Cocoa and Coconut Snacks
Professional endurance athlete Jonas Colting knows a little bit about tapping into his own power and energy. Most of us don’t push our bodies to the limit in the same way an endurance athlete does. For some of us, just getting through a regular day at the office is a test of endurance. Still, power and energy are attractive qualities. Which is probably why a marketing genius attached these terms to almost every product in the constantly expanding protein bar aisle at the grocery store. Energy Bar. Power Bar. Whatever you call it, they often aren’t very healthy and won’t supply you with any enduring power or energy.
Jonas’ solution was to make his own protein-packed snack using whole, healthy ingredients. He doesn’t provide exact measurements for Colting’s Cocoa and Coconut Snacks – this is one of those “throw everything together” recipes that make cooking easy and fun. In fact, we think Jonas’ advice for this recipe is a good motto for all cooking endeavors: “Experiment to find your perfect mix of taste and texture. It really doesn’t matter, it’s all good and healthy!”
Seriously, you can’t get this one wrong. Any way you make them, Colting’s Cocoa and Coconut Snacks are better, in terms of both taste and nutrients, than most store bought energy bars out there. The texture is rich and crumbly, not unnaturally gooey and chewy. The flavor is intensely nutty and a little savory with a hint of sweetness. Each one of these little balls packs in loads of protein and fats. Unlike store bought energy bars, the ingredient list is short and simple, and can be modified to your own taste. Use more ground coffee or none at all. Try dark chocolate chips instead of cocoa powder. Cut back on one type of nut and add more of another. Use more shredded coconut, or less. Part of the fun is coming up with your own perfect blend.
As a general guideline for your first batch, using a 1/2 cup of each nut will yield more than a dozen little balls. Dates add the sweetness but also help hold the balls together so if you can’t get the paste to hold its shape, try adding a few more. Coconut oil also helps with this. If you don’t have the patience to roll a dozen or more little balls, simply spread the paste out evenly in a baking pan and sprinkle with coconut. Whether you eat them as balls or bars, Colting’s Cocoa and Coconut Snacks are a good solution to afternoon hunger pangs. They can even satisfy a craving for dessert – Jonas sometimes enjoys them with an espresso, which sounds quite civilized and delicious.
Try out his recipe for Colting’s Cocoa and Coconut Snacks this week and check back next week for more on how Jonas lives Primal while training as a triathlete.
Ingredients:
We’ve included measurements to get you started, but as mentioned above, these ingredients can be used in any amounts.
1/2 cup each:
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Pecan nuts
- Hazel nuts
- Pumpkin seeds
- 3-6 dates
- 2-4 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
To taste:
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Freshly ground coffee
- Shredded coconut
Instructions:
Run the nuts and pumpkin seeds in a food processor until ground into a fine flour.
Remove the nut flour and grind the dates and shredded coconut in the food processor until smooth.
Mix these ingredients together with coffee and cocoa powder according to taste.
Finally, add the coconut oil and mix it all together by hand. Roll the paste into small nibbly balls and sprinkle them in shredded coconut.
These snacks should be refrigerated to become firm.
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Posted By: Worker Bee
Will definitely have to try these. Yet another example that primal eating isn’t boring and bland.
Thanks for the great post!
oh i make variations of these all the time! i call them “healthy truffles”
i make them with 3-4 ingredients: nut, medjool date & spices.
for example:
-pumpkin pie (use canned pumpkin/apple pie spice/nutmeg + almond, dates)
-tiramisu (use instant coffee/full fat cream cheese + cashew, dates)
-keylime (almond butter + lime zest + hazlenut + dates)
-carrot cake (shredded carrot, dates, almond, cloves, cinnamon)
the opportunities are endless!
Oooh, your carrot cake one sounds really good.
I am excited to read more from Jonas. I am a triathlete too.
Love to add some fine powder spiralina to the basic recipe – love to see that green
thanks for your spice suggestions
Oh yum, I was already missing my mum’s tiramisu – the best in the world – and just the idea of substituting those cookie things with nuts is great! Don’t like dates though, are they prominent in the overall taste?
dates usually just add sweetness unless it’s a date bar or something..use less dates and sub raisins if the taste is too overpowering.
Nice recipe – a riff on Phil Maffetone’s classic “Phil’s Bars.” Though I must say that I prefer Jonas’ use of dates rather than Dr. Phil’s reliance on honey.
