I love a good 3 ingredient recipe that is idiot proof AND amazing. I also love it when we can cheat the sweet system, with a 100% fructose free indulgence, that doesn’t taste like a hippy recipe you tell yourself tastes good, when really, it’s just a lil’ weird. I was originally inspired by icon Françoise Bernard’s recipe for chocolate caramel chews, but of course there were copious amounts of castor sugar, along with 60% chocolate (ie 30% sugar) in her recipe.
The beautiful thing about rice syrup as a sweetener, is that it caramelises like a charm, so it’s perfect for this mission! It’s also glucose based with no fructose so in terms of the body ‘processing a treat’ it doesn’t all hit the liver like fructose, and gets used up by the body more gently and efficiently.
Here’s a pic of me wrapping the little squares in orange spider bon bons for lil’ Mr 3’s Halloween picnic. Wrap in a strip of parchment paper first then orange tissue paper, twisting the sides into bon bons. If you want the chocolate coconut cupcake recipe for the little cakes pictured here, go here and please refer your subsequent addictions to someone else. I will not be held responsible.
Real Food Treats. Happy Bodies.
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Cocoa Caramel Chews Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g rice syrup
- 50 g salted butter (cultured if you can, but not essential)
- 90 g quality cocoa powder or raw cacao
- 2 pinches Vanilla Bean Powder (optional)
Instructions
- Grease a 20cm dish with macadamia or coconut oil.
- Put your stainless saucepan on the scales and weigh ingredients straight into the pan. Easy.
- Put heat on low-med and stir ingredients through until they all melt into each other.
- Let it bubble bubble toil and trouble for about 8 minutes (not less), stirring occasionally.
- Pour it into dish. It will spread to about 5mm deep.
- Leave to cool for 30 minutes out at room temperature. Turn out onto parchment paper and score with a knife where you’re going to break it apart, like you would a mango cheek, or pork crackling skin, ie not right to the bottom.
- Pop in fridge for a further 20 minutes to cool, then snap along your score lines, making sure to eat all the uneven ones yourself – you wouldn’t want your guests to see uneven work!
- Kitchen note: First time I made these, was with 85% Alter Eco Fair Trade Chocolate. It was a little more emollient, due to the extra fats in it compared to using cacao powder. Both are great. Both use the same quantities. Your caramel will cool to be more brittle the ‘further you take it’ as chefs say, meaning the longer you leave it bubbling. Up to you. That means making a few arduous batches until you find your favourite style ; )
- Garnish Note: Make a little mix of sea salt and vanilla bean powder to do a ‘vanilla bean salted chocolate caramel’ version. Delicious. Just pinch a tiny bit of the vanilla salt crumb into the middle.Very grown up and indulgent.
