An easy recipe with just 4 main steps! It makes 22, snack-sized treat bars which can be kept in the fridge and nibbled on throughout the week – handy hey 😉
I held off making desserts like this for a while because; #1 I thought they just looked too complicated and #2 I would just eat them ALL! But after making them just once, I realised there’s really not that much to it and with exercising some self-control, I just might be able to make them last the whole week…..still working on that bit…!
There are some things you really do need to be able to make these; a food processor which will enable you to grind all the ingredients down thoroughly and a mould. I used a silicon mould to make it easy to remove them as you can easily just pop them out when you’re ready. You can see the mould I used HERE as an example. Please note the size of the mould I used as this one will give you 11 individual bars which I then halved as I felt the half size was a perfect snacking size – just right for a little something sweet with a cup of tea 🙂
The 4 main steps are; soaking, blitzing, freezing, coating.
- SOAKING: You need to soak the nuts and dates. 2-4 hours, in freshly boiled water, for the nuts and 20-30mins for the dates, before you start the recipe. This is easy; just pop the almonds, cashews and dates in 3 separate bowls, boil the kettle and cover the nuts and dates with the water. Leave them to soak. The almonds can be soaked in cold water for 12 hours so you could do those the night before. Cashews, however, do not benefit from being soaked for longer than 4 hours – they become slimy and discoloured, so make sure you only soak those for 2-4 hours. 2 hours in boiled water is ample, some even state just 30mins but I think it depends on how powerful your food processor is; if it’s powerful, blitzing them will be a breeze, but if not, the nuts definitely benefit from the full soaking time.
- BLITZING: After the nuts have been soaked, rinse them and dry them off with a piece of kitchen towel. Place both almonds and cashews in the food processor with the coconut sugar and blitz until you reach a coarse texture. Press the mixture into the mould using the back of a spoon. About 1-2 tbsp of the mixture in each mould will give you 11 individual bars.
- BLITZING: Now place the dates, almond butter, coconut sugar and vanilla bean paste into the food processor and blitz until smooth. Take a tbsp of the mixture and place it on top of the nut mixture in the silicone mould.
- FREEZING: Place the mould in the freezer for 2 hours or overnight.
- COATING: When you are ready, melt the coconut oil and dark chocolate in a bain-marie (place a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water – the bowl must not be touching the water). Pop the bars out of the silicone mould and one by one put the bars into the melted chocolate mixture, turn so all sides are coated and use spoons to lift it out and leave to drip dry on a cooling rack. Place a plate underneath to catch the drips! Continue until all the bars are coated. You will find they dry quickly as the cold temperature of the bars from the freezer will set the chocolate in minutes.
When you have made these once, you will be able to do each of the steps around other jobs in the kitchen. Each one does not take long at all, there is more time spent waiting in-between! Not as quick as popping down to the shop for a chocolate bar but much healthier and more satisfying when you know you have made them yourself with good quality ingredients.
Enjoy! Joanne 🙂
Almond Caramel, Nougat & Dark Chocolate Snix Bars
Ingredients
Nougat nut base
- 100 g almonds
- 100 g cashews
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
Almond-Caramel centre
- 100 g dates
- 2 tbsp smooth almond butter
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1 pinch pink sea salt
Chocolate coating
- 50 g coconut oil
- 50 g dark chocolate broken into pieces
Instructions
- You will need to start this recipe the day before to allow for soaking and freezing.
- Place the almonds, cashews and dates in separate bowls, boil the kettle and use the boiled water to cover each of the nuts/dates in the bowls. Leave to soak for 2-4 hours.
Nougat nut base
- Rinse and drain the soaked nuts. Dry off using a clean kitchen towel or kitchen roll. Place the nuts and coconut sugar into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Then spoon 1-2 tbsp of the mixture into a silicon mould (see notes above). You should get 11 individual bars from this mixture.
Almond-Caramel centre
- Drain the soaked dates. Place in the food processor with the almond butter, sugar, vanilla bean paste and salt. Blitz until smooth. Spoon about 1 tbsp of the mixture on top of the nougat nut base in the silicon mould, until you have an even amount on each base.
- Place the mould in the freezer to set for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Chocolate coating
- Prepare a bain-marie by placing a heat-prooof bowl over a pan of boiling water. The bottom of the bowl must not touch the water! Melt the coconut oil and chocolate piece. Remove from the heat once melted.
- Pop the bars from the silicone mould. Use 2 spoons to pick the bars up, place into the melted chocolate mixture, turn over until all sides are coated, remove the bar from the bowl and place on a rack to dry. Place a plate or piece of paper under the rack to catch any drips.
- Continue until all bars are coated in chocolate.
- The bars will dry quickly as they will be cold from the freezer, enabling the chocolate to set.
- Once they have set, use a sharp knife to cut each bar in half.
- Keep in the fridge for a week or in the fridge for 2 months. Best eaten at room temperature so remove from the fridge for 10 or so minutes before eating - if you can stand to wait that long!!