I am very excited to share these with you. Possibly my favourite raw recipe yet (or maybe one of my favourites in general, actually…) These are mini Christmas puddings that taste JUST like the real thing but are made from nothing but raw, healthy and natural ingredients. Yep, right down to the decorations on top! I’m eating one right now as I type this which is probably making me sound extra enthusiastic about them… But they are just so flavourful, so Christmassy, so moreish and so cute!
The Christmas pudding filling itself is extremely quick and easy to make. You could be eating one in 5 minutes and enjoying a taste of pure Christmas along with the smug knowledge that what you’re eating is super healthy too! You simply process the ingredients, roll into a ball and “Tada!” But if you want to make them really look like cute little Christmas puddings, it’s a slight bit more effort (but not too much, I promise.) Of course, they’re just as delicious without the decorations and make a great snack too.
- --For the Christmas pudding energy bites--
- 80g ground almonds
- 100g pitted dates
- 130g dried apricots
- Zest of half an orange and half a lemon
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground mixed spice
- 1 tsp raw vanilla powder or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (not raw)
- --For the chocolate coating--
- 50g cacao butter
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- 2 tbsp raw sweetener
- Tiny pinch of sea salt
- Half a batch of my "white chocolate coating" from here
- --For the marzipan decoration--
- 150g raw whole almonds soaked in water for at least 4 hours
- 1 - 2 tbsp raw sweetener
- 1 tsp spirulina powder (for green colouring)
- 1 tsp beet juice or powder (for red colouring)
- Mix all ingredients for the energy bites in a food processor and grind until the mixture starts to clump together. It should be stodgy and easy to roll into a ball.
- Take about 1 tbsp of the mixture and roll into a ball. The mixture should make about 12.
- To make the dark chocolate coating, melt the cacao butter over a very low heat using a double boiler or heat proof bowl over a simmering saucepan. Once the cacao butter has melted, whisk in the cacao powder, sweetener and salt. Leave to cool down to room temperature.
- Make the "white chocolate coating" by following my instructions here, halving the ingredients.
- Once the dark chocolate has cooled, use a fork or skewer to dip the energy balls into the chocolate and make sure it is fully coated. Let all the excess chocolate drip off into the bowl and then transfer to a sheet of tin foil or greaseproof paper. Leave in the freezer or fridge to set.
- After about 20 minutes, it should be fully set. Add a small amount of the white chocolate coating to the top of the chocolates and let it slightly drip down the sides to create the classic custard look. Leave in the freezer to set again.
- Meanwhile, make the raw marzipan. After the almonds have been soaking, their skins should be very easy to remove. And once all the skins have been removed, add the almonds to a food processor. Grind until they resemble breadcrumbs.
- Add the sweetener then process again until the mixture begins to clump together and is completely smooth.
- You now have raw marzipan! To add the colourings, simply mix in the colour powders separately. Create pea sized balls with the red marzipan for the berry and small leaf shapes with the green marzipan for the holly.
- Add the marzipan decorations to the top of the christmas puddings and press down to let it adhere to the top.
- Enjoy!
For the record, I spent about 15 minutes trying to make proper holly leaf shapes out of the marzipan but it was just too fiddly for me. I need a miniature holly leaf cutter… Do those exist? But despite my struggles with the holly shapes, the marzipan is actually surprisingly easy to work with and the potential of things you could make with it is huge!
Raw Blog Love:
- Katy’s Raw Namino Bars
- Sophie’s Sunshine Acai Bowl – so pretty & colourful!
- Sarah’s Raw Cranberry Walnut Tart – beautiful dessert, perfect for this time of year
Supper excited to try these! They look wonderful! Do they keep well?/ freeze well?
I am going to be making these again next week, love them! I think they will keep for probably 4 days in the fridge and perhaps 3 months in the freezer, although I’ve not tested this. Let me know how you get on with them Nim :-)
What a cute idea yet healthy too! :)
http://www.prettybitchescancooktoo.com
These are so gorgeous Aimee! Just found your link over at Milk & Honey and I’m loving all of your creations so far! Beautiful blog. Sending you a big hello from Australia. I’m definitely going to give these a go… skip the holly decorations and these can definitely be eaten all year round, right? Please say yes! :) xx
Hi! These look adorable I can’t wait to make them. What raw sweetener did you use? Raw honey, maple syrup, coconut nectar…? x
Thanks Sarah! For this recipe, I used raw agave since I had some handy but honey or maple syrup should work great too :-) Good luck with yours – let me know how it turns out…
YUM!!! Get in my belly!! these sound amazing!
You must try them Tamzin, I think you will love them! And so easy to make if you happen to have all the dried fruit…
so cute and festive–and good for you!
They are indeed rather good for you – they give a great energy boost :-)
I have made the protein balls before with dates, it never occurred to me to dip them in a chocolate coating. YUM!