Thanks for posting.
Talk about something of Phil’s…
There’s this great coffee bar down the street called Philz Coffee (in Palo Alto, Ca), where they specialize in Turkish coffee (a brewing process that’s naturally low in acidity). But the best part is that they use all-real HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM.
It is life-changing!
Now, I’ll have to make these cocoa and coconut snack balls and have them with a cup of Philz coffee.
I am now afraid, very afraid…
I’m a BIG fan of Philz!
I discovered the store last time I was in Palo Alto (there’s also one in SF right near the train and the stadium too). Freshly made by the cup with REAL heavy cream? can’t beat that!
I wish they had one in NYC
These snacks look delicious, I might have to whip up a batch with coconut oil NOW!
We love PHILZ (hmmmm John).
Tesora and Aromatic Aerobic are among our weekly favorites – -
And both Jacobs and Ether have made their way into our variations of these balls.
PA store/team is solid and always fun!
The folks in the city on 4th (by CalTrain) and on VanNess (cross is Turk i think) are also awesome!
Enjoy and keep the variations coming.
And…then there’s that beautiful fridge in the back full of cream!……
Geoff, that was a hilarious comment made me crack up. I am now afraid, very afraid. lol I know that feeling.
If you like low acidity coffee, you might check out “cold soak coffee” aka “cold drip”.
yummy! looks like a quick recipe too.
Thanks so much for sharing. This sounds a lot like a home-made energy bar Martina Navratilova was advocating a while back, and I was never able to find her recipe.
Sounds great, thanks!
Wow, this is one of the best yet! Thanks so much.
My eyes blew up when I read this!
Well, first, that an endurance athlete could be held in positive regard on this site …
but seriously, these look amazing. I have made my “own” energy bars in the past, using marks primal bar recipe as the base. I am totally making these today for my “I dont want to tell Mark how many hours CV has me riding this weekend” bike rides haha!
Ryan, I believe that by eating a paleo-style diet, you are a healthier person despite competing in an endurance sport.
Best,
Johnny
Hi, my name is Grok & endurance training is my vice.
Others drink alcohol, smoke, smoke/shoot drugs, eat junk food… I exercise for long periods
I make a modified version of this:
Soak raw cashews and walnuts overnight.
Grind the nuts, add it to eggs and then add coconut, vanilla extract, cardamom, ghee, cocoa to taste and some stevia. Throw in the oven at 200F until texture is dry (usually takes 2 hrs). The low heat keeps all the nutrients intact. You can also blend a banana with the eggs.
Oh, yum… dates are on my shopping list for this weekend!
Do we have an estimate on the nutrional value? I hate to be a carb-counter but i like to have a basic idea of my intake for the day. These look awesome though!
They are between 4 and 5 grams of carbs each ball
(I doubled the recipe and got 30 tablespoonish balls)
Ooooh Colting balls! (I’m sorry if that came out wrong in English, it works perfectly fine in Swedish, and Jonas being Swedish would probably understand….) These snacks are wonders of energy and goodness – glad to see them included here on MDA.
I’ve used butter, ghee, and coconut butter in my own recipe. I’ve also used dried cherries. Pretty much whatever I have on hand. I also have a silicone ice cube tray cut in seashell molds that I press the balls into. Why go for balls when I can be a little more exciting??
medjool dates are quite carby. if you are trying to stay below 50g carbs then i’d only eat 1! but they are too hard to resist so i try not to have more than 3-4 a day haha
These look great! Anyone have an idea how long these would last in the fridge? Based on the ingredients, I imagine they would last for quite so time. It sounds like you could make up a pretty large batch and snack on them over the course of a few weeks.
I’ve been making wannabe larabars and it’s pretty close these snacks. I had to order dates online because I cannot find them anywhere local. Still waiting for them to get here.
I’ve been using other dried fruit in place of dates. Dried raisins, cherries, cranberries and blueberries all work really well.
Awesome! I’ve made a version of these before from Girl Gone Primal’s recipe. This one’s got more stuff in it which I’m sure would add to the flavour. I love the encouragement to make our own variety!! Thanks!
