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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?

CHOCOLATE-COVERED HAZELNUT PRALINE BARS

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This is my entry for the Qurator's: Hive Top Chef Contest

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.

Ingredients (makes about 10-12)

For the choc base

½ cup rolled oats
¼ cup dates, tightly packed (press them down hard when filling the measuring cup)
1½ Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 Tbsp pure cacao powder
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
¼ cup desiccated coconut

For the hazelnut praline

1½ cups hazelnuts, roasted
1 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
½ cup dates, tightly packed (press them down hard when filling the measuring cup)
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt

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Chocolate layer

100g or 3.5oz vegan dark chocolate
1½ Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

Topping

2-3 Tbsp goji berries
¼ cup hazelnuts, roasted

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Directions

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.

To make the base

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.

To 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.

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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.