Throughout the week we’re offering sweet, Christmas treats and drinks. Using sweet, warming spices gives these sweets treats a delicious flavour of Christmas.
Chocolate Ginger Tiffin.
Ingredients:
- 75g Coconut oil
- 200g Vegan dark chocolate
- 2tbs Agave syrup
- 200g ginger biscuits
- 100g dried cranberries
- 50g toasted pistachios.
Melt the oil, chocolate and syrup together. Break up the ginger biscuits, chopped the pistachios and mix all ingredients together. Press into a baking tray. Chill in the fridge and cut into squares to serve.
Spiced fruit and nut truffles.
I used a mixture of raising, sultanas, current and mixed peel, which was left over from the Christmas cake. The fruit has been soaked in Brandy, but you can omit this and use any dried fruit you fancy.
- 100g dried fruit
- 100g walnuts or pecans
- Juice of 1/2 an orange or a full clementine.
- 1 heaped tsp of mixed spice or use your favourite combination of sweet warming spices: ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg a hit of black pepper is also delicious.
- 1 tbs of ground flaxseeds
- 1tbs coconut oil
- Desiccated coconut.
Chop the fruit and soak in the orange juice. All all ingredients together (except coconut oil), you might have to warm the coconut oil a little.
Roll the mixture into balls and roll in desiccated coconut.
Non alcoholic mulled ‘wine’
Here we’ve use pomegranate juice. The juice, fruit, rind and roots are used extensively in Ayurvedic preparations as they have great medicinal value.
The juice and fruit have agni deepana properties, therefore can boost the digestion and work to control diarrhoea. The fruit improves the sensation of taste and stimulates the appetite. Having many seeds, it is viewed as a symbol of fertility and is said to improve the quality and quality of seminal fluid.
- 500mls pomegranate juice
- 250mls apple juice
- 25g caster sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 4 cloves
- 3 black peppercorns
- 1 oranges sliced
Add all the ingredients to a pan and gentle warm allowing the spices to infuse.