I’m a sucker for cute looking confectionary and when you add the Christmas element to the mix these little puddings are hitting all the baking bases for me in one! The idea for these was born out of buying the little holly and ivy decorations that you see adorning the tops, I thought how sweet and tiny they were – as if they were made to go on top of mini puddings. So from that one thought clearly the only logical thing for me to do was to make some.

Rather than going down the route of chocolate truffles as the puddings I decided to go with a slightly more virtuous option. This is rather unlike me, and I am no stranger to refined sugar and chocolate, but if you follow me in instagram you’ll know that I have gone slightly overboard with the holiday baking this year and was honestly just in need of something that was vaguely healthy. They are still drizzled with icing so if the word healthy scared you, never fear – they’re not too good for you.

They are extremely easy to make, you just whizz up the ingredients and shape them into balls. If you don’t have the decorations you could always just use a toothpick dipped in food colouring and dabbed on the top. Also you could use actual rum for the flavouring, or some vanilla essence if you don’t like rum. As they are quite dense they really do keep you going hunger-wise. I’ve been rushing about a fair bit and have had a few stat shed away in my bag for hunger related emergencies!

Christmas Pudding Energy Balls

Makes: 12 mini puddings

Prep time: 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes chilling time

Ingredients:

• 100g sultanas
• 1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 50g ground almonds
• 1 scant tbsp melted coconut oil
• Few drops of rum flavouring (optional)
• 50g icing sugar
• 1/2 – 1 tbsp water
• Holly and ivy decorations

Method:

1. Add the sultanas, cocoa powder, ground almonds, coconut oil and rum flavouring to a food processor and mix until completely combined and clumping together. It should be squishy to touch but sturdy enough to be shaped. If it’s a little dry/wet add a touch more coconut oil/ground almonds.
2. Line a plate with greaseproof paper and set to one side. Scoop a walnut sized piece of the mixture into your hands and roll into a ball and place on the lined plate. I made 12 but you might end up with more or less depending on the size of your puddings.
3. Once you have used up all the mixture place the plate in the fridge for 20 minutes so the rounds can firm up.
4. While they are chilling make up your icing, you are aiming for a thick consistency so go easy on the water initially. You can always add in more icing sugar in needed.
5. After 20 minutes take the puddings out of the fridge and one by one top them with icing. You can do this either with a teaspoon or you can use a piping bag if you want to be more precise! Lastly top with holly and ivy sugar decorations, and give them another 10 minutes or so for the icing to set.

The energy bites are best kept in the fridge and should keep for a week.