Date, Walnut & Orange Blossom Moroccan Inspired Treats

I love dates and have been wanting to make this Moroccan style ‘candy’ for a while. It’s not that it is even difficult or time consuming to make, quite the opposite but I always seem to get side tracked by another dish. I used our monthly Sweet New Zealand event as the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl. It’s really just a matter of roasting the walnuts, softening the dates and pressing it into a pan. No Baking, no sugar added, no flour added, no dairy either so one could almost claim it to be rather healthy if you weren’t too concerned about all that fructose in the dates.

So here’s my submission for Octobers Sweet NZ, hosted this month by Sue Couscous & Consciousness who will offer a round up of all the entries at the end of the month, so do pop over to her blog.

Ingredients
600g Pitted Dates
70g Walnuts
1tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp orange blossom water
1 tsp ground cardamon

Method
Place the walnuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat and roast for a few minutes, shaking the pan to roast both sides. They should brown but not burn. You can do this in an oven too but if I’m not using the oven I don’t like to heat it up just to roast nuts.
Place the dates and 1/4 cup water, cardamon and orange blossom water in a pan over a low heat and simmer until the dates are all soft and the water is absorbed.
Line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.
Press half the dates into the base of the tin.
Cover with the walnuts and then press the other half of the dates over the walnuts.
Cover the top layer of dates with sesame seeds.
Place in the fridge to chill then cut into small diamond shapes to serve.

Vanilla Bean & Orange Blossom Cake

Hosting Sweet New Zealand this month I am the one who is meant to be organised and have my entry up early. As more entries come in this week I realise I only have one day left to post my own entry so I thought I better get to it and do some baking at the weekend. With a big pot of yoghurt that needed to be used in the fridge and a stash of vanilla beans recently brought back from our trip to Rarotonga I wanted to use these two ingredients. I found this really easy recipe for a yoghurt cake at BBC Good Food with an orange blossom syrup that is poured over the cake while it is warm. The syrup and the ground almonds make for a really moist cake which kept fresh for several days, likely to keep longer it you don’t have piggies in your house like us. As you can see I even liked their food styling!

So this is my entry for Sweet New Zealand, if you haven’t yet submitted I’ll take your entries up till Thursday 29th and will offer a full round up of all the fabulous entries I have received Friday 30th September, so make sure you pop by to see our Kiwi gallery of goodies. Those who are keen to host the event next month, please contact <ahref="Alessandra

Ingredients
200g SR Flour
100g ground almonds
150g castor sugar
250ml plain yoghurt
1tsp baking soda
150ml canola oil
3 small free range eggs
2 vanilla beans, seeds removed
Syrup Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp orange blossom water

Method
Preheat oven to 180C and grease and flour a 22-24cm cake tin.
Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
In another bowl whisk all the wet ingredients & vanilla bean seeds together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together.
Spoon ingredients into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted knife come out clean.
While the cake is baking make the syrup.
Place the sugar, water and vanilla pods into a small pan over a medium heat.
Simmer until the sugar has dissolved then tun the heat up so the liquid is on a gentle boil.
Once the liquid has reduced by a 1/3 turn the heat off and allow it to cool for a minute before adding the orange blossom water.
Remove the cake from the oven once cooked and let it sit for 5 minutes then pour the syrup over the cake.
I sprinkled a few pistachios over the top for visual look but this is optional as the cake is yum on its own.