I’m afraid it occurs to me to dip almost everything in chocolate!
hahahaha
These are so beautiful! Christmas is so full of heavy foods, it’s nice to have a lighter option!
Thank you, Kiersten! I would say these little pudding bites are actually quite filling, considering their size. I’ve made some more to have as snacks on the go and even had a couple for breakfast (christmas pudding for breakfast, oh yeah!) but they also give a great energy boost instead of leaving you sluggish :-)
These look absolutely divine!!! Looks like we’re both on the raw train these days :)
Thank you Davida! :-) I could never eat exclusively raw but I’ve certainly been adding more raw foods & superfoods into my diet lately. I’ve been totally distracted now that I’ve seen you’ve made raw gingerbread cookies – ahhhh! Have to check those out right now…
These mini raw chocolate pudding bites with marzipan ‘decoration’ look gorgeous, cute and delicious and they must be chewy full of spices & dried fruits. Perfect for Christmas, and also perfect for homemade special gift boxes ;) I can’t make proper holly leaf shapes, you are a legendary leaf cookie cutter! I’ve never heard or seen the Detox Your World products, but I hope I will see them when I am in Europe in two weeks. Have a great weekend!
Thank you Rika my dear :-) My holly leaves are atrocious! But I’ll be practicing for my next batch…
Aimee, these are adorable! The photos are absolutely festive and beautiful, too… I can’t wait to get my hands on the food processor when I get home for the holidays. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving :)
Aw, thanks Irina! Us Brits are completely oblivious to Thanksgiving, which is a shame because all the Thanksgiving recipes I see online look so amazing… anyway, I hope you enjoyed yours – I’m in full-time Christmas mode now :-)
Aimee, These are gorgeous little flavor bomb! So beautiful as gift and super healthy! I am surely going to try this- great job:)
Thanks Medha! I never thought about giving them as gifts but that’s a great idea – especially if you know someone who is on a raw or vegan diet. Hope you get to try them out – let me know if you do :-)
Christmas pudding in five minutes sounds pretty good to me! I love this idea and the ingredients are so healthy too. I’m definitely going to be adding these to my Christmas treats this year. :)
I think you will love them Caz! Hope you get to try em :-)
These are just sooooo perfect for Christmas! and healthy too!!! They look sooooooo pretty!!!!! Lovingggggg it!!! :)
Your comments always make me smile :D Thank you Samina!
great recipe and photos! These look delish!
Thank you! :-) They most certainly are, I hope you get to try some too!
These are amazing!! So cute, healthy and christmas-y, what’s not to love?! They make me wish it was Christmas more than I already am (((a lot))). I’m sure they’d make a lovely addition to our cookie tray ;) x
Thank you lovely :-) When you bite into them – oh, it’s just so Christmassy! The spices and the citrus zest will just make you feel SO in the Christmas spirit… x
I am so excited to try this recipe. i love all the ingredients and flavors and i specially like how healthy it is. Trying Really hard to stay away from refined sugars.
Good for you! It seems like quite a daunting thing to do but actually it can be really easy once you realise that there are some pretty amazing recipes out there that call for only natural sugars. I tried some date-sweetened cookies recently which were *so good* and muffins sweetened only with bananas are another favourite of mine. Who needs refined sugars, really!
Looks healthy and delicious!
Thanks Aysegul. I actually had the last one for breakfast this morning! I felt very indulgent :-)
You have me pretty excited to try these as I love pudding bites. Since you made them healthy I can totally eat a few more. :)
Totally! Thanks Pamela :-)
These look so sensational! The decorations make them look so festive and perfect for Christmas season. I’ve never tried raw desserts like this but I bet it’s so chewy and delicious. Great job!
Thanks Monica :-) If you ever eat those raw fruit energy bars, the texture is just like that – except these ones are more delicious because of the Christmas spices and zest!
Aaaahhhhh………………. Sweet! These sound much nicer than traditional Christmas pudding. Sound pretty simple too!
Thanks Kate :-) They are very simple, especially just to make the energy bites themselves. And SO Christmassy to taste!
Hello Aimee :) Thanks again for stopping by my blog! I am so glad you did, so I got the chance to discover your lovely blog! Wonderful pictures, mixed with recipes I need to add to my cooking/baking to-do list and beautiful crafty ideas! I am looking forward to see and read more about your upcoming projects :)
And the same to you Rosa! I’m following your blog and look forward to seeing what other yummy things you post :-)
Love these- they are so cute! We usually makes little mini christmas pudding chocolate truffles every year but these look just as festive and are definitely a lot better for you. Perhaps I will make one batch of each this year so I can alternate between being good and naughty :) X
Haha, good idea! Or maybe have both and let the goodness of these cancel out the naughtiness of the others… thats how things work, right!?