Honeyed date truffles (no-bake, egg-free, decorative)

Ingredients

Truffles:

•       250 g dried dates

•       100 g cornflakes

•       50 g ground almonds

•       50 g ground walnuts

•       50 g honey

•       20 g butter (or margarine)

•       1–2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice

•       grated lemon zest

Chocolate coating:

•       100 g dark chocolate

•       2 teaspoons flavourless vegetable oil

               (vegetable or groundnut oil)

Final chocolate decoration:

•       10 g white chocolate

Note: You may reverse this chocolate coating style by using 100 g of white chocolate, 2 teaspoons of oil and 10 g of dark chocolate.

Preparation

Truffle mixture:

Remove the pits from dried dates - cut dates into the quarters and then chop them into small pieces.

Put the cornflakes into a plastic bag and crush them by hand with a rolling pin.

Put the chopped dates, crushed cornflakes, ground almonds and walnuts, honey, room temperature butter (or margarine), lemon juice and zest into the bowl and use the mixer to mix them with kneading bread dough blades at medium-slow speed until a mixture starts to gather into a unique mass (or mix the mixture by hand).

From the truffle mass make the oval shaped truffle pieces (to look like dates) and place them on a cookie sheet which is lined by non-stick parchment or wax paper.

Chocolate coating:

Make the chocolate coating (for dipping) by using a water bath method to melt 100 g of dark chocolate with 2 teaspoons of flavourless vegetable oil.

Let it cool down a bit, and then dip each truffle halfway into the chocolate dipping and return to the parchment/wax paper.

Place the cookie sheet with truffles into the refrigerator until the dark chocolate coating becomes firm (which doesn’t take long).

Final chocolate decoration:

Put 10 g of white chocolate in a plastic sandwich bag and put it in a pan of hot but not boiling water (don’t let any water to get into the chocolate).

After a few minutes, knead the bag to smooth the chocolate and then with a sewing needle make a tiny opening at the tip of the bag.

Zig-zag white chocolate stripes over the truffles. 

Return the cookie sheet to the refrigerator to set the decorating coating.

“Royal eye” dessert balls (dairy and egg free)

Ingredients

Balls:

•      20 pieces of dried figs (they should be from a cellophane or plastic packing, because those are softer)

•      20 pieces of walnut kernels (i.e., 40 whole butterfly halves)

•      250 g granulated sugar

•      100 g margarine

•      200 g shredded coconut, unsweetened

•      7 pieces of ground dairy-free Petit Beurre biscuits (such as Turkish)

Chocolate coating:

•      100 g dark chocolate

•      4 tablespoons flavourless vegetable oil

   (vegetable or groundnut oil)

Coconut coating:

•      100 g shredded coconut, unsweetened

 Preparation

 The base:

Cut away the stem on figs and fill/put into each fig 2 whole walnut kernel (butterfly) halves (so that you have 1 whole walnut kernel in 1 dried fig).

Filling:

Cook 250 g of granulated sugar with a little water until the sugar dissolves and add 100 g of margarine, 200 g of shredded coconut, unsweetened and 7 pieces of ground dairy-free Petit Beurre biscuits (such as Turkish). Stir quickly and remove from the heat.

Leave it to cool down.

Cover each walnut-filled dried fig with a cooled filling mixture by making the balls.

Put them in the fridge to cool for a while.

Make the chocolate coating (for dipping) by melting 100 g of dark chocolate with 4 tablespoons of flavourless vegetable oil.

Prepare the coconut coating by putting 100 g of shredded coconut, unsweetened on a plate.

Dip the refrigerated balls into a hot chocolate coating and then in a shredded coconut.

Put them in the fridge to become firm (until the next day) and then cut each ball into 2 halves.