Bliss balls are the easiest cheat sweet. Just bung everything in a food processor and press the button. Start with a base of nuts or seeds, add your dried fruit of choice and bind with sticky sweeteners such as maple syrup, dates, brown rice syrup, or nut butters. It's a good way to use up things that have bene neglected in your pantry.
If you're time constrained or just too lazy to roll into balls, just make into a slice.

200g dried fruit (I used apricots, use whatever mix you like. Get tropic...
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Aren't these cute?! These edible rocks will be a hit in your household or next party. Super easy to make with kids too. It's from Bakeland: Nordic Treats Inspired by Nature by Marit Hovland (Greystone Books. 2016).

2 Oreo cookies

200g white chocolate

90ml sweetened condensed milk

pinch salt

1/8 tsp cocoa powder

Filling:

1/2 c any salted nuts (I used brazils, almonds and cashews)

1/4 c any dried fruit (I used cranberries and apricots)

Remove the white filling from the Oreo cookies then place them in a ...

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A refined-sugar-free treat for any time of the day. I think the thinness of a florentine is the secret to its success, so use flaked or slivered almonds. Pepitas and oats add extra nutrition.

Makes about 25

1/2 c rolled oats

1/3 c almonds

1/3 c finely chopped walnuts

1/3 c pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1/3 c finely chopped apple-sweetened cranberries (I didn't have any so used sulphur-free apricots. Other tangy dried fruit would work well too, such as cherries or blueberries)

1 tsp mixed spice (or a mix o...

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I came across a great book called Natural Baking by Carolin Strothe and Sebastian Keitel (DK, 2019). They use seasonal fruit and vegetables, natural sweeteners and healthier flours in their bakes. I've made many carrot cakes before, but it was nice to include all these wholesome ingredients and feed a large playground playdate with 7 kids and 4 adults.

2 eggs

1/2 c natural liquid sweetener (I used a maple and rice syrup mix)

75ml mild vegetable oil

1/4 tsp black cardamom seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground ...

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Swedish hastbullar ("quick buns") are like fancy scones. You can make them without paper cases, but the Swedish like to present their fika nicely.

Makes 12
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed (or used ground cardamom)
1/2 c unrefined sugar
100g cold butter, cubed
1/2 c chopped dried fruit (I used apricots, they used figs, anything works well)
1 egg
3/4 c milk

For the topping:
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c chopped nuts (I used hazelnuts) or demerara/raw/turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 220C. L...
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Quick and easy rocky road to give to the teachers this year, and for random visitors to our house this festive season.
1 c cacao butter
1 c cacao or cocoa powder
1/4 c maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1/2 c cranberries
1/2 c toasted hazelnuts
1/2 c mini marshmallows

Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Melt the cacao butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan with 2-3 cm water. Heat on a low-medium heat until melted.
Take off the heat and stir in the maple syrup, cacao powder, vanilla, sal...
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There are a few recipes for homemade chocolate on Bake Club. I've experimented and tweaked amounts many times and have found this one works best for me if I want to make hard chocolate as it's easy to remember and measure. You can use any size moulds you like. I wanted generous servings filled with a nut/fruit mix so I used heart-shaped silicon muffin moulds. The servings weigh around 40-50g each. The good thing about chocolate is that if you make any surplus to needs you can just store in an...
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This granola has just the right mix of nuts, fruit, spices and sweetness for me - and a fantastic crunch.

3 c oats
2 c chopped nuts
1 c sunflower seeds, or do a pumpkin seed mix
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
4 tbs coconut oil
3/4 c rice syrup
2 tbs water
2 tbs vanilla extract
1/2 c chopped apricots
1/2 c goji berries
1/4 c raisins or chopped prunes

Preheat oven to 160C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Melt the coconut oil and rice syrup in a saucepan or double boiler over low heat. Mix the oats, ...

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Chocolate mendiants are traditional French sweets during Christmas time. The chocolate discs are studded with nuts and fruit to represent the four monastic orders of the church - usually raisins, figs, hazelnuts and almonds. In our household, however, I make chocolate treats all year round. These ones are decorated with goji berries and coconut, apricots and almonds, pumpkin seeds and ginger, and mini marshmallows. Just go crazy with your toppings...

