No-Bake Pecan Pie Date Balls

There's a category of healthful snack that is, in fact, just dessert that's been retitled. Energy balls are one of these. You take dates (which are 73% sugar by weight), nuts (which are mostly fat), maybe some chocolate or other concentrated sweetness, blitz it in a food processor, and call them "energy balls" or "bliss balls" or "wellness bites." They taste like candy. They are nutritionally not that different from candy. We continue with the fiction because it makes us feel better. Fine.

These are the pecan-pie variant — pecans and dates blended with a splash of maple syrup, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. The flavour is remarkably close to actual pecan pie filling, minus the corn syrup and the butter and the eggs. They roll up into golf-ball-sized rounds and get coated in chopped pecans, which gives them visible texture and makes them photograph well (see: photo).

A note on the dates: Medjool dates are non-negotiable for this recipe. The drier Deglet Noor dates won't blend properly and won't bind. You want Medjools — large, sticky, sweet, the consistency of caramel when pitted. Twelve makes a batch; a one-pound bag of Medjools has roughly 30, so this is a small commitment.