Hands up if you love freezer treats! This healthy sweet treat has a soft layer of caramel encased between golden toasted hazelnuts and a nutty chocolatey base. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderfully versatile the plant world is – this tastes so insanely good, yet it’s basically just a mélange of fruit & nuts. No dairy, no refined sugar, no grains, and naturally, no gluten. Yum!
For the base
½ cup ground almonds
¼ cup dessicated coconut
½ Tbsp peanut (or other nut) butter
½ Tbsp cacao butter or coconut oil, melted
½ cup small dried dates, pitted
1 tsp cacao powder
Topping
1 cup small dried dates
1 Tbsp peanut butter (or other nut)
2 Tbsp ground almonds
1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
½ Tbsp rice milk (or mylk of choice)
¾ cup whole hazelnuts
optional: a couple of teaspoons of melted dark chocolate for garnish
Blitz all the base ingredients in a food processor until it coalesces together enough to stick together in a lovely thick ‘dough’. Use clean hands or a spatula to press it flat & evenly into a small, paper-lined or silicon loaf tin (mine is 22 x 10 cms).
For the topping, start by soaking the dates for 10 minutes in warm water. While they’re taking a bath, toast the hazelnuts – put a clean dry skillet over a medium heat, add the hazelnuts – skins & all – and toast until they turn fragrant and golden. A little blackening is okay, so is the occasional loss of skins!
Drain the dates & put the remaining topping ingredients into the food processor (not the hazelnuts!) and blend until a gooey thick caramel is formed. Use a spatula to spread it evenly over the base. Press the hazelnuts firmly into the caramel, covering the entire surface.
Put the slice into the freezer for at least an hour to set. Drizzle with melted chocolate if so desired. Slice into small segments & store in the freezer.
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