These chocolate hazelnut butter cups are phenom!
- The Honest Project
- Jul 8, 2016
- 3 min read
These may look ridiculously naughty, but they are anything but. The chocolate is made from coconut oil, cacao butter, raw cacao and just enough maple syrup to sweeten. The hazelnut caramel filling is made from roasted hazelnuts and dates with a pinch of sea salt. Not to be eaten for breakfast or in vast amounts, but delicious as a treat with a cup of tea. They are rich, indulgent and very satisfying, meaning you don't feel the need to eat the whole lot in one go as is often the case with other sweet treats.
For anyone who doesn't fancy making their own chocolate, don't fret; just grab a bar of dark chocolate with a high cacao content and melt it over a low heat and use that instead. And for a double bonus, if you are really not a fan of the kitchen, you can even get away with not making the hazelnut filling from scratch too. Just buy a jar 100% hazelnut or almond butter and use that as the filling.
If you love dark chocolate this is the recipe for you. If you aren't the biggest fan, don't worry. I'm working on a white chocolate version. I just have 18 of these in the freezer that I need to munch through first.
Serves 18-20
Ingredients
For the chocolate:
1 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cacao butter
1 cup raw cacao powder
1/2 cup maple syrup
Generous pinch sea salt
For the hazelnut caramel filling:
1 cup hazelnuts
1 cup medjool dates*
Pinch of sea salt
To decorate:
2 tbsp chopped toasted hazelnuts
*If using dried dates instead of medjool dates, soak them in warm water for 30 minutes and drain them prior to using them in this recipe.
Method
Start by toasting the hazelnuts (you need 1 cup of hazelnuts for the filling, plus an extra 2 tbsp for the topping). Place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and place them in the oven at gas 5/190C for 15 minutes, tossing them half way through. Remove them from the oven and wrap them in a clean tea towel and leave them there for ten minutes. Then rub the hazelnuts while in the tea towel and skins should fall off. Use your fingers to remove the skins of as many of the hazelnuts as you can. If you can't remove the skins from all of them, don't worry. Take two tablespoons of toasted hazelnuts and roughly chop them and set to one side to use as a topping.
Use the remaining hazelnuts (1 cup) to make the filling by placing 1 cup of the toasted hazelnuts in a food processor and blitzing them into a butter. This will take around 6-10 minutes depending on the strength of your processor. Stop the food processor each minute to scrap down the sides. Once the hazelnuts have formed into a butter, add a pinch of sea salt and blend for a further minute. Add in the medjool dates and a 1/4 cup of water and blend into a gooey consistency and set to one side.
To make the chocolate, place the coconut oil, cacao butter and maple syrup in a small saucepan over a low heat and melt gently. Stir in the raw cacao powder until it forms into a melted chocolate like consistency and season with a generous pinch of sea salt.
Line 2 muffin trays with 18-20 cupcake liners. If you only have one muffin dish, just put the cupcake liners for the extra hazelnut cups on a flat baking tray. Pour a tablespoon of melted chocolate into each liner and place in the freezer for five minutes to set.
Remove from the freezer and add a teaspoon of hazelnut butter in the centre of each liner and gently flatten over the set chocolate, but not right to the edge. Spoon more melted chocolate on top to cover the hazelnut butter and top with a sprinkling of chopped hazelnuts and return to the freezer for 15 minutes to set.
Keep in the freezer or fridge. Freezer if you prefer a harder caramel filling and fridge if you prefer a softer caramel filling.
