Let’s Make Coffee Coconut Date Balls for Tu B’Shvat!

The Fellowship  |  January 17, 2019

Next week, Jews will celebrate Tu B’Shvat, a holiday that celebrates the annual cycle of life and the new year for trees! In Israel, it’s traditional to prepare the foods of the Bible, or the “Seven Species.” So today, we bring you a special Tu B’Shvat recipe that uses dates, which is one of the biblical foods and also a food grown in the Holy Land.  

This week’s recipe is brought to you by The Fellowship‘s own Rachel Katzman – a healthy food lover, kosher recipe creator, and Fellowship staff member. Check out her recipies here.

Here’s her recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup Dates (Try Deglet Noor – they’re softer and they come pitted in a bit container from Costco, making your prep so much easier)
• 2/3 cup Nuts (Any type you have on hand is good – try mixing it up between pecans, almonds, walnuts and cashews!)
• 2 tbsp Ground Coffee
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened Dairy-Free milk (e.g. Almond milk works great)
• 1 cup, divided into 1/2 cups Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
• 1 pinch Sea salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract Optional (or you could do maple extract which would be delish)

Directions

Add the dates into the bowl of a food processor and grind until finely ground (don’t over-process or you’ll end up with nut butter).

Add the dates, 1/2 cup of coconut coconut, nut milk, cinnamon, coffee, vanilla (if using) and salt.

Pulse until the mixture comes together kind of like a sticky dough.  Check the consistency to make sure it’s dry enough to roll into a ball but not too sticky where it won’t form. 

Using a mini ice cream scoop, form the mixture into small balls and roll in the other 1/2 cup of shredded coconut.

Place on a sheet of wax paper and freeze for 2 hours until firm or you can set them in the fridge.  If it’s warm outside, it’ll take a bit longer to set up, but they’ll still be firm enough to eat.  I like mine frozen so I keep some there, anytime I need to deliver a batch of these date balls!