No-Bake Chocolate Nut Butter Balls! (w/ Coconut Oil) Sinfully delicious yet super healthy for you!

[GalaxyGirl]

Hey guys! Just got my first vaporizer in August, and pretty much stopped combusting that day. I lurked here on your forums researching what kind to get. I ended up starting with the Pax, then got a Volcano when it became apparent my husband and I would need a desktop too.

Anyway, been collecting ABV since then. I was wondering what the heck to do with it?! Found some awesome recipes on here for extracting into coconut oil, so gave it a whirl. Very happy with the results. Currently water-curing some ABV for my next batch to remove some of the gross tastes and smells.

But then I was like, what do I do with this coconut oil?!

I ate a teaspoon on bread, and didn't feel much (but both me and my husband have very high tolerance). But I do think it made me sleepy, which makes sense considering the CBDs leftover in ABV. I thought wouldn't it be nice to have a healthy sleepy-time snack to eat before bed if I'm having trouble sleeping?

I consulted my friend who is a naturopath and who also loves to cook. She suggested a recipe that her marathoner friend gave her.

It is frickin' addictive and delicious! And full of healthy fats and cancer fighting antioxidants, and low carb, dairy free and gluten free. I think that about covers it. A little caffeine in the cocoa powder, but not enough to be concerned about.

Anyway, here it is... please note these have to be eaten shortly after being removed from the freezer to retain their shape. At room temperature they turn into paste... which might make a good Nutella-like spread!

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Makes about 12 balls

Combine in food processor:

• 6 pitted Medjool Dates (These are your healthy sweetener; you can't really taste them except for the sweetness they contribute. Other types of dates can be substituted, just use 1 or 2 more since they're smaller.)
• 3 Tbsp Coconut Oil [CannaOil] (soft) (This amounts to about .75 tsp per ball. If that's too strong of a dosage for your CannaOil, cut with normal coconut oil. If that's not strong enough, eat more balls! You'll want to anyway...)

Add:

• 1/2 Cup Almond Butter (Or any nut butter of your choice; almonds are very effective for treating diabetes and preventing it.)
• 2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (Natural is better for you, but dutch processed is fine as well.)

Optional add-ins (add as much as seems appropriate):

• Unsweetened Coconut Flakes (We used 2 tbsp, but I'd like to add more next time. It helped thicken up the mixture a bit and added some texture, and is also healthy.)
• Chocolate Chips (Stir in. These can have sugar and dairy and caffeine which makes the balls less healthy, but it depends what type of chocolate you use. Dark is healthiest.)
• Chopped Nuts (Stir in.)

Mix well. Use spoon to plop onto wax covered cookie sheet in desired size.
Freeze. Once frozen, move to storage container of choice and keep in freezer.

Repeat daily!
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Two of these helped me get a good night's sleep... still experimenting with dosage and effects, but who cares because they are so delicious I could eat buckets and buckets! We made an undosed batch too and I can't stop eating them. Being dosed is the only thing stopping me from eating the CannaOil batch, so maybe I better make only that going forward to limit my intake, lol! You could easily adjust each ball size to help manage your dosage as well.

Anyway, I hope this appeals to some of you as a good use for your coconut oil. Please let me know if you try it and whether you like it or not! Thanks!

 

[smokum]

Sounds delicious !!

Please do follow up on your ABV water curing results & method !! I've surrendered to simply discarding my ABV into my compost pile & flower pots simply because I cannot stand the taste and/or odor, let alone the poor returns of processing it.

TY for your contribution (present & future).

 

[GalaxyGirl]

Thanks smokum!

Right now I'm soaking 1 cup of ABV wrapped in a double layer of cheesecloth (but I've read pantyhose might trap fine sediment better) in a 2 cup jar in my fridge, and I'm just changing the water daily for 7 days or until the water is clear. It's only in my fridge due to lack of space and also because my apartment has been so hot. From what I've read since then, I should be using 4 times as much water as ABV, so probably need a bigger container. I'm also not sure if I should be leaving the lid off to let the chlorophyll evaporate or not.

