Room for some sweets still? I've never been too eager on making any Christmas dishes myself (I let others do them for me for when I come over, hehe), apart from sweets. For New Year's I, as many others, like to eat something fresh and not really related to the season. But when it comes to the extras I prefer to still go for Christmas, as I do like the holiday scents an tastes, sweet and spicy.
Here's a recipe for gingerbread truffles, to serve with coffee for or after dessert or to place on the table among with the other sweets you've gathered around yourself for this time of the year. I'm sure you could get pretty awesome truffles by just adding gingerbread bits to a regular truffle batch, or by rolling truffles in gingerbread crumbs (>note to self: try). But these here are not that kind of truffles.
For about 18 pieces you'll need:
180 grams of almonds
2 tbs of honey
8 dates (or fewer, if you use very big ones)
Ginger bread spices
Grind the almonds in a mixer. They don't have to get as smooth as flour, keep a little texture. Add the honey, and then the dates one by one. (If you want to do a vegan version trade the honey into one spoon of agave, or just use about one or two dates more.)
The mix should be a rather fluffy, nutty crumble, that will stick together easily when you roll it into a ball. If you put in too many dates it will turn soggy, so check before adding the last ones. Put in the spices last and blend. I use 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and one each of ginger and clover. As I like cardamom a lot I put a teaspoon of that too.
Form into balls and roll them in a mix of cocoa and cinnamon (or if you so prefer, just either one).
Keep cold for an hour or two before serving, and if you for some reason are left with any over, store cold in a plastic box.
No food processor at home? If you use soft enough dates you can do this with just a hand mixer too, with pre-ground almonds (or almond flour). Or mash the dates with a fork for the hand-only version.
You can do several variations on these:
The obvious - cut into cubes instead of rolling them into balls, or form a roll and cut thin slices. Dust cinnamon or coconut sugar on.
The more created variations:
Press the dough out rather thin and use small gingerbread forms to cut out shapes.
Roll the truffles around a piece of dried apricot or dark chocolate.
Dip the gingerbread balls in melted chocolate, leave as they are or sprinkle chopped almonds, cinnamon or nonpareils on.
You can also bake these. Then they of course will no longer be truffles but turn in to sort-of-gingerbreads. The raw way would be to keep them in oven on low heat until they dry, some hours in just 40C. The inpatient way I'd go for is a very hot oven for just a minute or two.
Or, if you are among those who like gingerbread dough shut ike that, skip all rolling and just eat right out of the bowl!
PS. these are also healthy! And raw. Child-friendly sweets with no sugar. Haha!
