Cocoa Muesli Truffles

Okay. I am leaving town in another week’s time. Not sure yet, but probably for good. Of all the things I’m leaving behind, my kitchen is the space I’d miss the most perhaps. My refrigerator laden with goodies, my cabinets stuffed with a variety of cooking ingredients…both necessary and unnecessary, my baking utensils, my photography props. Everything. Now even though I had a substantial time to clear my pantry before I left, the reality of the stupendous amount of stuff that still needed to be finished off hit me as a rude shock. And standing at this juncture, even though I have been successful in utilising a chunk of my stuff, I find a baffling amount of jars and bottles, packets and boxes, staring at me and begging to be taken. When you have to pack your entire world in 15 kilos, you know heeding to such pleas are going to be difficult. Your heart bleeds when your sealed bottle of maple syrup cries out to you, but you know you can’t take her with you because she weighs a whole one kilo. Or when your blocks of cheese, your dry fruits and nuts, your jar of couscous or bottles of salad dressings weep behind the closed doors of the refrigerator and you know you can’t possible eat up all those things in the remaining time even if you were consuming 5,000 calories a day!
So what I am doing is making stuff with my ingredients that’ll last for weeks at stretch and stuff that my folks can have long after I leave and think of me fondly. 🙂

These Cocoa Muesli Truffles are one such item. They call it “Muesli-r Naadu” at my place. Made with good grains, healthy for heart nuts, natural sugars (if you omit the Nutella), unsweeted cocoa and skim milk, this is one energy-packed snack that can also pose as a guilt-free dessert. We love to have it with our coffee or just as a snack. I also tend to carry a couple of them in my bag all the time to see me through sudden hunger pangs. I know I can’t have muesli as it is, but trust me, I just love this rendition of it. And I’m sure you’ll love this, even if you, like me, hate muesli!

Ingredients:

Muesli: 200 gm (I used the no sugar added variant)
Dried apricots: 20-25
Pistachios: 20-25
Almonds: 20-25
Cocoa powder: 3 tbsp
Nutella: 2 tbsp (optional)
Milk: 3-4 tbsp (or just enough to bind)

Method:

1. Tumble all the ingredients into a blend and blend till smooth with some coarse bits. Adjust milk to bind the mixture.

2. Pour the mixture into a big plate. Wet your palms and gently shape it into round truffle-shaped balls. Refrigerate for 4-5 hours or overnight.

3. Pop one in your mouth before heading for the gym or after coming back, or basically whenever you need that extra shot of energy!

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