Woohoo! Two chocolate recipes in two days!
I hope you loved the Chocolate Roulade from yesterday.
Today’s recipe is equally tempting and equally good…or even better. Mmmm..
My sweets loving Hubby has a hard time keeping his hands off this tempting chocolate goodness, even if he risks getting his hands slapped for it. Filled with nuts, dates and apricots, it is worth getting slapped for.
With as few simple steps to making this Chocolate Temptations Dessert as yesterday’s recipe, you can have your Valentine’s Day delights ready in no time. If fact, you can whip up both of them at the same time. 
The candy filling is 100% healthy and good for you.
The shell is naughty, but good. 
You can modify parts of the prep method to fit your cooking preferences. You can shape the candy filling by rolling out the “dough” into a long rope and then…
chopping it into smaller, bite-size chunks, so you can roll each into a perfect ball, for dipping; or you can use a teaspoon to measure each filling straight from the bowl into your hands, and roll it straight from there.
The fun part, especially for kids, is dipping heavenly bites into chocolate, because they get to lick the leftovers. Now, if you are not a kid yet still feel like you wanna lick your bowl or the spatula–go for it! I won’t tell anyone.
The only hard part of this chocolate candy making process is waiting while the filling is chilling in the freezer. If you are like me, you’ll probably snatch a piece or two before it is fully chilled, so you can indulge your taste buds with a guiltless treat. If you do, I won’t blame you for it. Otherwise, get busy doing something else, so you can keep your mind off the dessert.
- Food processor (or a blender)
- Spatula
- 2 forks
- Cooking pot
- 1 glass or metal bowl
- 1 mixing bowl
- Baking sheet or a flat dish
- Parchment or wax paper
- 1 3.5+ oz. bar of 70% (dark) chocolate
- 1 cup of almonds
- 1 cup of walnuts
- 1 cup of Medjool (or other kind) dates
- 1 cup or raisins or unsweetened apricots
- 1 tbsp lemon juice, if using raisins
- If using tart dried fruit only, add a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup or other sweetener
- Place all ingredients, except for chocolate, into a food processor. Blend until dough-like consistency is achieved (image below). Do not over-blend, not to make this into a nut butter. Leave some texture.
- If you do not have a food processor, you can use a high-speed blender to pulse nuts to flour-like consistency; then do the same with dried fruits.
- Alternatively, to grind fruit you can use a KitchenAid mixer with a grinder attachment (image below). If you follow this option, after grinding the fruit, add it to the nut flour, which you would still have to create with either a food processor or a blender.
- Line a baking sheet or a dish with parchment or wax paper.
- Option 1: roll dough out as pictured below, then cut into equal 24-25 pieces.
- Option 2: pinch dough with your fingers.
- Using your hands roll dough chunks into balls; place them onto the lined dish.
- Freeze for 1-2 hours.
- In a double boiler (use a pot with hot water and a glass or metal dish over it—image on the next page) bring water to boil, place chocolate chunks into the bowl.
- Let chocolate melt, stirring occasionally.
- Drop each dough ball into chocolate; using a couple of forks dip it in and roll around until the entire ball is covered; lay back onto the lined dish.
- Chocolate will harden rapidly if the dough balls are frozen.
- Use excess chocolate to drizzle the top of chocolates (use a spoon, fill it with chocolate and quickly move over chocolates in a zigzag motion).
- Freeze for 30-60 minutes (or longer) before serving.
- Leftover chocolates can be put into a zip-lock back and frozen.
Enjoy it! And, happy Valentine’s Day!