Makes 12 little discs
1/2 c cacao powder
1/2 ...
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This easy recipe is adapted from Healthy Food Guide. From this base you can make many variations of cookie – plain, with nuts, with coconut, oats, other dried fruit, spices. I like that it adds LSA to sneak in an extra nutrient punch.

100g butter
½ c natural sweetener (I used rapadura sugar and honey)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 ¼ c flour (I used spelt)
¼ c Dutch cocoa powder (Dutch process cocoa gives a fudgier, denser flavour but natural is fine too. Here's an...

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Thank you Emily Rose, who wrote Have Your Cake (Five Mile Press, 2011). Her recipes have "no butter, no white flour, no added sugar". She uses wholemeal flour, rice bran oil and honey. I prefer spelt, coconut oil and rice malt syrup so have substituted with these and results were good!
Makes 16-20 cookies
1 c spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 c dessicated coconut
1/3 c rolled oats (have also used buckinis)
1/2 c coconut oil, softened (or rice bran oil)
1/2 c rice malt syrup (or honey)
1 tsp grated ...
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This is another one from Little Bird. Apricots, almonds and sesame are a winning combination and the addition of lemon zest makes it sing. After the mixture set in the fridge I cut them into bars and dehydrated for 24 hours as they advised. But they hardly dried out and were still crumbly so I just put them in an oven at 150C for 15-20 min until golden. If you're a raw purist just keep them in the fridge.

Makes 20 bars

1 c almonds, activated if possible
1/4 c flaxseeds, ground in a cof...

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By Frances

A rich nutty cake by Annabel Langbein from the February issue of Life & Leisure magazine.

Base:

¾ c flour

¾ c wholemeal flour

¾ c oats

¾ c brown sugar

180g cold butter, diced

 

Process all ingredients in a food processor until it resembles a fine crumb. Press into a 20cm round cake tin.

 

Cake:

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

¼ c brown sugar

½ c walnuts

½ c flaked almonds

¾ c almonds

¾ c dates

¾ c apricots

¾ c choc melts

¾ c coconut

...
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1 c flour
100g butter
1/4 c sugar
1 egg
3 c stewed dried apricots or fresh apricots

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a sponge roll cake tin with baking paper.
Sift flour, cut in butter and mix in until it resembles breadcrumbs.Stir in sugar and egg. Form a stiff dough.
Press half of the dough into the tin. Cover with apricot filling. Crumble the rest of dough over the top.
Bake for about 30 min or until the bottom layer is cooked through. You might need to cover the top with foil for an extra few min of ba...
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This is my first batch of baking since our daughter Tui was born 3 weeks ago. Feels great to get back in the kitchen; baking relaxes me.

I have also recently formed a co-op with some friends to order Ceres organic products wholesale. A 3kg bag of sulphur-free apricots was in my first order so it was a good chance to use some! Apricots and chocolate are always a tasty combination.

 

Makes about 20

100g butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla ess...

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Ruth bought this along to a little afternoon tea we had - it was still warm! Love her duck-shaped measuring cups as well.

8oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
4oz butter
1 egg
1 dessert spoon sugar
milk - a few spoonfuls
cooked (or tinned) apricots - maybe 10 small ones
 
Rub butter into flour and baking powder. Mix in egg and sugar. Add a spoon or two of milk to make a light pastry. Cut the dough into two parts and roll out each. Place one on a tray and spread the cooked apricots on top. Lay the second bit...
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Stewed apricots are a winner in freshly baked bread!
Apricot filling:
Stew 1 cup dried apricots wiht 1/2 c water and 1/4 sugar until mushy and soft. Cool.
Chocolate filling:
Melt 300 g chocolate with some icing sugar, 1/2 c ground almonds, vanilla essence, dessicated coconut if you like. The mixture should have a peanut butter consistency so it's easily spreadable.
For 2 loaves:
1 c milk
3/4 - 1 c water
125g butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
3-4 level tsp yeast
2 eggs
6 1/2 c flour
Make the dough and knead u...
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Ruth brought these tasty little numbers into work - what a treat. AND she personally shelled the walnuts herself!

2/3 cup of sugar
½ cup of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of grated orange peel (I change ingredients depending on what’s available – favourites are dates,
walnuts, almonds, apricots)
1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla
2 medium eggs
2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of baking soda
¼ teaspoon of salt
4 oz of semisweet chocolate, melted (I use Valrh...

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