Fabulously Free – Mother’s Day Treats!
This year, instead of indulging your mum (or lovely wife) with a box of sugar-filled chocolates, why not make a beautiful batch of these lovely and healthy treats?
(Allergy warning: these are nut-filled, so if anyone in your family is allergic to nuts, try swapping out the nuts with sunflower seeds instead.)
My two favourites at the moment are made with raw cashews (inspired by a recipe from the wonderfully creative Healthy Family and Home blog site) and raw almonds (from The Kitchn) and are incredibly dense and chewy and delicious!
(If you don’t have any of the more specialist ingredients, you can find them in health food stores such as Holland & Barrett or online. They aren’t cheap but they last a very long time and so in my mind are worth the price and make the treats very special indeed.)
Cashew Energy Chews
Ingredients:
1 cup cashew butter (Meridian has a great organic version of this, or you can make your own with a good food processor and 3 cups of raw cashew nuts)
4-5 medjool dates, softened in hot water & finely chopped
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp lucuma powder
2 tsp ‘green’ powder (I love the Super Green Detox)
2 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp coconut flour
2 tsp MCT oil (or coconut oil)
½ tsp vanilla powder (or vanilla essence)
2 tsp acai berry concentrate
½ cup cacao nibs
Optional: ½ cup goji berries
Method:
Whiz the cashews up to make cashew butter – or if you’re using pre-made cashew butter, mix the nut butter with all of the other ingredients aside from the cacaco nibs and goji berries (if using) in a good food processor for a minute or three until mixed thoroughly.
Add the cacao nibs and pulse a few times for a second or two until mixed together.
When the mixture has the consistency of cookie dough, roll individual balls the size of a golf ball in your palms, making roughly 12 balls. (If you wash your hands after each ball you’ll find it’s easier to roll)
Press into each ball a tsp or so of the berries so that they peek out like little red dots.
You can eat them straight away or pop them into the refrigerator if giving them as presents – make sure the wrap them in cling film first and then tissue paper etc.
Enjoy!
Raw Chocolate Mint Truffles (a slightly altered version of a recipe on The Kitchn’s blogsite)
Ingredients:
1 cup pitted medjool dates
1 1/2 cups raw almonds
2 TB coconut oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1 TB water
1/4 cup unsweetened raw cacao powder, plus additional for rolling
Method:
Make the almond butter if using raw almonds, or whiz the pre-made almond butter with the remaining ingredients aside from the additional cacao powder.
Roll 15 or so balls in your palm and then roll each one in the extra cacao powder.
Enjoy!
Follow Ondine on Twitter: @Ondinebarry
