Maple-sweetened persimmon balls with blood orange and toasted pecans
A healthy, maple-sweetened treat made with dried persimmons and oranges. If you like date balls, you'll LOVE persimmon balls!
Servings 5
Equipment
- 1 small saucepan
- 1 flexible spatula
- 1 multi-bladed blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 140 grams / 5 ounces DRIED large non-astringent Asian persimmons (or about 8 dried persimmons)
- 1 cup whole pecans, 4.4 ounces
- 3 tbsp fresh organic blood orange juice
- fresh zest of 1 organic orange, preferably blood orange (about 1 heaping teaspoon) plus more zest for garnish (optional)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp organic grass-fed butter, unsalted (or use salted butter and reduce salt in rest of recipe)
- 1/2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ginger powder, or bump up to 1/2 tsp if you love ginger and want extra oomph
- pinch of fine sea salt
For sugar coating:
- 2 tbsp maple sugar or substitute light brown sugar
- pinch of fine sea salt, we used pink Himalayan
Instructions
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, add butter, pecans, and pinch of salt. Stir nuts and/or shake pan regularly to prevent nuts from burning on one side. Continue roasting nuts for about 5 minutes until pecans are lightly toasted and become highly aromatic. Remove from heat and let cool.
- While pecans are cooling, *zest and juice one organic orange, preferably a blood orange. (*If the orange is not organic, just use juice, not zest.)
- Put roasted pecans into blender or food processor and pulverize into fine consistency. Chop dried persimmons into smaller pieces with a knife so they're easier for your blender to pulverize. Add persimmons plus all remaining ingredients to blender and blend until ingredients form a smooth, thick paste. You’ll probably need to scrape the sides with a spatula and re-blend several times before you get to the right consistency. (See picture in article.) If persimmon ball badder is too thick, add a bit more orange juice or maple syrup. If it's too thin, add more persimmons or roasted pecans.
- Next make sugar coating by combining 2 tbsp maple sugar and a pinch of salt. Spread mixture thinly on the surface of a flat plate. Form persimmon badder into roughly 1.5″ diameter balls, then roll each ball through maple sugar to coat. Transfer each finished ball to cooling or serving plate. Cool persimmon balls in the fridge for about 1 hour before serving to allow flavors to come together and for the balls to firm up to the perfect consistency. Optional: garnish with additional orange zest.
- If not eating immediately, store unstacked in fridge in covered container for up to 1 week.