Healthy Sweet Bites Series: All About Coconut and Avocado

I don't bake much, especially when it comes to cakes, pies and other traditional desserts. My recipe library barely has any conventional baking recipes. Over the years of conscious eating my brain has been trained so much that as soon as I see recipes loaded with butter,  sugar or white flour, they become not appealing to me anymore. Sometimes, though, I save some really interesting recipes that have a potential to be adopted to a healthier version.

I like experimenting with wholesome, gluten-free and dairy-free ingredients and non-sugar sweeteners, such as honey, nut butters or banana, to create satisfying and guilt-free desserts. But that hasn't always been a success with my family members. I remember once making some sort of chocolate balls that didn't have any sugar, milk, butter or flour in them. I was even bold enough to offer them to our guests, each of whom politely took a bite and never reached for more.

But I've been experimenting a little bit since then. I have discovered many ways to make healthy desserts not only good for you but also as delicious and satisfying as their sugar- and flour-loaded alternatives. And that is why I'm starting this Healthy Sweet Bites Series so that I can share with you more ideas and recipes for healthy treats to satisfy your sweet cravings.

The first two desserts in this series I've made very recently. Both of them have been a huge success among my family and our guests. And I hope you enjoy them just as much as we did.

1. BITE-SIZE COCONUT BALLS

Some time ago I saw a post online about the coconut snowballs and thought that I should try making it one day as I love coconut. And these snowballs seemed like a perfect idea either for a healthy snack or for a small sweet treat. So here is my variation of those coconut snowballs (adopted from the original recipe here).

Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 1.5 tbsp Lundberg rice malt syrup (the original recipe calls for maple syrup, but you can also use honey or any other sweetener)
- 2 tbsp flax milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup extra dark chocolate chips (or baking dark chocolate)

Preparation:
- In a food processor, blend 1 cup shredded coconut and all of coconut oil.
- Add rice malt syrup, flax milk, vanilla extract and salt to the mix and blend more until well combined. Then add the rest of shredded coconut and mix for another 2 minutes.
- Form 1'' balls from the coconut mixture. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Melt chocolate chips or baking chocolate. Dip coconut balls one by one into the mixture. I've also sprinkled some coconut flakes on top.
- Refrigerate again for at least an hour. Take out of the freezer 30 min or more before serving.

2. LEMON AND LIME AVOCADO MOUSSE CAKE

One day my colleague brought to work a vegetarian cookbook "The World of  the Happy Pear" by brothers David and Stephen Flynn. It really had a lot of 'my type' of recipes that use variety of roasted veggies, grains, beans, interesting spices, as well as amazing healthy desserts. So I took a few pictures of the recipes that I would like to try some day. One of them was this lemon and lime avocado mousse cake. The recipe in the book made 12 servings, so I was waiting for an occasion when we have people over to make it.

Finally this week we had our wonderful friends from New England visiting us and I thought it was a perfect reason to make the mousse. I have to tell you - this mousse was truly a show stopper! The mousse itself so very rich and smooth and goes perfectly with the crumbly nutty base. And it combines citrus flavor and natural sweetness so nicely. I got a lot of compliments for this dessert and was really happy that it turned out so yummy! Here is the recipe, inspired by "The World of the Happy Pear" and modified by me. 

Ingredients (I scaled it almost proportionally to 2/3 of the original recipe amount):

Base:
- 1.5 cup nuts (I used 1 cup of raw cashews and 1/2 cup raw almonds, but you can use any raw nuts or seeds)
- 3 pitted dates
- 1.5 tbsp raw cacao powder
- 1.5 tbsp melted coconut oil

Filling:
- Zest of 1 lime
- Zest and juice of 1.5 lemons
- 2 ripe avocados
- 4 tbsp raw honey ( 2/3 of the original amount would actually be 6 tbsp but I was concerned it would be too sweet.  And even with this amount it was sweet enough for everyone)
- 5 tbsp melted coconut oil (again, 2/3 of the original amount would be 8 tbsp but I decided to keep it 'lighter' in terms of calories)

Preparation:
1. Line the base of the cake tin with parchment paper.
2. Put the nuts into a food processor and blend until they get consistency of coarse crumbs. Add dates and cacao powder and mix more until you get the breadcrumbs-like texture. Then add melted coconut oil and blend for another minute.
3. Put the nut mix into the tin and form the base of the cake, spreading it evenly.
4. Add all the filling ingredients into the food processor and blend until smooth. Taste it and adjust to your liking (more lemon juice or more honey) to create a perfect balance of citrus and sweetness.
5. Spread the mousse over the base evenly and refrigerate. It will be ready to serve after 2 hours. I kept it in the freezer overnight and took it out about 30 min before serving so that it could soften a little.
6. Enjoy! I cut it into 15 squares. But beware! This mouse is so delicious that it's hard to stop after only 1 piece.

Note: With this amount of base and filling ingredients the cake comes out pretty thin. If you want to keep the base thin and have more filling, you can add 50-100% more filling ingredients from my recipe above.