December Recipes: Love Bites

by Narrelle Harris

I invented this recipe this year with advice from my vegan niece in part so we could have a new family traditional food together.

Ingredients

Base

• 250g pitted dates
• 1 dessertspoon coconut oil
• ½ cup almond meal (+ ¼ cup extra)
• ½ cup dessicated or shredded coconut
• 2 tablespoons raw cocoa powder (optional)

Topping

• Natural crunchy peanut butter, crunchy (should be fairly thin and easily spread)
• 1 punnet raspberries (or blueberries or whatever berry you like)
• Thick coconut cream (thickened, separated cream from an unshaken tin of coconut cream. I used a 200g carton of KanTong coconut cream)

Method

• Blend dates and coconut oil in a blender until it is a thick paste.
• Add ½ cup almond meal and the dessicated/shredded coconut and mix by hand until it forms a dense, sticky dough.
• Roll the dough into small balls in the well of your hand and then flatten the balls into a disk.
• Use the extra ¼ cup of almond meal to coat the case of the disk, so the sticky base won’t stick to the plate. (Makes twenty bases)
• Lay disks out on a plate, almond-meal side down.
• Spread a level teaspoon of natural crunchy peanut butter on top of each disk.
• Add a few berries to the top of each disk.
• Add a dollop of coconut cream on top of the berries.
• Eat!
• Try to stop.
• Fail.
• Eat some more.

Variations

• Add 2 tablespoons of raw cocoa powder to the base mixture for that chocolately taste.
• Add goji berries, almond pieces or other dried fruits and nuts to the base for different textures and flavour bombs
• Add more almond meal to get a drier, more biscuity base.
• If the coconut cream is too thin, make it thicker by adding chia seeds to coconut milk/cream and letting it sit for a while until you have a cream topping of the right consistency.

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Traditionally, leather is an anniversary gift. One couple is about to take that in a very non-traditional way…

 

Books on Special – Just in time for the weekend

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From the best-selling author of The House on Burra Burra Lane, comes a brand-new story about opposites, attraction, an outback pub, and a pink house…

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From the author of The Convict’s Bounty Bride comes a new Australian historical about a free settler and the wife he chooses from a workhouse…

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Their chance at love was lost in the harsh light of day. Is the romance of the majestic Snowy Mountains enough to heal the wounds of the past so that they get a second chance at a future?

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As the Black Raven, she’s cold, distant and alone…untouched by the gossip and scorn of her aristocratic peers. Until he enters her house — and her life — then suddenly her icy shell is no match for the heat of attraction…

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From Cate Ellink comes a sun-soaked, sandy, seaside erotic novel about a tropical paradise, two athletes used to getting physical, and a sex-filled, no-strings holiday fling.

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Smooth, seductive and savage: Lee Christine returns to the dark, criminal underbelly of Sydney with her follow-up to In Safe Hands.

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In Children of the Mist, we discovered the secret history of the Children. Now, in the wilds of Scotland, one of them has come of age…

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Traditionally, leather is an anniversary gift. One couple is about to take that in a very non-traditional way…

Brr…it’s cold in here – Must be some July Releases in the atmosphere!

Guaranteed to generate some heat on those long, cold, winter nights 🙂

From best-selling author Amy Andrews comes a fabulous, funny, flirty new single-title romance about putting pleasure before business, and the risks we all need to take when we find someone worth risking everything for.

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Lisa Ireland takes a city girl country in her debut novel: when a smooth-talking, sophisticated city girl comes striding into town on her stiletto heels, local grazier Luke is the last person who wants to notice…

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Escape releases its first short story anthology this month, an erotic collection with a spirited twist from Elizabeth Dunk. Follow the journey of four remarkable women — Luisa, Anna, Cara, and Jan — and the four spirits that set them on a new path to sexual freedom and boundless pleasure.

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From Escape Publishing’s Queen of historical Australian romance, Téa Cooper,  comes an adventurous new story about a privileged member of Australian’s colonial squattocracy, a bushranger, and a very special horse.

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Discover beautiful South Africa (and a very handsome set of brothers!) in this sweet, heart-warming Cinderella story about a blogger, a billionaire, and one chance meeting.

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The second in the fresh, exciting, romantic fantasy Shroud trilogy takes up where Tearing the Shroud leaves off — with the lives, the loves, and the mythical world beyond the veil (also 80s music).

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NM Harris makes her debut with Escape this month with a sizzling, sexy, surprisingly sweet short story about a special anniversary. Traditionally, leather is an anniversary gift. One couple is about to take that in a very non-traditional way…