. Chocolate Salty Balls - story .

The other night I was restless and itching to make something, a dessert, something chocolatey, something slightly rich that hit the right spot and didn't require a whole lot of planning, measuring, time or baking. Basically something that didn't need much concentration or brain power.

I'd bought a box of cocoa powder recently which was sitting on a buffet table directly in front of my room and along the common walk way in our home (or whatever you'd call that). So that had been on my mind. I do love opening packages, regardless of what's inside. So I decided to make my own version of Peanut Butter Chocolate Salty Balls (teehee I am a child). No measuring, just pour and agak-agak (estimate).
 
Just below is exactly what I did.

The next post will be an amended version and improvements that I think could be made.
The rest of this will be me prattling on about my thought process of improvements, tips and variations so you can skip right ahead and click here if you don't want to read the in betweens (okaaayyyy #sadface).

The ingredients:
Cocoa powder. Milk powder (well I used a few scoops of Mum's colostrum and a little milk powder...let's hope Mum doesn't read this haha...otherwise...um...nutrient packed snack Mummy! :D). Maple syrup. Peanut butter . Sea salt flakes to sprinkle. Coconut oil.

Directions:
Line tray with foil or wax paper and oil with the coconut oil.

Mix cocoa powder n milk powder till nicely blended, then all the others except the salt. Then shape into balls, line em up on ur oiled paper and sprinkle with sea salt. Put that whole thing in the fridge and try not to touch them till, I dunno, a few hours time or something. I left them overnight seeing as I'd finished making them around midnight.


I ate quite a bit while I was making them (and along with a lovely hot cocoa...heavy on the cocoa...found out that too much hot cocoa can induce a slight caffeine OD), then I ate one tonight, and another. So different! They tasted like they had some kind of orange essence!

Notes and tips:
The fridge I put them in is our dessert, fruits and drinks fridge. So basically no funky un/cooked food smells. Seeing as I'd left them uncovered, I can only guess that they absorbed the orange smells in the fridge perhaps.

So Tip #1: Would be a good idea if you put your balls in an airtight container if you don't have a separate fridge from your meats and foods with funky smells.

Tip #2: Add vanilla something...pod, essence, what have you.

Tip#3: Add orange juice and zest. And cointreau. And for that matter.....

Tip #4: Alcohol! Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Bailey's (all the flavours), Kahlua, Tequila Rose, whatever you could think of that could possibly match! Get creative! Which brings me to....

Variations!: 
Sub peanut butter and maple syrup with condensed milk.
Whack coconut sugar, gula melaka, any form of sweetener/sugar.
Throw in molasses.
Milo.
Horlicks.
Any nut butter [I probably would be slightly more conscious of making it a healthy snack so....rather than store bought peanut butter (which was leftover from making Mal's cakes) I'd make my own pb.]
Chopped nuts
Mash some bananas, cook them in butter, squeeze some lemons over them and throw that banana chunk/mash mixture in.

Mix all the above together or do them separately. This can be a pretty fun experiment. And if I leave out the white sugars and the gluten stuff, Mum can eat them too.