Ferrero Rocher Ambassador’s Treats
Serves 8
‘Whole roasted hazelnuts encased in a thin wafer shell, filled with hazelnut chocolate an covered in milk chocolate hazelnuts.’ Ferrero Rocher chocolates are one of my all-time favourite chocolate treats, so I thought it would be wonderful to create a healthy version. Named with the famous advertising campaign in mind, my Ambassador’s treats will captivate your guests and are exquisite served as an after dinner treat – or if you feel like spoiling yourself, just as a mid-afternoon snack! Now that is truly ‘eccellente’!!
Ambassador’s Treats can be frozen for up to four weeks.
To save time and effort, you can buy blanched hazelnuts but if you prefer to buy proper hazelnuts, you will need to remove the skins yourself. Simply pre-heat the oven to 180˚C and place the hazelnuts on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Roast them for approximately five minutes until the skins start to crack. You can then easily rub off the skins by placing the hazelnuts in a clean tea towel and rubbing them together. Discard the skins.
What you need
125g hazelnuts, skins removed.
5 tbsp homemade chocolate spread (recipe in the original Cook Clean with Kate recipe book)
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
Pinch salt
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cocoa powder
What you do
Pre-heat the oven to 200 ˚C.
Toast the hazelnuts by placing them onto a lined baking tray and popping in the oven for approximately five minutes. Don’t be tempted to rush this process as the nuts will be bitter if they are cooked too quickly on too high a heat.
Place the toasted hazelnuts into a food processor and whizz to a fine crumb.
Reserve about one quarter of the blitzed hazelnuts, and leave to one side.
In a large bowl, combine the finely crumbed hazelnuts, homemade chocolate spread, flaxseed and salt.
Add the coconut oil, vanilla extract, maple syrup and salt and combine with a spoon.
At this point, I suggest you dive on in with clean hands and thoroughly combine the mixture.
Divide the combined mixture into eight clumps and roll each ball into the palms of your hands to create balls of even size.
Roll each ball into the reserved hazelnut crumb and transfer to a plate.
Store covered in the fridge for up to four days.
