Easter Special: Salted Caramel Hazelnut + Sour Cherry Ripe NATURAL Chocolate!

Wait. WHAAAA? This is natural chocolate? Clean-eating? PALEO? Yes. Yes it is.

Easter has always been one of my favourite times of the year because for me it was always about chocolate - DUH! I was the only child in the family (and I mean only child, I didn't even have cousins!) and I had the most generous, big-hearted grand-mother who still treated it like there were 5 kids running around. So every Easter I would look forward to the MASSIVE Easter basket she would put together for me. The giant chocolate egg filled with smarties, a couple of big Easter Bunnies, trays of mid-size and bags of small chocolate eggs.
It's bloody lucky I was doing dancing and acrobatics 3 days a week because I have NO IDEA how I wasn't a fat little kid.

Anyways, cut to now, when I'm merging my lifestyle towards a clean-eating approach and I've realised I am totally addicted to chocolate. And lollies. And ice-cream. And anything sweet (thanks Gran). So what to do when I'm in the middle of not wanting to eat processed foods but still wanta-da-chocolate?!

Enter Salted Caramel + Hazelnut, with a side of Sour Cherry Ripe NATURAL CHOCOLATE. 
No really. No reeeeaaalllyyyyyy.

I just threw this stuff together after buying some gorgeous organic produce at my local farmers market (I'm like totes hippy-holistica now), and I was pretty excited about the result, so I wanted to share with you! I make my chocolate with cacao wafers and rapadura sugar, which is available as a 'chocolate making pack' on the Changing Habits Website.  You should check it out and find similar ingredients if you can't get this.

I'm pretty lax with measurements, so you can use this as a rough guide and just do what feels right.

For 2 slabs about 17cm x 12cm big, I used 175g of cacao wafers and made the chocolate to that ratio, splitting the whole mix in half to make the 2 different types of chocolate slabs.



SALTED CARAMEL + HAZELNUT NATURAL CHOCOLATE SLAB
HOLY MOTHER OF SWEETNESS OVERLOAD, THIS IS DECADENT!

INGREDIENTS
Natural chocolate made with the Changing Habits Chocolate Making Pack
5-8 pitted medjool dates soaked in water for an hour
1+1/2 TBSP organic coconut milk (more if you want it)
1/2 tsp water (more if needed)
1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract
Handful of hazelnuts, roughly crushed
Pinch of salt: Changing Habits Seaweed Salt or Himalayan Salt

NOW WHAT?
1. Wiz the dates, coconut milk, water, vanilla extract and salt in a food processor until you get an ooey-gooey-amazeballs-caramel for the filling.
(I did mine in my Nutribullet - oh yeah!! But you could do with a hand-wizer / blender) 

2. Pour just enough chocolate for a bottom layer into a tray mold - I used the lid of a Tupperware container with al-foil lining.

3. Spread your gooey caramel mix as best you can - I just broke off chunks and smooshed it down.

4. Sprinkle half the hazelnuts over the caramel

5. Pour the rest of the chocolate over for a top layer

6. Sprinkle with the rest of the hazelnuts

7. Refrigerate until set!

SOUR CHERRY RIPE NATURAL CHOCOLATE SLAB
TANGY + SWEET WITH A COCONUT ROUGH TEXTURE BUT MORE CHEWY.

INGREDIENTS
Natural chocolate made with the Changing Habits Chocolate Making Pack
100g dried sour cherries
40g desiccated coconut for filling + extra if you like it
1/2 tsp organic cold pressed coconut oil

NOW WHAT?
1. Wiz the cherries, coconut and coconut oil in a food processor / Nutribullet / blender

2. Pour just enough chocolate for a bottom layer into a tray mold

3. Sprinkle a layer of coconut (I used lots coz I love it!)

3. Spread your cherry mix over the chocolate

4. Spread more coconut!

5. Top layer of chocolate, GO!

6. Refrigerate - or if you put it in the freezer it'll be ready in no time!

And as for my massive chocolate stash as a kid - don't worry, I didn't eat it it all! Each year I would take a bunch of chocolates around my street and give away the rest to the other kids.

Dressed as the Easter Bunny.
But with a leotard and tap shoes.
My Mum must have always been so embarrassed!
#dorktown