Healthy and sweet, and easy to make with children? Perhaps this will become a Christmas classic!
It started with the idea for a simple snack that I had remembered from a Raw Food Cookbook many years ago, (yes, that is correct, a Raw Food cookbook); almond stuffed dates rolled in coconut. Then I ran across a recipe for ‘coconut sweetmeats’ using condensed milk and coconut. ‘Sweetmeats’ is an archaic word for something sweet or confectionery. I assume that because there is no actual meat in this, for some reason it must have come from Great Britain. They like to make-up and use funny words there. (Think: Spotted Dick, and Bangers and Mash)
One of these little Jesus’ rather resembles E.T.
Short story short I combined the two ideas and added my own flair. First I decided to use cashews instead of almonds, because, yeah, duh! They’re better! I started stuffing my little hors d’oeuvres pointy end of the cashews first, and quickly noticed that the fat end really didn’t want to fit inside the pit hole. “Leave it hanging out or split the date?” I did a few of each and found that the little ‘heads’ sticking out sure looked a lot like a newborn being swaddled. It was perfect! The coconut sweet meat could be used as a straw bed for each of the little baby Jesus’!
I have to admit that many thoughts about the eating of baby Jesus crossed my mind. Does one serve them with tooth picks near to skewer baby Jesus? Wouldn’t that be more appropriate for Easter? Or is that just worse? Either way this recipe got rave reviews from many family members, and although it is sweet and there is some fat the means of getting there are all pretty straight forward and healthy.
Jesus Sweets
By:vduley
Serves:25-30 hors d’oeuvres
Ingredients:
- 25-30 pitted dates
- 25-30 whole salted cashews
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- additional shredded coconut for plating
- 1/2 T pumpkin pie spice
Directions:
- Add the spice, coconut, and milk to a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Stir for a few minutes until warm and more firm or tacky. Put in refrigerator or freezer to cool. This will make it easier to work with for the next steps.
- Stuff one cashew in the pit hole of each date, point first, leaving the fat end sticking out slightly.
- Using a small dish of water lightly wet your fingers to avoid getting really sticky from the coconut sweets and with about 2 tablespoons of coconut mix lightly wrap your ‘hay bed’ around each ‘Jesus date.’ Be sure to leave little baby Jesus’ head sticking out.
- Dip the back/bottom of each Jesus in the additional shredded coconut before spacing them evenly on your serving dish. This will keep them from sticking to the plate.
- Serve with toothpicks or tongs and enjoy!
2 comments on “Jesus Sweets”
This post is so hilarious and looks delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
I kind of wanted to title this ‘Sweet Jesus’ but it reminded me too much of the ‘cold pop’ lady: Cold Pop Lady