Chocolate Muesli Slice

Warning: addictive. This is simply a swag of nuts & seeds held together with dates and smothered with healthy rich chocolate. No dairy, no refined sugar, just fruits, nuts & seeds singing their sweet symphony.

This is best kept in the fridge, so alas, it isn’t appropriate for school lunch boxes.

Base:

10 dried dates (or 6 or 7 large fleshy medjool dates)

¼ cup hot water

½ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup pumpkin seeds/pepitas

½ cup almonds

½ cashew pieces

½ cup chia seeds

½ cup dessicated coconut

¾ cup dried fruit of your choice (I used raisins, goji & cranberries)

 

Topping:

1/3 cup cashews

¼ cup raw cacao powder or cocoa

10 dates (or 6 or 7 medjools)

1 tsp pure vanilla

4 Tbsp softened or melted coconut oil

1 Tbsp rice, almond or soy milk

 

Start by putting the dates in a small bowl & soaking them in the hot water to soften up.

Lightly grease a silicon loaf tin with a little oil (coconut’s good), or line a loaf tin with baking/parchment paper. (my tin is 15 x 23 cm – use whatever you have to the closest measurement)

Next, get out your bullet, high speed blender or food processor – it’s time to give it a workout! You’re going to blitz the sunflowers seeds, pepitas, almonds, cashews & chia into a rough flour, and put them in a big bowl. It’s up to you and your machine how you do this – you could do each type of nut or seed separately, given the differing sizes, or throw them all in together. Once everything has been blitzed, add the coconut and dried fruit to the bowl.

The dates should be a little softer by now. Add them & their soaking water to the bullet/processor/blender and whiz until you get a date puree. Add this to the ground nuts combo and mix well. I find it’s best to get your clean hands in there & knead it, squeeze it, coalesce it, compact it, enjoy it! After much squeezing, you’ll end up with a satisfyingly damp dough-like mixture that holds together well.

Press your nutty mix into the loaf tin, spreading it evenly and smoothing the surface as best you can. That’s the base done, now for the topping…

Don’t worry about rinsing your bullet/processor/blender. Put the cashews in & blitz them until ground. Then add the remaining topping ingredients & whiz until a thick, rich chocolate paste is formed. You may need to scrape down the sides & whiz again. Mmm it looks good…

Use a spatula to spread the chocolate topping evenly over your nutty seedy muesli mix. Pop it in the fridge for at least an hour before slicing. Store it in the fridge & listen to it sing to you every time you walk past.