Fruit and Nut Bites

 

Eating dry fruit is not only an excellent way to satisfy the sweet tooth, but dry fruits and nuts are also a great source of minerals, proteins and fibre. Snacking on a moderate amount of dry fruits and nuts a day can keep you healthy and fit, but the key here is “moderate amount”. As they say that we eat with our eyes, it is very easy to overeat when it comes to eating dry fruits and nuts. Since Diwali just passed, chances are you have a lot of dry fruit in your house. Now you can either munch on it just like that or you can create something totally yummy with all those dry fruits. These fruit and nut bites are sinfully good and an excellent way to control the amount of dry fruit you eat. Since there is no added sugar in these bites, they are actually a much healthier and guilt free dessert.

My kids who are actually not big fans of eating dry fruits and nuts, actually love these fruit and nut bites! This is a very easy and kid friendly recipe. My daughter had a great time helping me make these…from pitting the dates to shelling the pistachios and rolling the mixture into bite size morsels  , not to forget rolling them in cocoa powder (which is totally optional). We rolled half of these in cocoa powder and the other half were left just like that. You can also roll them in finely chopped pistachios or desiccated coconut or just leave them like this.

Fruit and Nut Bites

I also added some flax seed, chia seeds and tiny amount of toasted and ground oats to these to make them more substantial, kind of an after school snack  with a glass of milk ,for kids . Since I crushed the flax seed and chia seeds in my spice grinder, kids didn’t even know they were there! Adding a bit of pumpkin pie spice to   the mix makes it a perfect snack for the cool season. Enjoy one of these after dinner to satisfy the craving for a dessert.

Ingredients:

10 Dates pitted and chopped

10 dry figs chopped

10 prunes chopped

10 apricots chopped

1/4 cup almonds lightly toasted

1/4 cup shelled pistachios

1/4 cup walnuts

1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice mix (blend of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, dry ginger and all spice … I added a little cardamom powder as well)

optional

1 tbsp flax seeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp toasted rolled oats

cocoa powder for dusting

Method :

Grind the flax seeds, chia seeds and toasted oats in a spice grinder or blender to a coarse mix.

In the blender process the nuts to make a coarse powder . Because nuts release oil when they are ground so it is  okay if it forms a lump . Keep aside.

Grind the chopped dates, figs , prunes and apricots till there are no big chunks of fruit left. You might have to scrape the sides a few times to get the fruit evenly crushed.

In a big mixing bowl mix the crushed , dry fruit , nuts and the flax and oat mix. Add the pumpkin spice mix to it and knead it all together till it is nicely mixed.

Take a small amount of this mixture and roll it into a ball ( about the size of a golf ball…portion control ). You should end up with about 30 fruit and nut bites.

You can either roll the ball in cocoa powder at this point or just leave them like this. They taste great either way.

Store in a cool dry place for about a couple of weeks or refrigerate if you want to keep them for a longer time.