I had totally forgotten about these little treats and was rooting though my books of recipes recently and remembered how easy and tasty these little fruit and nut balls are. I developed this receipe for a cookery courses I first gave years ago, as a nice energy giving snack or post workout treat. Really easy to prepare, keep them in an airtight tin if you can keep the family’s hands off them. I have used a number of juices as alternatives to the unsweetened apple but I dont use orange juice as Im not a fan.

Fruit and Nut Balls
Makes 12
¼ cup fresh unsweetened cloudy apple juice
½ cup mixed dried fruit chopped finely
60gr really good quality dark chocolate
¼ tsp ground mixed spice
½ cup toasted mixed pumpkin sunflower flax and linseeds
¼ cup almond or hazelnut meal (ground almonds or hazelnuts)
1 teaspoon finely grated mandarin or orange zest
Toasted Desiccated coconut to coat

Bring juice, mixed dried fruit and mixed spice to the boil in a saucepan
Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for about 10 minutes and set aside to cool
Grind the seeds and chocolate in a blender
Add the chocolate, seeds, almond or hazelnut meal and the zest to the fruit mixture and mix well
Line a tray with grease proof paper or use mini mini muffin paper cups
Form the mixture into bite sized balls, roll in the toasted coconut and place on the tray
Cover and chill for 30 minutes before serving.