Making Tiger Nut Sweets
Published On: 11-14-2011 08:33pm
Comments: 0 - Hits: 146
Category: Egypt
Compared to the varied and abundant foods that we enjoy today, the Ancient Egyptians had a fairly simple diet. Even the wealthiest homes had uncomplicated menus. Most featured basic dishes like barley bread, onions, lettuce, fish and dates.
Fancy fare was saved for important banquets and feasts. One of the popular deserts was a simple treat called tiger nut sweets. The instructions for preparing these little finger foods is the oldest known recipe - one of many literary firsts for the Ancient Egyptians.
I first came across a recipe for tiger nut sweets in a children’s book simply called Ancient Egypt, by Alexandra Fix. The method seemed simple enough: stuff pitted dates with walnuts, dip in a honey and cinnamon mixture, and roll in ground almonds. Tasty!
When I first tried to make tiger nut sweets, I started with some simple modifications. Stuffing dates is a lot more difficult than it sounds, and don’t really care for walnuts anyway. So I skipped that step and simply coated plain dates with cinnamon honey and almond dust.
These little treats are incredibly sweet - even more so than modern candy. Although they are quite fun to make and eat, I wanted to find a way to make them less cloying. After some searching, I found that the more common tiger nut sweets recipe calls for making a paste with the dates and walnuts, then dipping and rolling them.
This method provided me with a few options for cutting back the sweetness a little. To replace the walnuts, I used crushed bran cereal. Instead of mixing the dates with water, I used a little hot coffee to make the paste. Since the wet dates are already sticky - and the honey dip has a tendency to run anyway- I added just a bit of honey directly into the dates for flavor.
The date mixture is easily formed into balls, and holds the almond coating perfectly! These treats are wonderful after-dinner snacks, when you want something sweet but not filling.
I made a few more experiments with the recipe, such as removing the cinnamon to lighten the taste. Eventually, I ended up just dipping whole dates into bowls of honey and almonds - a much quicker snack, since there’s virtually no prep and no clean up.
If you like dried fruit, nuts and other natural foods, I highly recommend trying these Egyptian sweets!
-Mortira
Copyright 2011 The Sage's Cupboard ---- Follow This Blog
Find me on: Facebook and Twitter
Like Handmade? Join ArtFire to get your own store and built-in blog!
Fancy fare was saved for important banquets and feasts. One of the popular deserts was a simple treat called tiger nut sweets. The instructions for preparing these little finger foods is the oldest known recipe - one of many literary firsts for the Ancient Egyptians.
I first came across a recipe for tiger nut sweets in a children’s book simply called Ancient Egypt, by Alexandra Fix. The method seemed simple enough: stuff pitted dates with walnuts, dip in a honey and cinnamon mixture, and roll in ground almonds. Tasty!
When I first tried to make tiger nut sweets, I started with some simple modifications. Stuffing dates is a lot more difficult than it sounds, and don’t really care for walnuts anyway. So I skipped that step and simply coated plain dates with cinnamon honey and almond dust.
These little treats are incredibly sweet - even more so than modern candy. Although they are quite fun to make and eat, I wanted to find a way to make them less cloying. After some searching, I found that the more common tiger nut sweets recipe calls for making a paste with the dates and walnuts, then dipping and rolling them.
This method provided me with a few options for cutting back the sweetness a little. To replace the walnuts, I used crushed bran cereal. Instead of mixing the dates with water, I used a little hot coffee to make the paste. Since the wet dates are already sticky - and the honey dip has a tendency to run anyway- I added just a bit of honey directly into the dates for flavor.
The date mixture is easily formed into balls, and holds the almond coating perfectly! These treats are wonderful after-dinner snacks, when you want something sweet but not filling.
I made a few more experiments with the recipe, such as removing the cinnamon to lighten the taste. Eventually, I ended up just dipping whole dates into bowls of honey and almonds - a much quicker snack, since there’s virtually no prep and no clean up.
If you like dried fruit, nuts and other natural foods, I highly recommend trying these Egyptian sweets!
-Mortira
Copyright 2011 The Sage's Cupboard ---- Follow This Blog
Find me on: Facebook and Twitter
Like Handmade? Join ArtFire to get your own store and built-in blog!