This batch should be done curing this weekend, and I'm getting my new crock pot on Tuesday, so I'll let you know the results and if it helped the taste while keeping the punch sometime next week!

I forgot to mention salt in the recipe. Add some sea salt to taste if your nut butter is unsalted.

Also, my friend just emailed me last night to say she poured hers into a silicone mold like this to get a uniform shape and size.

http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-2105-4...4892040&sr=8-1&keywords=silicone brownie mold

 

[smokum]

Thanks, I look forward to the results.

I wouldn't think there would be 'any' chlorophyll left in ABV, as I believe it 'should' already be vaped off ?

 

[kingofnull]

I'm interested to see the results after a water cure. Nice, simple recipe. Looks like everything can be found at the local bulk store.

 

[HSIHP]

Can you post your oil recipe please! I know there are a few out there but I'm always curious.

 

[GalaxyGirl]

Hi folks! Sorry I missed your notes earlier!

I've done the water-cured ABV oil several times now with great results! The water curing really does remove pretty much all taste and smell from the ABV, making the resulting ABV coconut oil much more palatable. I haven't tasted the water-cured oil on its own yet although I have made it several times; I put it straight into my treats. But it doesn't smell nasty at all anymore. It just smells like coconut oil, with maybe a hint of roasted grassiness. I did give a batch to my friend who says it is helping her cope with post-partum depression; I'm still eagerly awaiting her review on the taste since I know she likes to just take the oil directly and had been making and taking her own non-water-cured ABV olive oil. I'll post it here once she lets me know!

When I use the water-cured ABV oil in the treats you can't taste anything amiss at all, the treats taste just like the non-ABV oil treats. But honestly, the difference is not that significant since the chocolate masked the nasty flavors pretty thoroughly before. But I'm still doing it since I'd rather have water-cured ABV oil on hand for other recipes if I'm going to be brewing some up anyway.

Ok, here's what I do to make my ABV oil, cobbled together from several sources around the web. I already posted my water curing methods above but figured I could flesh it out more, I'm pretty verbose, lol.

Water Curing the ABV (to remove taste and smell)

Materials:

• 1 cup ABV
• cheesecloth (enough to make a pouch for the ABV, doubled or even quadrupled if the weave seems loose OR you could use pantyhose as well I hear)
• twist tie (or whatever it takes to tie off the pouch)
• 2 cup jar or larger (glass preferred, I use old peanut butter jars)
• uh, water

Put the ABV into the center of the cheesecloth. Pull corners up and twist together and secure with your twist tie or rubber band or whatever. I was worried the metal in the twist ties would rust and perhaps contaminate the ABV but so far the twist ties show no sign of rusting. I don't even know if they can rust? Anyway.
If you put the ABV pouch into the jar with water directly it will float because it takes a bit for the pouch to soak all the way through, so run it under some water or something to try and get it as wet as possible before putting it in the jar. Put a little water in the jar, then put your pouch in, then fill up the jar the rest of the way. Make sure the pouch is fully immersed and soaked before sealing it up and putting it away in a cool dark place. I didn't take enough care with my last batch and when I went to change the water the next day I found the pouch was still floating at the top not soaked all the way through. I just throw my jar in my fridge for convenience.
Change the water once a day for seven days, or until the water is clear. You can do it a few times the first day since that's when the most stuff comes out, perhaps that would speed the process up. I just do it for seven days or until it's clear if I missed a day here or there. I also like torun the pouch under water and squeeze it until it runs clear before putting it back in the jar with fresh water.
When it's done, squeeze all the water out of the pouch. Spread your ABV out evenly in a glass baking dishor cookie sheet, or something along those lines. Then, pop it in the oven (or someplace dark and dry) to dry it out. I wouldn't recommend turning the oven on to speed up the drying process as it might overdo it? However I have a gas oven that is always warm which does help it dry faster. Check on it once in a while and stir it up. It will reduce in volume as it dries out. It will also be a dark olive green. Weird!
There you go! Now it's ready to be made into ABV oil.
ABV Coconut Oil
Materials:

