CHOC COCONUT NOUGAT BITES (healthy summer rolls)

November 21, 2020 / Lyn Jones / 0 Comments

It’s made with nutrient dense seeds, nuts and coconut, far less sugar (just some maple syrup and the chocolate), and contains no wheat or dairy. Also tastes like a dream. Makes 8 fun sized bars.

1/3 cup almond or sunflower seed butter**
1 1/3 cups coconut flakes
2 Tbs Maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs coconut flour
1/3 cup peanuts (roasted preferably)
1 cup dark chocolate pieces 75% or higher *
2 Tbs coconut oil

Place 1 cup of the coconut flakes in a small food processor bowl and process until they almost become a butter. It should be wet but with pieces of coconut still visible: you want this texture.

Turn the oven to 150 and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Put remaining coconut on this and cook in the oven for a few minutes until just turning golden. Remove, crumble slightly and set aside. You can skip this step if you want to keep it ‘raw’.

Add the sunflower seed butter, vanilla extract and maple syrup to the coconut mixture in the food processor: pulse to combine. Add coconut flour, blend until a dough-like ball forms. You have your nougat – now to shape it. Divide dough in half, then half again then half again. You should now have 8 lumps. Mould them into little bars, the size of fun sized chocolates. Place in the fridge to firm.

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl above a pot of boiling water. Add the coconut oil and stir to combine. Place the cold bars on a wire rack with parchment paper underneath. Spoon chocolate over each bar, you’re doing this in layers so don’t worry if it’s not perfect this time. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm the chocolate, then repeat. You should have enough chocolate to do this 3 times. After the third time sprinkle the tops with coconut (be generous) before placing in the fridge again. You will probably have a fair amount of chocolate on the parchment paper, if you have any coconut left over, sprinkle it over this chocolate and allow it to set and you’ll have some chocolate bark – bonus!

NOTES
*You could also make a vegan chocolate by mixing cacao powder, maple syrup and coconut oil together (equal quantities oil and cacao + sweetener to taste).

** She made her own sunflower butter & very lightly roasted seeds first, which gave a lovely flavour.

SALTED TAHINI CARAMEL, ROAST ALMOND AND CHOCOLATE ‘NICE’ CREAM

November 21, 2020 / Lyn Jones / 0 Comments

Chocolatey ‘nice’ cream (this just means frozen banana blended to a an ice-cream consistency), crunchy roasted hazelnuts and chewy sweet and salty sesame spiked caramel. Serves 2

Ingredients
2 Tbs maple syrup
1 Tbs tahini
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 frozen bananas (freeze in pieces not whole or in their skins)
2 Tbs cacao or cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs roasted almonds, roughly chopped

In a very small pot (1 cup capacity is excellent)*  combine maple syrup with the  first  1/2 tsp vanilla, salt & tahini. Bring to the boil, turn down heat & simmer gently until a golden colour is reached (a couple of minutes). Set aside to cool slightly – don’t allow to harden and stick to the pot!  

In a food processor or high speed blender combine the banana & second 1/2 tsp vanilla.
Process until a smooth soft-serve consistence is reached. Add cacao, process until uniform in colour. Stir almonds through. Pour into freezer-safe container & smooth out to about 1-2 mm thickness. Drizzle tahini caramel sauce over the top and place in freezer for 15 minutes.
Remove, fold most of caramel sauce through, don’t worry about chunks, you want these.

Return to the freezer another 30 minutes, then stir/fold icecream again, mixing up the more and less frozen bits. Repeat this for 1-2 hours folding occasionally. The stirring will create a creamy texture. When you have reached a consistency that you’re happy with, spoon it into bowls and eat.

I like it to be frozen enough that you can make soft scoops of ice cream from it. This isn’t actually that time consuming though. You could eat it all soft-serve like and melty and it’d be ready in minutes. Or you can do the refreezing part and have a more luxurious ice cream-like consistency. Up to you!

* (note: if you don’t have one, double the quantities for the sauce and just store in the fridge otherwise temperature control will be very difficult)

 

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