- Egg free
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Peanut free
- Sesame free
- Soy free
- Wheat free
- Shellfish free
- Seafood free
- Vegetarian
Easy-to-make apricot balls are the perfect combo of sweet fruit and moist coconut. These blissful bites are great for snacking, in lunch boxes or as gifts.
- Makes35
- Prep time20 minutes, + chilling time
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups (280g) desiccated coconut
- 3 cups (450g) dried apricots, coarsely chopped
- 395g can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tsp finely grated orange rind
Nutritional information
Check ingredient labels to make sure they meet your specific dietary requirements and always consult a health professional before changing your diet. View dietary information here.
Percentage Daily Intake information on our recipes is calculated using the nutrition reference values for an average Australian adult.
Method
Step 1
Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Step 2
Place 1 cup (80g) of the coconut in a shallow bowl. Place the apricot, condensed milk, orange rind and remaining coconut in a food processor. Process until a coarse paste forms. Roll a tablespoon of mixture into a ball. Roll in the reserved coconut to evenly coat. Place on the lined tray. Repeat with remaining mixture and coconut. Place in the fridge for 1 hour or until firm and set.
Recipe tip
Store in the fridge, in an airtight container, for up to a month.
COOK. STORE. SAVE.
Use it up: Desiccated coconut can be stored in its packet in the freezer for up to 3 months. Use from frozen in recipes like passionfruit and coconut slice.
These apricot coconut balls are the perfect treat for lunchboxes, snacks and gifting
Apricot balls, or bliss balls as we like to call them, are a simple (and simply delicious) treat. Most apricot balls recipes are no-bake and only use a handful of ingredients so they’re great for whipping up with the kids and even better for popping in the school lunchbox as a special treat. They make a great gift from the kitchen, too – just arrange them in a box lined with tissue paper, add a ribbon and you’re done.
How to make apricot balls
You might be tempted to substitute the dried apricot with fresh or canned fruit in this recipe for apricot balls, but stop right there! You need the sticky consistency of the dried apricots to help bind the balls together. Fresh apricots won’t be sticky enough and canned apricots will be too wet, so for these easy apricot balls, dried is the only way to go. The condensed milk is also essential for holding the balls together.
To make these apricot and coconut balls, you need a food processor to mix all the ingredients together. You’re looking for a coarse paste to form – we like the texture of our apricot balls with condensed milk to be a little rough. If you like your bliss balls really smooth, process a little more until the texture has no unprocessed apricot pieces. Want to level up this simple apricot ball? Throw in some date and chia seeds too, like we’ve done in this bliss ball recipe.
How to get perfect-sized coconut apricot balls
The tip to getting the dried apricot balls exactly the same size is to actually use a tablespoon measure, rather than a spoon out of your knife and fork drawer. If you’re not fussed by having more rustic looking balls, a spoon out of the drawer is fine but you may get more or less than the 40 apricot and condensed milk balls we got when we made this recipe.
The best flavours for bliss balls
The flavour combos of these sweet little balls are basically unlimited – the only thing to remember is the ingredients all get pulsed together in a food processor so don’t add anything that’s too hard to process. Make sure you coarsely chop the ingredients before adding them to the food processor, too. Some of our favourite combos are choc berry, mango and almond, or even cacao and coconut, but really it’s very hard to go past the simple pairing of apricot and coconut. We’ve added a little orange rind to this recipe to give it a lovely fresh, citrusy note.