Great mix of ingredients! Perhaps some roasting of the nuts and coconut will add a toasty flavor depth. I also made Girl Gone Primal’s recipe and tinkered with it to come up with Pecan Fudge Truffles posted on my health and fitness blog here:
http://feastingonfitness.blogspot.com/2009/11/make-date-with-delicious.html
I wonder if protein powder or powdered egg whites would work to add more complete protein to these little energy balls? Anyone have any success with that?
Posted this the other day, but didn’t get a response from anybody…
Found 2 coconut milk ice creams at my local Fred Meyer. Turtle Mountain vanilla & Coconut Bliss. Both use agave sweetener (low-glycemic index). Coconut Bliss is all organic. Both taste fantastic–the vanilla was the best vanilla ice cream in recent memory & I absolutely loved the coconut bliss wiht its coconut flavor & coconut flakes.
So, does this fit into the Primal lifestyle? I sure hope so!
I adore Coconut Bliss but I don’t eat it anymore because agave, being predominantly fructose, is metabolized the same way high-fructose corn syrup (also technically “low-glycemic”.) is metabolized, i.e. more easily stored as fat than sucrose and glucose and also more glycating than other sugars. Boo on that!!
I want to figure out how to make my own version sweetened with a mix of stevia and coconut palm sugar (truly low-glycemic and yummy!)
Thats easy – I do it all the time.
We’ve got one of those Cuisinart automatic ice cream makers (from Amazon for $50 or so), then take a can of good quality coconut milk, and add 1 tablespoon of real sugar, and 2 of the little mini scoops of stevia (from the trader joes fair trade stevia). It should be equivalent to 3 tablespoons of real sugar, but doing all stevia gives it a little too much of that stevia flavor.
You can either just do that straight, or I especially love adding 1/3 cup cocoa powder and a little toasted shredded coconut to make dark chocolate coconut ice cream. Mmmm… I’m salivating right now. Better than coconut bliss and a lot cheaper too!
I’ve made this for the kids with the cocoa powder and it tastes amazing. I used 4 tablespoons of coconut palm sugar though. Thanks for the tip on the stevia. I’ll try half stevia/half sugar and see if the kids object.
Yum. Great Primal snack. We are going to give this recipe out in our store.
that looks amazing. I’ve made some dark chocolate truffles before but these look much better. I’m totally planning on making these and re-posting the results.
These food recipes I see here are making me hungry…
Should I be worried that I dreamt last night of finding very high quality primal baconnaise at the grocery store? I woke up laughing.
I’m having a dinner party next weekend and thinking about making these. Funny – my guests never complain that I don’t serve bread or pasta…
Does anybody have a recommendation on how much unsweetened cocoa powder and freshly ground coffee to use?
I made these in my vitamix today. I put a couple heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder and about 1.5 tablespoons of ground coffee. Half a cup each of pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans, handful of shredded coconut and a few tablespoons of coconut milk.
holy moly are they ever good!
oops, I put in a handful of dates too.
Those look delicious! I will be trying them out soon and will repost my results as well if I remember! Can’t wait!
Um I love dates, this is a great recipe
Hi – I posted a smilar recipe a few days ago to ask if it was primal. (No response yet, interested in your views, thanks). It uses Tahini for stickiness
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup LSA
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup chopped almonds (or nuts of choice)
1 cup mixed dried fruit (I prefer organic dates)
Mix together and roll into plum sized balls, coating with desiccated coconut.
I have been eating one for morning tea each day, but I am new to primal and I thought I should check if they are primal.thanks
what is LSA?
LSA
http://www.sanitarium.com.au/qa/qaa.do?qaa-id=104
Coconut oil is solid at room temperature. So, are we supposed to heat it up before mixing it in? If so, how are we supposed to mix it in by hand?
Or, am I just using the wrong coconut oil?
Thanks
No, you’re using the right stuff. Just take some hot tap water in a bigger bowl and the coconut oil in a smaller bowl. It will melt almost instantly. If the other ingredients are even slightly warmer than room temperature, the coconut oil will stay liquid until you chill the mixture.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to give these a try.
Does sound good. Does anyone have any information on the nutritional breakout?
gonna make these. along with some jerky and a few tangerines in the pack, that’s gonna power me down some trails and up some mountains this season, YEAH!
I love this recipe and the fact that it is endorsed by Jonas is even better! I’m currently in training for the London Marathon, so cannot wait to read about Jonas and primal living as an endurance athlete!