Fruit and Nut Chocolates and Slice

Fruit and Nut Chocolate Delights

(GF, DF, Refined Sugar Free)
I love Cadbury fruit and nut chocolate and I also love experimenting in the kitchen and creating different twists on classic recipes and food.
My grandmother, who was a great chef always said, "There are no new recipes, there are new personalities in food." I think this is never more true than today and I believe it is what makes food so exciting.

I love to put my own style and ideas and twists into my cooking, always have. Recently a friend of many years remarked how I have always been one serving food and cooking, even when we were young, carefree and partying teenagers - yep I was the one feeding everyone and bringing baskets of salads and baked goods, up early with the cooked breakfasts camping.

I guess I get it from my mother, who got it from her mother, who got it from her mother... Yes I come from food loving women, don't you love how things run in families? Cooking and beautiful food has always been around me, as has being in commercial kitchens and seeing my mother make food for delighted customers, I realised back then that people enjoying food is an experience and people enjoying your food is exhilarating!
It became one of my great loves and passions in my life.

I love cooking shows and I was delighted to watch an episode The Great Australian Bake Off where all the contestants had to make the exact same recipe.
All the variables were the same. Same room, same room temperature. same oven types, same equipment. same amount of allotted time, same ingredients, measuring devices.
And YET not any of them were the same in the end result!
This was a delight to see at it reinforced to me what my grandmother always said. We are all so different, we are all beautiful, unique personalities and like with art and no two artists being the same, food is no different and no two cooks are exactly the same either.
We each have our own personality with our food and our cooking, and that makes cooking and food wonderfully exciting!!

While inspired by the timeless classic this recipe is definitely not Cadbury chocolate or even intended to be just like it in any way, it is rather very very different, it is the end result of much eating taste testing and experimenting in my kitchen and it is a recipe both my kids love and that has made it a winner in our house alone!

Fruit and Nut Chocolates

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup organic cocoa butter. ( I use Cacao Power certified organic pure raw cocoa butter, you can buy from health food shops, I got mine from Maleny IGA it is the edible natural fat of the chocolate bean)
• 1/4 cup organic rice malt syrup ( I got mine from Coles supermarket in Nambour, so it is quite a common product to find)
• 1/4 cup cacao powder
• pinch pink Himalayan salt
• 2 cups assorted chopped dried fruit and assorted chopped nuts of choice (only roughly chop the nuts so there is interesting texture)

Method

• In a saucepan very gently over a low heat melt the cocoa butter.
• Once melted add in the other ingredients and stir together until well combined.
• Have chocolate molds ready (I actually used miniature muffin trays for the ones pictured)
• Fill molds about 1/3 with chocolate mix.
• Sprinkle in fruit and nuts into each one.
• Top with chocolate mixture.
• Place in the fridge to set, at least 1 hour depending on size of molds used.
• Remove from molds when firmly set, serve.
• Keep in a sealed container in the fridge.

Notes

• Use your imagination and put your own personality on them! Try different fruit and nut combo's, salted peanuts is rather nice!

Toddler Tips

• Make them nice and small so they are perfect for little hands.
• These are great chocolates to give the kids, knowing they are refined sugar free and have lots of antioxidents in them and no hidden nasties.

Fruit and Nut Chocolate Slice

This is sooo YUM!! It is hard to keep this for long at our house!\

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup organic, raw cocoa butter (see notes above)
• 1/4 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup organic rice malt syrup
• pink pink Himalayan salt
• 2 cups chopped dried fruit and nuts ( I have used figs, prunes, cashews and peanuts)
• 1 &1/2 cups macadamia paste (I use Nutworks beautiful natural macadamia paste)
• 1 &1/2 cups desiccated coconut (I also buy this at Nutworks as it is a great price and in bulk)
• 2 tablespoon organic rice malt syrup

Method

• Very gently melt the cocoa butter over a low heat.
• Once melted stir in  cacao powder and 1/2 cup rice malt syrup and pinch Himalayan salt.
• In a large bowl combine the macadamia paste, coconut and remaining rice malt syrup. Mix well.
• Press the macadamia mix into a baking paper lined tin. ( I use chemical free baking paper called "if you care" which I get from Organics on a Budget, also where I got my cacao powder)

• Mix together your dried fruits and nuts, they should all be roughly chopped so there is still plenty of texture but in smaller, easier to eat pieces. Personally I love the combination of dried figs, prunes, cashews and peanuts.
• Sprinkle a little extra Himalayan pink salt over your fruit and nut mixture (optional)
• Put this fruit and nit mix as a layer on top of the base, spreading out evenly.

• Pour the chocolate mixture over the top and place in the fridge to set.
• Once set, (allow a good 2 hours or do it overnight)remove from tin by lifting out the baking paper carefully, place on a chopping board, removing the paper and slice into desired bars or sqaures.
• Store in a sealed container in the fridge using baking paper between layers.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• This is such a great recipe to add your own personality too and come up with your own favourite combo! Try things like sultannas, dried apricots, cranberries, goji berries, dates, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts.
• Perfect for entertaining and for a beautiful table setting like at Christmas time.
• Done up in a glass jar tied with ribbon makes a beautiful gift.

Toddler Tips

• Both my kids LOVE this slice, my toddler does however take a bit longer to eat it and does get very chocolatey messy!!
• If putting in lunch boxes, put a piece in a sealed container in the freezer the night before and include a small ice brick or frozen drink in their lunch box. Cocoa butter chocolate doesn't soften as quickly as coconut oil based chocolates but it will soften in hot temperatures.

*Note for more chocolatey inspiration check out:

The Coconut Mama - absolutely amazing website full of coconut love, including her gorgeous chocolate ice magic! Natural New Age Mum's Chocolate Bars >> Yes, all your favourites made healthy or allergy friendly!

Happy Cooking
Bek XX

I really appreciate the support you all give me dear blog readers, my books, my blog, my recipes, my journey and my cooking - it all means so much!!
Love Bek XXX

Reipe and photography (c)RebeccaMugridge2013

My recipes are a collection of beautiful food to me and as such on my blog and in my books you will find a diverse range. In amongst them I have vegan, vegetarian, raw, nut free, dairy free, gluten free, sugar free, local food, seasonal food, health food, detox food, slimming food, protein rich food and many that are not any of those things too...!