Amanda Laird: Christmas sweetmeats

Christmas sweetmeats. Photo / Babiche Martens

Makes 24

1 ½ cups ground almonds
200g prunes, pitted
50g dried New Zealand apricots
100g icing sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbs dark chocolate, finely chopped [optional]
¼ cup brandy or fruit based spirit
Almond oil for rolling
Caster sugar

1 Preheat oven to 180C. Spread the ground almonds on a lined baking tray and toast for 5 minutes, stirring once until golden.

2 Put the prunes, apricots, icing sugar, lemon and chocolate into a food processor and pulse until pureed. Add the brandy and pulse again briefly.

3 Put the mixture into a bowl and stir in the almonds. Lightly oil your hands then roll the mixture until smooth balls. Refrigerate until well chilled. Before serving, pour some caster sugar onto a plate and roll each sweetmeat ball until covered.