Healthy Knicker Doodle Bars
Serves 12
Can you guess what these are a healthy take of? These are by far my favourite recipe in this section. You need to soak the dates for 10-15 minutes to make them soft enough to blend. I have given you the option of making your own raw chocolate topping, but to save time you can just use melted dark chocolate. If you don’t use a tin with a removable base you may struggle to get the frozen bars out of the tin, so the alternative is to line the tin with parchment paper. You will need a 20cm by 20cm tin with parchment paper.
What you need
FOR THE FILLING
250g shredded coconut
1 tbsp coconut oil
125g pitted dates
soaked in 120ml of boiling water
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt
CARAMEL TOPPING
225g pitted dates
soaked in 120ml of boiling water
3 tbsp coconut oil
melted
3 tbsp maple syrup
Pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
PEANUT TOPPING
150g unsalted peanuts
CHOCOLATE COATING
55g cocoa powder
125ml coconut oil
melted
60ml maple syrup
Alternatively, use 300g Green & Black’s dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), melted over a pan of simmering water.
What you do
Heat a frying pan and toast the peanuts for a couple of minutes until golden. Remove from the heat and leave to one side to cool.
Place all the filling ingredients, including half the water you used to soak the dates, into a food processor and blend until smooth.
Add more of the soaking liquid if needed.
Smooth the mixture into your tin and pat down to form a one inch thickness. Place in the freezer.
Meanwhile, place all the ingredients for the caramel into a blender but do not add the liquid used to soak the dates at this point.
Whizz until smooth. Add up to an extra tablespoon of the liquid the dates were soaking in if needed.
Remove base from freezer. Spread the caramel over the base using a spoon that has been dipped in hot water – which will make it easier to spread the caramel.
Pour the toasted peanuts on top of the caramel and use your fingers to gently pat the peanuts into this layer. Place back in the freezer.
To make the chocolate coating, mix together all the ingredients (or gently melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water).
Remove the block from the freezer and gently pour the chocolate mixture evenly over the peanut layer.
Place back in the freezer and freeze for 30 minutes at least, before removing and eating.
Store in the fridge for up to three days or keep in the freezer for up to three weeks.
