Today is Greece is the name day of Sint Nicolas. My partner is crime is called Nikos, so we celebrate. Even though we are not religious, it is part of the Greek tradition to bake/cook something special on a name day. Since it is the crazy holidays period and there are way to many sweets around, I decided to go with a healthy DIY dessert and skip the sugar, so that the kids could enjoy any leftovers too tomorrow (they fell asleep, it’s not my fault they didn’t get to eat it today!).

This dessert is great if you want something light and fruity and fresh-tasting. It is sweet because it has a ton of dates in it but it is not particularly decadent, because, well, no chocolate. In fact I think that dark chocolate chips would be a nice addition for the next time.

I am not posting exact amounts of ingredients as it was made with guestimations and trials (“let’s add a bit more of this, a bit more of that…”).  That’s why it doesn’t have my regular recipe format.

• First you start by soaking the dates in hot water. I ‘d say I had 1,5 cups of dried dates.
• You strain the dates after half an hour and you put them in a bowl together with 2 cups of shredded coconut and a few crushed-up digestive cookies. You want to have a very firm dough. Keep adding coconut or cookies if it is too sticky.

• Line a pan with parchment paper and spread the dough at the bottom using the back side of a spoon.
  
• Mix cherries and margarine till you have a smooth “butter” cream.
• Spread the “butter” cream on top of the first layer.

• Chop up mangoes (I used frozen) and mix with the thick part of coconut milk can. I keep a couple of tins in the freezer so that the fatty part separates (goes on the top) so I can just scoop it up when I want to make a cream.

• Spread that layer on top of the cherry one.

• Toast some coconut on your skillet or non-stick pan and sprinkle it on top. I sprinkled a few crushed-up raspberries as well.

Done! Keep in the fridge as the mango-coconut cream gets runny quickly when warm. Could maybe work well as ice cream bars. I ‘ll try to freeze some and let you know what the jury (aka kids) think. Enjoy!