usually ensure that my energy balls are vegan, but I’ve added a touch of raw honey to these ones for a bit of luxury. If, however, you want to make them vegan, just swap the honey for maple syrup.

Suma Wholefoods

The ingredients I needed to make them came in my latest Suma order. Just in case you don’t know, Suma is a long established whole food worker’s co-operative which supplies both shops and individuals with all sorts of goodies as well as their own branded products. They are a great organisation who I’m delighted to work with. This year they even won Employer of the Year at the Grocer Gold Awards.

Super Blender

I made the Christmas bliss balls in my Optimum G2.3 platinum series induction blender* from Froothie. Most blenders or food processors would be fine, although it rather depends on how smooth you’d like the mixture. My blender makes a super smooth mixture, which almost melts on the tongue.

I find it’s a bit of a pain trying to extract it from under the blades, so when I’ve got what I can out, I just throw in a bit of milk, blitz it and make myself a nice milkshake.

Other No-Bake Christmas Recipes You Might Like

• Candy cane rocky road via Foodie Quine
• Chocolate coated caramel Brazils via Tin and Thyme
• Chocolate truffle Christmas baubles via Baking Queen
• Christmas tiffin via Tin and Thyme
• Christmas pudding truffles via Veggie Desserts
• Coconut mint Christmas chocolates via Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
• Glitzy chocolate mendiants via Tin and Thyme
• Neapolitan marzipan chocolates via FabFood4All
• Rosemary chocolate truffles via Tin and Thyme

For more Christmas food ideas, take a look at my vegetarian and vegan Christmas recipes post. There’s over 70 of them to choose from. My Vegetarian Christmas board on Pinterest is also well worth a look.

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these Christmas bliss balls, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

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Choclette x

Christmas Bliss Balls. PIN IT.

Christmas Bliss Balls – The Recipes

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5 from 2 votes

Christmas Bliss Balls

These are named bliss balls for a very good reason. They are easy to make, health (ish) and most importantly, delicious.

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time0 mins

Total Time30 mins

Course: After Dinner, Snack

Cuisine: British

Keyword: bliss balls, Christmas, easy, energy bites, gifts, healthy, no-bake

Servings: 38 bliss balls

Calories: 73kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 250 g raw cashew nuts – soaked for a few hours
• 250 g Medjool dates
• 50 g oats
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tbsp raw honey (I used orange blossom)
• pinch Himalayan pink rock salt

Flavourings

• 15 g dried cranberries – chopped
• zest of ½ an organic orange – finely grated
• 3 tsp cranberry powder
• grating of nutmeg
• pinch of ground cloves
• ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
• 10 g pistachio nuts – roughly ground
• 15 g desiccated coconut + 2 tsp for rolling
• 2 tsp raw cacao powder
• ½ tsp maca powder
• pinch Himalayan pink rock salt
• 20 g salted caramel chocolate (I used Loving Earth)

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• Wash and drain the nuts.
• Put them and the other main ingredients into a power blender or food processor and blitz until everything is a smooth paste.
• Divide the mixture between 4 bowls.
• Mix the cranberry pieces and orange into one – I found a flat bladed knife worked well. Roll into balls, then roll in the cranberry powder to coat.
• Mix the spices into the mixture in the second bowl. Roll into balls, then coat with the ground pistachios.
• Mix the desiccated coconut into the third bowl. Roll into balls, then coat with more coconut.
• Mix the cacao powder and maca powder into the remaining bowl. Roll into balls and coat with the grated chocolate.
• Keep in a cool place until needed and eat within a week.

Notes

You need to soak the nuts for a minimum of 4 hours, but overnight is better.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition

Calories: 73kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 101mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 10IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Take a photo and mention @choclette8 or tag #tinandthyme on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Linkies

These Christmas bliss balls variously flavoured with cranberries, pistachios, coconut and salted caramel are my seventh recipe for the Suma Blogger’ Network.

I use my Optimum Blenders* for smoothies, spreads, sauces and even chocolate making. The post contains affiliate links which are marked with an asterisk*. Buying through a link will not cost you any more, but I will get a small commission. This helps keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging. Opinions are, as always, my own.