It’s Christmas gift time
Children will love having these bliss balls on the festive table, while a jar of strawberry and vanilla tea makes a thoughtful present for those who adore a good cuppa.
We find ourselves surrounded by boxes and packing tape as we prepare to farewell the City of Sails in exchange for the embrace of Mount Taranaki.
With children to look after, work to finish, and a house to pack up, this year there won’t be time for making Christmas presents (I’m not even sure how I’ll find the time to buy them!).
If, however, time is looking more favourably upon you then what better way to show loved ones you care this Christmas than by taking the time to make them gifts.
The recipes below make beautiful presents and store well.
The strawberry and vanilla tea I made using black tea but would be just as delicious made with green tea instead.
The carrot cake bliss balls will be gratefully devoured by children and adults, and make great lunchbox fillers.
teaspoon sea salt Finely chop 1 cup of the walnuts and set aside. You will use this to roll the bliss balls in. Put the almonds into the food processor and process until they resemble rough breadcrumbs.
Add the walnuts and process again until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Remove from the food processor and set aside.
Pit the medjool dates, and put into the food processor along with the carrot, desiccated coconut, orange zest, vanilla, all the spices, and salt, and process until it all comes together and there are no lumps. Add the nuts back in, and process again until this all comes together.
Roll into balls (I made mine 20g each!), then roll in the chopped walnut.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to gift.
Strawberry & vanilla tea
Makes 4 cups Preparation: 25 minutes Cooking: 2 hours
200g black tea (I used a malty English Breakfast tea) 2 punnets strawberries 4 vanilla pods Preheat the oven to 100 degrees Celsius on fan bake and line two baking trays with baking paper. Rinse and dry the strawberries then hull and finely slice them.
Lay them out on the baking trays and bake for 1 hour, turning the strawberries after 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 75 degrees and bake for a further hour, turning again if necessary.
You want the strawberries to be dry and crunchy but not browned. This process will take more or less time depending on how thinly you sliced your strawberries so keep a close eye on them.
While the strawberries are drying out, put the black tea into a bowl.
Slice the vanilla pods into 4, lengthways, then finely chop and mix into the tea.
Once the strawberries have dried out and are cool, break them up into the tea and store in an airtight container.
This tea is delicious with or without milk.
Recipes, food styling, and photography by Emma Boyd