Salted Caramel Chocolates
Ingredients
- 300g raw cashews, or cashews and macadamias
- 250g raw cacao butter, chopped into small pieces
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste, or vanilla powder
- 100g pitted medjool dates
- 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Place cashews (and macadamia nuts if using) on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool. (Alternatively, you can use activated nuts rather than roasted nuts.)
- Meanwhile, melt cacao butter for 5 minutes/60C/speed 3 in Thermomix, or melt in a saucepan over medium-low heat on stovetop. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
- Blend cashews (and macadamias if using) for 30 sec/speed 9 in Thermomix, or in a blender on high speed, until a paste begins to form. Scrape down sides of bowl and blend for another 1 min/speed 5 (medium speed) until it becomes a smooth butter.
- Add dates, vanilla and salt to bowl and blend 30 sec/speed 6 (medium speed) until mixture is smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl.
- Once the melted cacao butter has cooled down and is barely warm (but still melted), pour back into bowl and mix 20 sec/speed 3 (medium-low speed) or until smooth. Don’t mix on high speed or while still hot, or mixture could split. (Note: If your mixture DOES split, add a drizzle of coconut cream while heating gently at 37C and stirring on speed 3, until mixture comes back together.)
- Pour mixture into moulds, or into a lined baking dish (to be cut into squares), or onto lined trays to make a thin bark. Freeze until set hard, then pop caramels out of the moulds (or break bark into pieces) and store in a container in the fridge or freezer.
Notes
Storage:
Chocolate will last for months in the fridge or freezer, but make sure it is in airtight bags/containers as it can absorb other flavours due to the high fat content.
Variations:
– Try swirling the caramel chocolate with my Dairy Free Raw Chocolate or layering the two in small moulds.
– To make this nut free, swap the nut butter for coconut butter.