Serves 12 balls

INGREDIENTS

• • 14 small medjool dates, pitted
• • 75 ml coconut milk
• • 75 ml melted coconut oil
• • ¼ tsp Maldon sea salt, plus sea salt flakes for sprinkling
• • ½ tsp vanilla powder
• • 12 raw hazelnuts
• • coconut flour, for dusting

Chocolate coating
• • 25 g cocoa powder
• • 25 g coconut oil
• • 2 tbsp coconut crystals

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Soak the dates in a bowl of hot water for 20 minutes. Drain and put them into a blender with the coconut milk and oil, salt and vanilla powder.
2. Blend into a smooth paste, then transfer to a freezer-proof container and freeze for 1 hour.
3. Line a baking tray with grease-proof paper. Roll a hazelnut in the caramel mixture until it’s coated – it’s messy and the balls won’t be a perfect shape but this doesn’t matter, just keep using teaspoons to handle the caramel. Dust with a little coconut flour so the balls don’t stick together and put onto the lined baking tray. Repeat until all the mixture is used up. Put the tray into the freezer for 3 hours.
4. While the nuts are freezing, make the chocolate coating. Put all the coating ingredients in a pan and set over a low heat, stirring until melted. Remove from the heat and leave the mixture to cool a little until it is thick enough to drizzle over the caramel balls.
5. Pour the coating over the caramel balls, sprinkle a little salt over each, then pop back into the freezer for 30 minutes.

Amelia Freer was working as a personal assistant to Prince Charles when she realized the exhaustion she was feeling wasn’t because of her job (although “busy and demanding,” she says), but how she was eating. After studying nutritional therapy for four years, she got her health back on track – and has now helped the likes of newly svelte British pop star Sam Smith do the same, with her self-help guide to nutrition Eat. Nourish. Glow., which includes a section on recipes. “Amelia has completely transformed my relationship with food,” raves Sam, who lost 14 pounds in two weeks following her advice. “It’s not even about weight loss, it’s about feeling happy in yourself.”