Apricot Almond Cookies

I seem to have developed a strange obsession with apricots of late, sneaking them into everything when no one’s looking! Here are a couple of my fave recipes for luscious apricot sweet eats…

Apricot Almond Cookies

1 cup raw almonds
Two-thirds cup dried apricots
¼ cup desiccated coconut
2 heaped dessertspoons raw almond butter
2 teaspoons raw honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Small pinch Celtic sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt

Using a food processor or coffee grinder, process raw almonds into small pieces and transfer to a bowl. Add dried apricots to food processor and process until well broken down. Return the ground almonds, add coconut and salt, then blend until evenly mixed. Add remaining ingredients and process again until mixture begins sticking together. Press into a silicone mould and refrigerate for a couple of hours to firm up before serving. Will keep for a week or longer in the fridge.



This is such a versatile recipe and I’ve used it in several raw desserts over the past few weeks as both a tart crust and crumble mix. It’s lovely served as an apricot cobbler with fresh, sliced apricots (toss them in a bowl with a little honey and vanilla extract before adding to the crumble). If you have more time available then you really can’t beat a raw Apricot Almond Tart.

Firmly press the above cookie mixture into a cake tin or pie tray, ensuring the crust reaches about an inch up the sides. Leave in the fridge to firm up while you make the filling.

Apricot Almond Tart Filling:
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup fresh apricots (about 7 or 8 with stones removed)
½ cup coconut milk
2 heaped dessertspoons lecithin
20ml coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 dessertspoons raw agave

Add the coconut and pitted apricots to the food processor and process until creamy. Then add remaining ingredients and process again until mixture starts to thicken. Scoop filling onto the crust and refrigerate for a couple of hours to firm up. Sprinkle with sliced almonds before serving if desired. The assembled tart will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Flower Power Friday

There’s a little pot of Anagallis ‘Gentian Blue’ blooming in a sunny spot at my back door. The flowers are a mesmerising shade of deep sapphire blue and utterly entrancing as they sway in the summer breeze…

“The actual flower is the plant's highest fulfilment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first of all for delight.”
~ John Ruskin

Living a Creative Life

I’ve been musing recently about how much less effort it takes to live life by just following the herd, and yet, how many brilliant, creative ideas and opportunities are lost in doing so? Then a fantastic quote landed in my inbox as a timely reminder of why it’s good to dance to your own beat:

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."
~ Christopher Morley

The concept of doing something that no one else would be daft enough to do is sheer genius. How often do we come up with an idea but reject it because it’s too absurd, juvenile, or we worry that others won’t ‘get it’? What if those very ideas we brush aside are gems of inspiration that could potentially catapult us from feeling like a struggling artist/craftsperson/whatever to actually finding true success and fulfilment…

So next time you dream up something that’s totally off the wall, run with it to see where it leads!

New Jewels!

I’ve been adding some new designs to the Midnight Raven Artisan Jewellery website recently. Plenty more to come, of course, I’m just really behind with my photos and descriptions as usual!

I love making jewellery that evokes a sense of the past and this piece positively oozes vintage glamour from the Art Deco style sterling silver beads down to the cool, ridged orbs of vintage ‘Siam’ Swarovski crystal. The pink, red and mauve colour combo works well, so I’ll definitely be using it again in some shape or form!

Heyday necklace (Balsam for the Soul collection)

Coconut Lime Cuptarts

Lime and coconut are one of those great combinations that just scream ‘summer’! I had a couple of limes needing using and a carton of organic coconut milk made from the pulp and juice of green coconuts, which I thought would complement the zing of the lime. It was a bit of an experiment, which luckily turned out perfectly first time. The result is basically a hybrid cupcake / tart – so cuptarts sums them up nicely. Love that word!

Base:
1 cup walnuts
1 cup desiccated coconut
½ cup stoned dates
Tiny pinch Celtic sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt

Filling:
1 cup desiccated coconut
¼ cup lime juice (2 limes)
½ cup coconut milk
2 dessertspoons lecithin
5 dessertspoons liquid coconut oil
2 dessertspoons raw agave
2 tsp vanilla extract

Add the ingredients for the base to the food processor and process until crumbly (be careful not to overprocess the walnuts). Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate. Then add all the filling ingredients to the food processor and blend until evenly mixed. Transfer to a separate bowl and place in fridge for a couple of hours to thicken. To assemble the cuptarts, firmly press the base mixture into the bottom of each silicone muffin mould and around the edges, creating a well in the centre. Spoon a generous amount of lime and coconut filling into each cuptart and decorate with shredded coconut.

Flower Power Friday

“For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love.”
~ Kahlil Gibran

Desiderata

Life is full of brilliant synchronicities, don't you think? I hadn’t read Max Ehrmann’s poem, ‘Desiderata’ in a long, long time, and then it popped up twice in a matter of weeks when Cygnus Books featured it on their blog and a few verses were read out at my uncle’s funeral. Just thought I’d post the full version here as Ehrmann’s message is all too pertinent – especially in these times of uncertainty and turmoil around the world it’s reassuring to know that “the universe is unfolding as it should”.


Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

~ Max Ehrmann, 1927

Flower Power Friday

Considering how badly I neglect my roses (forgetting to prune them at the right time of year, feed them and so on!), they’ve bloomed beautifully this summer…

"If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?"
~ G.K. Chesterton




"How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew!"
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson




"Mystery glows in the rose bed and the secret is hidden in the rose."
~ Farid ud-din Attar (12th-century Persian alchemist)

Mulberry Musings

I absolutely adore sun-dried white mulberries to the point that I’d happily sell my soul for a huge bag of them! They’re expensive little honey-flavoured berries, but packed full of nutrients and so delicious they’re worth every darn penny. I treated myself to a packet recently and concocted the cookies below on a wet afternoon last week when I really should have been doing something more useful… like work!

Here’s my recipe for Magical Mulberry Cookies, which taste like a gloriously sweet, chewy trail bar:

¼ cup cashews
½ cup pecans
1 cup dried white mulberries
¼ cup desiccated coconut
3 tbsp goji berries
2 dessertspoons raw agave nectar
Tiny pinch Celtic sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt

Process the cashews and pecans into small pieces in the food processor. Then add remaining ingredients and process until the mixture begins sticking together. Press into a silicone mould and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.



The Chocolate Orange Mulberry Cookies were the result of a little further experimentation. They’re insanely good, in a chocolate orange kinda way!

1 cup dried white mulberries
2 generously heaped dessertspoons raw almond butter
¼ cup cacao nibs
1 dessertspoon raw cacao powder
1 tsp orange extract (or a few drops orange essential oil)
Tiny pinch Celtic sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt

Process the cacao nibs and mulberries into small pieces in the food processor. Then add remaining ingredients and process until the mixture begins sticking together. Press into a silicone mould and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.