NETTLE AND DATES TRUFFLES

I can’t remember exactly when, but one day somebody asked me: “did you ever try to use green wild edibles to make cakes?”. Not, but that’s an idea! … Here the starting point of a new experimental project. So far I am pretty happy with this first result.

I used some fresh stinging nettles at first, but then I blended them with more dry nettle powder. The reason is that fresh ones give a distinctive grass-like taste. In my opinion it’s a good contrast with the excessive sweetness of dates, but maybe too much of a good thing. You have here the blended version.

Nettle truffles recipe

This is a very easy recipe, the one you need for getting rid of the leftover dates from Christmas. Hands up the one who has not some dates still hanging in the back of the pantry!

Nettle, dates, butter, hazelnuts, that’s it!

Ingredients:

10 g fresh nettle tips (raw) + 5 spoons of dry nettle powder
100 g dried dates (no stone)
50g hazelnuts flour (almonds is fine as well)
Pinch of salt
1 tea spoon of dandelion honey
1 big spoon of melted butter
Toppings to coat the balls (sweetened cocoa powder, chopped hazelnuts, sweetened nettle powder)

Preparation:

Throw everything (except the topping ;-)) in the food processor and mix until you get a smooth and sticky mixture. With your wet hands make tiny balls and roll them in the topping you did choose.

I would not recommend the bitter cocoa (I tried it, trust me). I would instead recommend my favourite one: nettle powder + pinch of salt + brown sugar. Refrigerate about 2-3 hours. I also froze some of them, for mayday situations.

What about the other stuff in the picture? Well, you know, I was already messing up the kitchen, so I went for some extra sweetness: nettle sponge cake, sprinkled with dwarf mountain pine syrup.

Then, still not happy with it, I topped it with a “Philadelphia” cream cheese flavoured with the pine syrup and thickened with isinglass. Added some pan caramelized pears.

As soon as I find the scrap of paper I wrote it, I will post the rest. Otherwise I should do it again! Now that I think about it, I’d rather skip looking for it …