Scrumptious Baklava Balls Inspired by Mastic

Being Greek, I have always grown up eating baklava, comparing different versions and perfecting my own recipe along the years and reinventing the taste in the likes of ice cream or cupcakes. But never, ever, did I ever imagine a baklava ball - as in a 'health' ball that tastes exactly like backlava ... That was until my most recent visit to George Calombaris' healthy wholefoods cafe Mastic. 

Firstly, as a Melbournian I take pride in my city's renowned cafe culture, but this cafe really knows how to do insanely good coffee and the most scrumptious healthy food. Whilst there, I had the most beautiful beetroot, farro, cauliflower and quinoa salad. If you've seen my post about George's Cypriot Grain Salad, you know that I think that is an exceptional salad, but seriously after eating this, I have to say that it gets demoted to second place and first place is certainly replaced by this one. 

But anyway, this post isn't about the beetroot salad. It's about the baklava balls, which I discovered at the counter just as we were about to pay. There was no way my curiosity would let me say no to trying them out ... maybe 'trying out' isn't the right word, as I breathed in, inhaled, examined and adored every single morsel with a pen and paper by my side so I could jot down everything I could taste; the nuttiness of almonds, walnuts and pistachios, the spiciness of cinnamon, and the delicate sweetness of honey. And if their interior wasn't good enough, they were also coated in white chocolate, which took my smile to a whole new planet. 

So after, playing around and adjusting ratios of ingredients, I truly think I mastered Mastic' baklava balls. I have no idea if the recipe resembles theirs but I can certainly say that the taste and texture are on point. 

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup almonds

1 1/3 cup walnuts

1/3 cup pistachios (plus 1/4 cup crushed pistachios for decoration)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup roasted almond butter (I made my own by roasting almonds and processing them in a food processor until peanut butter consistency)

1/3 cup tahini

1/2 cup honey

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla essence

200g lindt white chocolate for coating

Method: 

Process all the ingredients, except for the white chocolate, in a food processor until the mixture forms a rollable dough consistency. The easiest way to ensure you don't over beat or under beat the mix, is to pulse it several times and continually check it, taking out some dough and testing whether you can roll it into a ball. 

Once ready, take a small tablespoon of the dough and roll it into a ball. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Place on a tray lined with greaseproof paper and allow the balls to rest in the fridge for half an hour. 

Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. White chocolate is highly temperamental when melting, so keep an eye on it at all times and ensure that the water is never boiling. If there are still a few remaining lumps left, this is the best point to take the bowl off the heat and allow the white choc to continue melting on the counter. 

Gently coat the balls in the white choc and place back on the greaseproof paper. Place the balls back into the refrigerator for half an hour. Don't worry, they are going to look quite ugly at this stage, because surprisingly, white chocolate is very thin, so they will need two coats to look beautiful.

Take the balls out of the fridge. If the white chocolate, has solidified a bit, just put it back over the simmering water to melt a bit. Coat the balls once more, sprinkling pistachios on top.

Place in the fridge to allow chocolate to solidify! And enjoy!