Bliss kisses

ingredients

• Red coconut

  • 2 cup desiccated coconut
  • 3/4 cup fresh beetroot juice (see recipe tip)

• Cookies

  • 30 gram shelled pistachios
  • 35 gram raw cashews
  • 35 gram dried cranberries, roughly chopped
  • 125 gram dried figs, chopped
  • 2 tablespoon honey
  • 50 gram butter, olive oil or nut oil
  • 1 tablespoon Heilala vanilla powder (or vanilla extract or paste)
  • 45 gram ground almonds
  • 24 raw, shelled pistachios, to decorate

method

• • 1

    Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a baking tray.

  • 2

    Mix coconut with beetroot juice until coconut has soaked up juice. Spread coconut onto tray and cook in oven for 8-10 minutes until dry.

  • 3

    Leave coconut to cool then tip into a shallow dish. Set aside lined tray to bake bliss kisses.

  • 4

    Finely chop the nuts in a food processor. Add fruit and pulse until the mix starts to stick together. Tip into a bowl.

  • 5

    Melt honey, butter and vanilla powder together over low heat then add to fruit mixture along with ground almonds. Mix until the ingredients bind together.

  • 6

    Take a large teaspoonful of mixture and shape into a ball. Drop into the red coconut and coat well. Place the ball in the centre of your palm, pressing the coconut into the ball.

  • 7

    Press the ball solidly onto the lined oven tray and push two pistachio kernels into the top. Repeat this process until all the mixture is used up.

  • 8

    Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden. Leave to cool and then transfer carefully to an airtight container.

notes

• Make fresh beetroot juice by juicing 2 trimmed, scrubbed and halved raw beetroots. Or blend 1 chopped beetroot in a high-speed blender with 1/4 cup water, then tip into a sieve over a bowl, and repeat with other beetroot.