Raw Chocolate Marzipan Bars
Raw Chocolate Marzipan Bars
This is a new recipe of mine -a bit like a chocolate version of Battenberg Cake…but nicer! You don’t have to make bars out of it - it will also make truffles, squares, even a cake if you make enough.
Ingredients
Marzipan Bit:
70g whole almonds
1.5 tsp agave syrup (or Sweet Freedom Mild, maple syrup, honey etc*)
1/4 tsp almond extract
Chocolate Bit:
100g melted cacao paste (cacao liquor/mass)
50ml (3 tbs + 1 tsp) agave syrup (or Sweet Freedom Mild, maple syrup, honey etc*)
Plus:
40-50g goji berries
*You may have to adjust the amount slightly if using another syrup - these amounts are based on using agave.
Method
Melt the cacao paste over a low heat (in a saucepan, in a bain marie or over a chafing dish).
Grind the almonds to a powder in a coffee or nut grinder, and combine with the 1.5 tsp syrup and the almond extract.
Squeeze the almond mix into ‘blobs’ about 1.5cm in diameter and set aside.
Add the 50ml syrup to the melted cacao paste, mix well then add the goji berries.
Add the almond blobs to the chocolate mix, stir briefly (they will start to break up but that’s ok) then transfer the mix to an ice cube mould, a cake ring or the bottom of a sandwich tin. Place in the fridge or freezer to set, then turn out.
Note: the cacao paste starts to set quite quickly, so it’s best to to make this in a warm kitchen.
My Latest Passion - Dipped Raw Chocolate Truffles
I was just about to take a second (and final) bite out of one of my latest creations - a Chocolate Dipped Pecan Truffle - when I thought other people might like to see it before it disappeared forever (well until I make the next batch anyway).
So here it is, complete with teeth marks.
Like most chocoholics, I have always loved dipped truffles - the combination of hard outer coating and squidgy meltiness inside is just heavenly. But I’ve never been able to work out how to make them with raw chocolate. (Well, I guess I never really set my mind to it till quite recently.)
One of the problems is that raw chocolate melts so easily (as it’s so rarely tempered), meaning that the hard outer coating quickly becomes a soft or non-existent coating. Plus you have to get the balance of taste and texture between the coating and centre right.
Luckily, a few weeks ago I was in one of those moments of creative flow when you try something and it works first time. I had an inspiration about how to do the coating…and it worked! Result - a hard outer coating that stays hard, even at room temperature, and tastes great combined with the squidgy centre.
That coating contained cacao liquor (also known as cacao paste or cocoa mass), which I’m beginning to believe is a rather under-used form of raw chocolate as it’s very versatile.
Yesterday I also worked out how to make a hard coating containing raw chocolate powder, so am feeling doubly proud of myself! I’m afraid that my methods will have to stay secret for now (I feel another recipe book is in the offing).
As for the centres: well, I’ve been busy concocting these as well. So far I’ve put together a few different versions of dark chocolate fillings as well as, among others, marzipan, strawberry and coconut. They’re all raw and all rather addictive.
I tend to use agave syrup as the ‘base’ sweetener when I’m testing recipes, but I can’t see why these truffles shouldn’t also work with Sweet Freedom, maple syrup, coconut sugar etc.
Chocolate Tart
Been experimenting today with making a chocolate tart out of what is my favourite chocolate bar recipe at the mo. The bar has raw carob powder, lucuma powder, chocolate powder, sweetener (agave syrup or Sweet Freedom) and coconut oil/cacao butter in it. I made a base of milled cashew nuts and almonds.
Not bad at all - needs a bit of work to get the base and filling to gel together taste-wise, but I’ve managed to eat more than half (it is a MINI (4”) flan tin so I’m not being that greedy), so it must be pretty good.
One thing I like about it apart from the taste: usually, untempered recipes with coconut oil and cacao butter melt very easily at room temperature, so have to be served more or less straight from the fridge. Because this tart has been adapted from a chocolate bar recipe it’s firmer and is actually at it’s best texture at a VERY warm (it’s boiling here in sunny London) ambient room temperature.
I don’t have a picture of it unfortunately (as I say I ate it) but will see if I can dig one up that’s similar.
