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Hi everyone,

How’s your week started? My day today has been a bit here and there. Not as productive as I had hoped with work but at least I have got some more Christmas shopping sorted! Yep, it’s been a leaving it until the last minute kind of gift shopping for me this year. Mind you, I’ve had the gifts mapped out in my head, but I just have not had much time during retail hours to get the shopping done! Perth certainly isn’t NYC or London when it comes to trading hours, that’s for sure!

Anyway…I have been wanting to spend hours in the kitchen making delicious, healthy, raw food gifts for all my friends and family for gifts this year, but with my workload right now, extra time is just not there for me to play with, literally. But there are still a few people who I know would particularly appreciate some handmade healthy goodies who I want to give a little “I appreciate you” gift to this year. So, as I love making healthy foods so much and giving them to those who will really enjoy them, I knew I had to make time for just a little bit of creativity in the kitchen. However, I didn’t want to create dense nut this’s and dense nut that’s as is so often the choice for raw treats. Don’t get me wrong, these taste fabulous, but if you’re anything like me, they can really weigh you down. Plus, I wanted to try creating something different, that is refreshing and light, and with festive flavours, while also being quick to make!

As I thought about the people I wanted to make some raw food gifts for, an idea began to form that is extremely simple and versatile (so it would be attractive to all my gift receivers), and also rich with flavour and “oomph”, given that only one of the people to receive my wares has any interest in raw foods. So what was born? Cinnamon And Ginger Spiced Apricot Date Jam, that’s what! It is fabulous and so easy to make! I love the flavours and just know it will be a hit with the four people I will be giving it to this coming Friday. If you have five to ten spare minutes this week (an ask I know!), and you want to make a special gift for friends, you definitely should give this a go! Now I’m just hoping those friends and family members receiving this jam as a gift from me don’t have time to check out my blog before Christmas!

Oh, and I’m just going to say upfront…excuse the photo quality. These pics were taken on my iPhone as I am currently not allowed to use our camera due to my boyfriend claiming it will spoil my Christmas gift. Hmmmm. Knowing the antics my boyfriend can get up to, it could be anything from a sweet picture of us to half naked shots of himself he is going to photo shop onto a Christmas card featuring himself as a skinny Irish Santa!

Cinnamon And Ginger Spiced Apricot Date Jam
I made enough for 4.5 medium sized jars with this recipe. You can quarter the amounts to make enough for one gift or for yourself, or make a lot more for gifts for all your friends and family.

1kg organic dried turkish apricots, soaked for a minimum of 2 hours (ideally overnight)
10 fresh organic medjool dates, soaked for a minimum of 2 hours (ideally overnight)
1/4 cup of reserved soak water
1 teaspoon of ginger powder
1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon

Step 1: Soak the dried apricots and fresh dates for a minimum of two hours in filtered water, or ideally overnight if you have time. I only had 2 hours up my sleeve but that was enough to plump up and soften the apricots and dates.

I had two of these full of apricots and dates.

Step 2: Drain the apricots and dates and reserve a 1/4 cup of the soak water for the recipe. Put the rest of the the water aside for another recipe, for drinking or for anything else you like. Put the drained apricots and dates, the ginger powder, cinnamon, and the reserved soak water into a food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Process until the mixture is sticking together and becomes creamy but still chunky. You could add more of the soak water to make it more runny, but I loved keeping some chunks of apricot and date in the jam rather than processing it to very smooth and completely blended. Plus I know some of the jam-recipients-to-be love their jam spread thick and rich, so a slightly chunky texture was perfect.

Step 3: Once you have your desired consistency, spoon the jam into glass or decorative jars and use the back of a spoon that has been sitting in boiling water to smooth out the top of the jam in the jars. Seal tightly and refrigerate. Here is my four jars of jam after sealing with the jar lids.

 I also plan to create some labels for the jams saying “Raw*Organic*Sugar Free” and the name of the recipe. One of my recipients is extremely sensitive to unnatural sugars so I thought it would be a nice touch to add the “sugar-free”. You could decorate them even further with ribbon, pretty wrapping or anything else you like. I will be when I wrap all my other presents later this week. Yep, leaving the wrapping REALLY to the last minute!

I had about half a jar of leftover jam after filling my jars so I decided to combine it with some pulp from making carrot juice earlier today. I was inspired by memories of a macaroon Marlena recently mentioned on her blog. They turned out delicious and were a great evening treat tonight.

I hope this has given you an idea for a delicious and thoughtful present for friends and/or family. It tastes fantatsic, is versatile for people of all diets, and is straight from the heart, while also supporting the businesses we want to support…pure organic foods! Nothing like a Christmas present that doesn’t add more damage to the environment!

I’ll be back this week with a happy holiday wish and a challenge for January 2010 for anyone who wants to get back to basics – this will be a good one for all of us, folks.

Love,
Casey