Nourishing and festive Christmas sweet platter

With Christmas just around the corner, the countdown begins for the best day for eating of the year. Often after the fiftieth meal of the day and on overload from sugar, we begin to feel bloated and maybe a bit sick. This sweet Christmas platter is full of nourishing ingredients, low in sugar in comparison to your traditional Christmas treats and (of course) delicious.

Ingredients

Makes 12 tarts and 7 chocolate bliss balls

Tart crust and bliss ball mixture

1 cup oats

1 line (2 squares) raspberry Lindt dark chocolate block

10 medjool dates

Zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup hazelnuts

1 tbsp cocoa

Toppings and extras

1 bag dark choc chips

7 hazelnuts for each bliss ball

2 squares Lindt raspberry dark choc block

1/4 cup goji berries

1/4 cup pistachio nuts crushed

Punnet blueberries

Punnet raspberries

Punnet strawberries

Handful cherries

Chocolate mousse

1 large avocado

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 tbsp maple syrup or sweetener of choice

Method

In a food processor or strong blender put all the ingredients for the tart crust and process until clumped together as a 'dough like' texture. In a mini tart pan, cut small strips of baking paper to sit in the tart holes, see figure 1 below for size guide. Spoon mixture into 12 holes of the tart tin and use something round to push them around the tin evenly (I used the handle of a cheese knife). Put them in the freezer while you work on the rest of the platter.

Use the leftover tart mixture to make bliss balls. Pop one hazelnut in the middle of around a tablespoon of mixture, and roll until smooth and round. Repeat with the rest of the tart mixture.

In a microwave safe ramekin, put around 1/2 cup of dark choc chips for 30 seconds in the microwave. Take out and stir. Repeat this process twice more until the chocolate is completely smooth and melted (be careful not to heat any longer than these increments or the chocolate will burn). Dip the balls in the chocolate and put on a sheet of baking paper. In the food processor or blender, grind the goji berries and top the chocolate coated balls with the ground goji berries and some sea salt.

Melt around 1 cup of chocolate chips, dip the strawberries and cherries in the chocolate and let sit on the baking paper with the bliss balls.

In the food processor, add the avocado flesh, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add more sweetener to taste if desired.

Take the tart crusts out of the freezer. Using a piping bag, pipe the chocolate avocado mousse into the tart shells. Grate 2 squares of the Lindt chocolate over the top of the tarts and add the crushed pistachios, as shown in Figure 1.

Put in the refrigerator with the bliss balls and chocolate dipped fruit, until ready to serve. Top with a fresh raspberry on each tart just before serving and garnish the platter with fresh blueberries.

Figure 1. Baking paper under tarts so they can be lifted out easily