I saw a mention of NZ Honey Week about a month or so ago and then forgot all about it and when I remembered I assumed I had missed it so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a tweet about it and found out I had not missed the boat!
I spent a bit of time thinking about what I could create as I wanted to make something from scratch and not just use a recipe or do something I had already made before like this clean chocolate slice.
At first I wanted to create some kind of slice but couldn’t think of the right flavour combinations to bring it all together.
I started thinking about what goes well with Honey and instantly I thought of nuts – as a kid I used to have peanut butter and honey mixed on my toast. De.lici.ous!
I don’t eat very many peanuts however I do eat a lot of almonds and had purchased some raw cashews on the weekend to make a cashew aioli, so these were the base of my recipe. You can use any nuts you like.
I roughly chopped the nuts up and put them into a bowl and then started adding a host of other ingredients including honey of course and ended up with these Honey Nut Clusters!
These Honey Nut Clusters contain no added sugar, are gluten free and pretty darn clean and they taste like a sweet sugar bomb in your mouth!
Ingredients – Makes 16 mini balls
3/4 cup mixed nuts
1/2 cup shredded or desiccated coconut
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2.5 heaped tablespoons honey
1.5 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
1 egg white beaten
1/4 cup quick oats
Directions
1. Roughly chop your nuts
2. Place the honey & coconut oil in a saucepan on a slow heat and let them melt together to form a nice liquid.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of nuts.
4. Whisk your egg white until it is completely frothy and tip on top of the nuts.
5. Mix in the combined coconut oil and honey until it covers all the nut mixture.
6. Roll into small balls and squeeze tightly, place on a baking tray.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius – the timing is really up to you depending on how crispy you want them.
8. Let them cool & keep in the fridge.
9. EAT
You can be creative with these, you can drop the egg whites if you like and even not bake them if you drop the egg white. I do like baking them for a little bit of crunch though. If you drop the coconut oil you may need to keep them in the fridge all the time as this helps them hold together.
You could even add in some dried fruit, dried apricot could be awesome!
What flavours do you think go with honey?