Salted Carob Bliss balls

People ask me if I’ve got a bliss ball recipe quite often. I can’t really answer why I don’t. I really don’t love how sweet they usually are, I guess.  I was looking at a new commercial one released the other day for Mum, which she wanted for her golf round and we were shocked to see a 20g ball had 7g of sugar – Yes, that’s 35% sugar! Remember sugar can creep up because it’s rather addictive to us. All of a sudden it’s 3 dates, a piece of fruit, a ‘wholefood’ biscuit a veggie juice with apple in there too… and 50g sugar in your day! Sugar feeds bad bacteria which upsets our gut. If our gut is upset then our mind and our immune system can in turn get upset. Best keep sugar right down, and this recipe was designed with that in mind.

Starting a gym challenge recently with 150 other people at my wonderful gym, we are without chocolate, cacao, alcohol, sugar except maximum a piece of fruit each day, processed foods (Ok, that bit is easy) and there are exercise and mind challenges too. Love a good challenge to kick it all into gear and as usual, it has forced me into a bit of creativity even though I was already very low fructose / sugars in general. Thus, I am finally delving into the ‘ball arena’ if there is such a thing!?

If a ‘ball’ is going to be a great choice of snack then it can’t have the same sugar in it as a cheap crappy breakfast cereal. It just can’t. Seems it’s another ‘healthy wholefood’ type of item that unfortunately sets well meaning people up for a fall when the sugar kick wears off within minutes – pass me another! Dates are 100% GI. They are also about 64% sugar. So, in making mine, that was the first thing that had to come out. The result is a low FODMAP (you can regulate the fresh banana quantity to suit your sensitivity), super low sugar (about 4% overall) ball that is flavoured with lots of yumminess to keep the taste buds excited.

LOWER FODMAP AGAIN: Replace the carob with cacao – I’ve used carob here to also be friendly to tiny people as cacao can be too stimulating. Your call depending on your needs.

I hope you enjoy them. It’s amazing how after 2 and a half weeks of nothing but the odd piece of fruit for sweetness, I find these are really hitting the sweet spot.

Tag me when you make them on instagram @Alexx_Stuart – I’d love to see. You could also press into a slab and cut ‘pie slices’ and serve with whipped coconut cream as a posh, raw dessert.

Real Food. Happy Bodies xx