Dry Fruit and Nut Balls

I have made these Dry Fruit and Nut balls countless times. They make a delicious snack. I find I can never stop after eating just one!

I used whatever dry fruit I had on hand instead - blueberries, cranberries and raisins. (It's a great way to use up those bags of dry fruit from Costco.) And since I was running low on pistachios, I used walnuts instead. No creme de cassis? Any orange liqueur works fine, or even just honey. It's fairly hard to mess this up. Just try to keep the ratio of sour to sweet dry fruit in balance. I shaped these by pressing the mixture into a tablespoon measure and sliding the ball out by pushing down on one end.

The original recipe is reproduced below. I don't have a meat grinder, so I chop the dry fruit as much as I can, and then pulse it in the food processor with the liquids until it is fairly small.

Give this a try - I think you will like it...

Dry Fruit and Nut Balls
5 ounces (approximately 1 cup) roasted pistachios
4 ounces (approximately 1 cup) dried cherries
2 ounces (approximately 1/2 cup) dried apricots
2 ounces (approximately 1/2 cup) golden raisins
2 ounces (approximately 1/2 cup) pitted dates
1 tablespoon orange juice
2 tablespoons creme de cassis

Put the pistachios in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, but not powdery. Divide in half into 2 separate bowls and set aside.

Put the cherries, apricots, raisins, and dates through a food grinder using the medium-grind blade. Add to the bowl with half of the pistachios. Add the orange juice and creme de cassis to the mixture and combine, using your hands, until the liquid is evenly distributed throughout. Shape the mixture into 24 walnut size balls and roll them in the remaining chopped pistachios. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.