Raw tartlets with chocolate filling

Good morning, world!

It's sunny today in Norfolk, and after a week of foggy, cloudy weather it's so energising to have breakfast in a sunny living room! But I am digressing. The reason for this post is another one- some lovely food I wanted to share with you! Well, at least the recipe...

Last year I found This recipe in Gena Hamshaw's gorgeous Choosing Raw website. I tried to make it and as usual I adjusted the recipe to account for my preferences. It came out so good that I wrote, "voted 10/10" and put it permanently in my raw food recipes folder (which is an expensive plastic folder, with printed recipes, not a digital folder).

Yesterday I decided it was time to prepare these tartelettes again as we had guests coming for dinner. With the ingredients I had I made 6 of them, plus a plate full of raw choc balls, and half a jar of raw nutella.

Let me explain.

The product in the picture above is the one prepared by Gena. My version is different and taller, and ideally, you wouldn't need to eat more than one of those delicacies at a time as they are very, very rich.

So here is my version. Messy, with edges that look like my kids had a taste before anybody else did…but oh, they are so delicious. And rich. Mmmm. 

The recipe of my version is below (and I am sure that Gena's is just as good if not better! It's a matter of individual preferences) - feel free to try it and let me know how it came out!

Raw tartlets with chocolate filling

Preparation time: 1 hour.

Ingredients 

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup hazelnuts (Or almonds, pecans, whichever you prefer)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt, plus an extra pinch for the filling
• 3 tbsp and 1/3 cup cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
• 12 pitted dates
• 1 tbsp and 1/3 cup maple syrup, divided
• 1 cup cashews
• 1/3 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup water
• a drop of mint essential oil

Instructions

1. To make the crust, grind oats in a food blender (I used Vitamix - dry jug)  Add the nuts and grind till they're quite crumbly. Add sea salt and 3 tbsp cacao and pulse to combine.
2. Add the dates to the processor and process till mixture is sticking together. Add 1 tbsp maple syrup and continue to process till mixture is holding together really well. I found I needed to add some water because it wasn't holding together well yet.
3. Press crust into your tartelette pans, making sure to keep the thickness even and get the sides nice and high. Refrigerate for one hour or more (up to a day or two). I put mine in silicon moulds which are easy to peel off in thee end. We ate the tartelettes two hours after preparing them - they were just fine.
4. In a high speed blender, blend the nuts, oil, 1/3 cup maple syrup, 1/3 cup cacao or cocoa powder, vanilla, water, and a pinch of sea salt. Let it blend for as long as necessary to make it completely, silky smooth. 
5. Pour the filling into the tartelette shells. Refrigerate for several hours before serving, to let the ganache set. 
6. Makes 2 4.75-inch tartelettes, with a little extra left over.

Notes: the tartellettes are sweet - it is possible to use less maple syrup to adjust them to your level, and use a different product to hold things together, it could be chia seeds or anything you like!

I uses the left over crust to roll it into balls, and then I rolled the balls in coconut flakes.

I was left with a lot of chocolate ganache, and this morning I spread it over wholemeal bread. Much better than nutella! In far this is a nice sauce to put in cakes. Yum.

It's all for now - time to go to the gym!

Have a fantastic day!

Franz