Who’s up for a hazelnut chocolate treat? I am going for another bar after writing this post before they all disappear. Or should I quickly get one and risk a chocolate-covered keyboard again?
Now that we are 3 people in the house things go pretty fast here. I made them yesterday on my free day and already more than half of them are gone. I am so happy my friend is enjoying my cooking and he isn't a bad chef himself. We are having so much fun in the kitchen and learning new things from each other.
And while having fun in the kitchen we are already plotting our next adventure. With the world gone crazy, we have put our dream of moving to the Andes mountains on hold. This, however, isn’t stopping us from dreaming and experimenting both in the kitchen and garden with ideas for our next adventure.
Next to searching for the perfect piece of land to build our dream off-grid natural home, we already have a million other ideas of what to do on the land to provide the 3 of us with food and a basic income.
As you have seen in my previous post I have gone into a fermentation frenzy, among a few other things. I just wish we had some more free time.
What are you up to these days?
The ingredient for this week is chocolate. I still had a piece of dark vegan Belgian chocolate in my fridge so I made chocolate-covered hazelnut praline bars which we enjoyed with a nice cup of herbal tea.
I bought pre-roasted hazelnuts, if you have raw hazelnuts, roast/toast the hazelnuts for the filling and topping first in a preheated oven (180C or 350F) or a dry pan.
In a blender or food processor, pulse oats into coarse flour.
Add all base ingredients to a blender and process until all the dates are well blended. No need to blend until a smooth dough is formed.
Firmly press the mixture into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. I used a 23x13x8cm (9x5x3inch) for this.
Pop the base into the freezer while you make the hazelnut praline.
From all the hazelnuts you roasted for the filling and topping, set ¼ cup aside for the topping and ¼ cup to pulse to add some crunch to the filling.
Add ¼ cup of the hazelnuts to a blender or food processor and pulse a few times. Set aside.
Add the remaining 1¼ cup of hazelnuts and coconut oil to a blender to make hazelnut butter. Blend on high speed until you have a buttery consistency. While doing this you will have to turn off the blender often to scrape down the sides. Deepening on your blender this step will take anywhere between 5-15 minutes. If you don't have a high-quality blender you might want to stop blending a few times to let the blender cool down or it might overheat.
When the hazelnut butter is ready, add dates, vanilla, and salt and blend until a smooth paste.
When smooth, add the ¼ cup pulsed hazelnuts. Pulse to incorporate but don't overblend as you want to keep the crunch from the hazelnuts in there.
Ads the filling in an even layer on top of the base. Pop the pan back into the freezer while you make the chocolate layer.
Roughly chop the remaining ¼ cup of hazelnuts. Combine with the goji berries and set aside.
Using a double boiler system (or microwave if you own one), melt the chocolate and coconut oil. When smooth, pour over the filling.
Sprinkle the goji berries and hazelnuts on top.
Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours to let the bars set. Carefully lift the parchment paper and place it on a cutting board. Slice into bars.
Serve immediately or store in the fridge until ready to eat.
We had these yesterday afternoon with a cup of tea. SOOOOOO GOOOOD!
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