• 1 cup ABV (or whatever's leftover after you water cure it)
• Coconut oil, enough to cover the ABV
• Slow cooker (or I hear you can use/rig up a double-boiler too, but I don't have experience with that and wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it unattended for long periods since you need to refill the water, etc.)
• Fine metal strainer, or cheesecloth, or both
• 1 cup jar or larger (glass preferred, I use the same peanut butter jars for this)

The first time I made the ABV oil, I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a $10 dip warmer/crock pot thingy. I didn't realize at the time it only had one temperature and wouldn't ever be suitable for actually cooking anything, although adequate for our ABV oil. I brewed up some non-water-cured ABV oil with it and it worked just fine, but then I stored it away poorly and when we opened that cabinet next it came tumbling out and the crock broke, d'oh. I took the opportunity to upgrade in case I ever wanted to actually slow cook anything, so I got a 1.5 qt slow cooker with actual Low and High heat settings for $20 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002CA3C6/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i01). The glass lid is also key! I wanted a small slow cooker because I live in a NYC apartment with no spare storage room for a uni-tasking appliance!
If your coconut oil is liquid (it depends what your current room temp is where you store it, mine fluctuates all the time), dump the ABV into the slow cooker and fill it with coconut oil until the ABV is just barely covered. You want to use as little oil as possible to get the most potent effect, but the ABV does need to be fully immersed. If your coconut oil is solid, put some into your slow cooker first and warm it over the low setting to melt it, then add the ABV. Then add more oil, letting it melt, until the ABV is barely covered.
Let the oil infuse for 6-12 hours. I usually put it in before bed and just turn off the heat in the morning. You can stir it occasionally, but I don't know if it's necessary. But why not, you're going to want to anyway. It will smell delicious! I don't know if letting it infuse longer makes it more potent. I just infuse it for whatever long amount of time is convenient for me.
Once it's done, strain your oil into a jar. Squeeze as much oil from the ABV as possible. I'm still experimenting with methods for this. Right now I place a fine mesh strainer on top of the jar, propping the handle up with another jar. Then I line the strainer with cheesecloth, enough to make another pouch. Then I start dumping spoonfuls of the ABV/oil into the strainer and squeezing them with the back of the spoon. Eventually the strainer gets full, then I make a pouch with the cheesecloth and squeeze that with my hand. You will get messy and I hate losing all that oil to my hand, although I suppose technically I could absorb it that way! I've tried using a citrus squeezer to squeeze the pouch out too. It seemed to squeeze it as well as the hand but not much better, so I would choose one or the other to avoid losing twice the oil to coating those devices.
You'll be left with a dark olive green oil. It will look pretty funky but shouldn't smell that much different from coconut oil. I find I'm usually left with about a quarter cup of oil.I discard the ABV at this point, but I hear you can still use it in recipes. I bet it would be good in brownies. But whatever, by this time I've put enough effort into what I consider essentially recycling trash, lol. Maybe you can compost it. Can you compost oil-soaked stuff?
So, now you can use this water-cured ABV oil in almost any recipe without worrying about the funky flavor or smell ruining it, although it will still discolor whatever you put it in. Luckily the chocolate nut butter balls mask that as well. You can also just take the oil directly, like my friend does, or spread it on toast, or however you like to take your oils/fat! I tried some coconut oil in my tea the other day but mmmm, I dunno about that... I'll stick to my milk and honey.
Anyway, hope you guys find this useful, thanks for your interest! I'm currently water-curing a batch, can't wait until it's ready so I can make some more treats! I'm gonna start water-curing two batches at a time I think...
Oh, one more thing! (hahaha)
I've found the perfect size for the No-Bake Chocolate Nut Butter Ball treats, both dosage and serving-wise, is to put them into a mini muffin tin! Filling each mini muffin cup about halfway to 2/3rds with the chocolate nut butter mixture. One of those treats is perfect in the evening to put me to bed and give me a good night's sleep! Other people I have fed my treats to have also reported a good night's sleep, and mild pleasant effects.

 

[Tweek]

Sounds awesome.

 

[morninglight]

Thanks GG. Love how this is vegan friendly and healthy. Was just saying how I'm sick of making desserts laden with sugar and flour. I already have multiple packages of dates so this is perfect! Will definitely give this a whirl this weekend and report back!