My First Bliss Balls

After watching recent documentaries about sugar on TV, I took a look at my own sugar consumption and, yes, I eat too much. I have always had a sweet tooth, and I know I eat too many sugary and sweet snacks.

So I've decided to try and reduce the amount of sugar I eat.  Working from home, the temptation of chocolate biscuits, cakes and chocolate is always within easy reach. I love to bake and we always have sweet treats in the house.  I don't want to stop baking or eating yummy sweet treats altogether, but cutting back seems a sensible thing to do.

For the first couple of days after I decided to do this, I had a dull, constant headache and was fighting the urge to grab chocolate at lots of times during the day.  The headaches have now mostly gone four days later, but the cravings are still there.

So today I decided to take a friend's advice and try making some Bliss Balls.

Now until this friend suggested them, I'd never even heard of Bliss Balls. They are a high protein, low carb snack which aim to fill you up and satisfy sugary cravings, thanks to the dates in them. 

I Googled and went with this recipe to try out.

I needed 2 cups dessicated coconut, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon coconut cream, 12 dates and 1/2 tsp cinammon.

The recipe said to put everything in the processor..

Looks yummy so far!  Then blend until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Then I had to scoop handfuls of the mixture up and squeeze and shape into balls.

I made 12 balls (the recipe said 10, so mine must be a little small!)

Then, the recipe said to microwave the balls for 1 minute.  This happened...

When I tried to pick them up, they just disintegrated!

I left them to cool a little and tried unsuccessfully to squeeze them back together again.  In the end, I added a couple more tablespoons of coconut cream and squished them back into balls. If I make these again, I would add the extra coconut cream and not bother with the microwave!

I did taste test them too. One before the extra cream and one afterwards. Both yummy!!

The rest have gone in the fridge.

I'm not convinced that these snacks are really any better in terms of sugar than having a chocolate biscuit from the fridge.  I had 2 Bliss Balls, which would have 2 dates in (Since there were 12 dates in total and I made 12 balls).  This is about 32g sugar rather than the 10g that's in one chocolate biscuit! 

However - the dates also contain other nutrients and fibre, that the chocolate biscuits don't, and from what I read, dried fruit is better at curbing hunger than refined sugar.  

I shall give these a try anyway - and there are plenty of Bliss Ball recipes out there to experiment with. 

Do you have any Bliss Ball recipes you can recommend?

Or any other tips or hints that can be used to curb those sugar cravings?