NO-BAKE APRICOT & MACADAMIA SLICE

Raw Apricot & Macadamia Slice

I used our homegrown dried apricots in this slice giving the slice a delightful tangy flavour. If you are using store-bought dried apricots, as I appreciate not everyone has an apricot in the backyard, they will be sweeter than ours so add the optional lemon juice to balance the sweetness.

Ingredients

Topping

• 1/2 cup dried apricots chopped
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 cup macadamia nuts [or cashews]
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder or vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil melted
• if needed 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Base

• 1/2 cup 'activated' buckwheat groats [see notes below] or sunflower seeds
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts or almonds
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Pinch of salt

To decorate

• Coconut chips

Instructions

• Place the apricots into a bowl and cover with 1/2 cup boiling water. Leave to soften for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile prepare the base: In a food processor blitz the buckwheat groats [sunflower seeds], coconut and nuts until roughly ground. Add the coconut oil, honey and salt and pulse to combine. Press into a lined tin [approx. 20 x 20cm] and place in the freezer to set.
• Make the topping: Place the apricots along with soaking water, macadamias, vanilla and salt into a food processor and blitz for 1-2 minutes until smooth-ish [the degree of smoothness will depend on the food processor]. Add the melted coconut oil and lemon juice if using and blend to combine.
• Remove the chilled base from the freezer and pour over the apricot topping. Place back into the freezer for 2 hours to set. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. *It is best eaten cold as the warm weather will soften the coconut oil.

Notes

Buckwheat groats are a gluten-free ‘pseudo’ grain. They are in actual fact a seed growing on a bush rather than as a cereal grass so hence the name pseudo. As the name my indicate buckwheat is no relation to wheat at all. I suspect the name came from the fact that buckwheat can be ground into flour and used like wheat. It has a delightful earthy flavour, although this can overpower if used exclusively so I always combine with other flours and nuts in baking.
*When using the whole groats I activate them first. Soak for 12 hours in plenty of water with a splash of apple cider vinegar. Drain and rinse well. Dry the groats in a dehydrator OR spread on a lined baking tray and dry in 50C oven set on 'fan bake' with the door slightly ajar [a wooden spoon in the door works well]. Buckwheat groats are available from organic and wholefood stores.

Summer is truly here. The cicadas are chirping and the fruit trees are showering us with fruit to eat and preserve. This week’s recipe is inspired by the bucket-loads of apricots we harvested from our tree combined with the bag of locally-grown macadamia’s I excitedly came across at the farmers market.

I know I have talked about our apricot tree here several times before [Apricot Madeira Cake + The Best Apricot Ice Cream Ever!]. But honestly, it never ceases to amaze me how much fruit it produces. Especially considering it didn’t produce fruit AT ALL 5 years ago. Then one day we cut back its huge gnarly limbs to make room for our newly planted fruit trees. Apricots apparently like a bit of roughing and since then we have had fruit! Some even say taking an axe to the roots and trunk will get an apricot fruiting. I am not sure about that but a good old prune worked for us.

The first year was only half a dozen fruit and mostly eaten by the birds. However, it has since continued to double its yield every year. So this year the amount of fruit we harvested was almost embarrassing. Maybe embarrassing isn’t quite the right word, but you get the picture. There was enough to stock half the pantry with jars of preserved apricots, I filled our large dehydrated thrice over, and I even made a delightful fermented apricot compote. I had to get adventurous there was just so much fruit. There was even enough for the birds to feast on and our orchard chooks enjoyed the windfall.

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