Brazil Nut Cherry Cocoa or Coconut Bites, Raw, GF, SF

Ingredients:
2 Cups of Organic Brazil Nuts, soaked
3/4 Cups Dried Dates
1/4 Cup Almond Meal/ Flour
3 Tbs. Melted Coconut Oil (I like Tropical Traditions)

1/4 Cup Shredded Organic Unsweetened Coconut  (You can use 1/2 cup of coconut or 1/2 cup of almond flour instead if you don't have both, it's just a binder for the nuts)

2 tsp. Organic Cocoa Powder

3/4 Cups Frozen Sweet Cherries
1 tsp. Amaretto (Optional use Vanilla Stevia if you'd rather)
Toppings:
1/4 Cup or so of Cocoa Powder
and / or
1/4 Cup of Shredded Organic Unsweetened Coconut

Ground Brazil Nuts

Ground Dried Dates

Soak 2 Cups of Organic Brazil Nuts in 3-4 cups of filtered water for 3-4 hours.
Drain the nuts and chop them to a small ground like you'd see an ice cream topping nut, like the ones pictured above.

Pour chopped nuts into a medium size bowl and chop the dates to a fine grind.

Add the chopped Dates in with the Brazil nuts and add the Cocoa Powder.  Heat the frozen cherries in a small pan on medium high heat, stir  frequently and add in the Amaretto or Vanilla Stevia.  Mix 1 tsp. of Arrow Root with 2 tsp. of water to make a paste and then pour this into the cherries while stirring constantly until the cherry's juice start to thicken some.  Simmer and stir the cherries for about 1 minute more and then remove from the heat.  Chop the cherry mixture in a blender until it has the consistency of jam.  You can taste it at this point to see if it needs more sweetener before adding it in with the nut/date mixture.  Stir together to make a wet dough similar to cookie dough.  Cool the dough in the fridge to let it set up some.

Roll spoonfuls of the mixture in your palms to what ever size balls you want and sit them on wax paper or a non stick surface.  You should refrigerate the rolled balls if you take a while to make all the dough into balls.  Cool all the balls again for a few minutes and then carefully roll each ball in a small bowl with either Cocoa Powder or Shredded Coconut.  Store in the fridge or freezer for up to 1 month.

Enjoy!

This post is linked to http://glutenfreepantry.blogspot.com/  and http://simplysugarandglutenfree.com/slightly-indulgent-tuesday-2612/ and http://glutenfreepantry.blogspot.com/2012/02/allergy-free-wednesdays-blog-hop-week-3.html