Category Archives: Chocolates/Confectionary

Halloween bark

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Now anyone who has known me for a while knows that I love a good bark. They are so easy to make, look so pretty and make amazing gifts or table centrepieces at celebrations. Or just scoff it all in one go, you do you of course! I love how gorgeous the chocolate swirls make it and although I’ve added in some festive sprinkles, it looks just as pretty without them.

You can even add in a little colouring (think matcha or turmeric) to the white chocolate to make it look even more spooky! You can really go wild with it and add in all sorts of spooky treats on top!

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Snowy road

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I know you know about rocky road, but what if I told you there was an equally as delicious version that comes out around this time of year? Because I don’t know about you, but I love me a little white chocolate version of anything, and these are just sublime.

In the winter the rocky roads tend to get covered with a little snow you see. Sounds treacherous, but luckily our friends with their glitter vans are usually on the case. But they haven’t made it to my kitchen (guess it would be weird if they did not to mention a bit messy) so my roads are officially snow-covered. Continue reading →

Mars bar ice creams

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I swear it was snowing a few weeks ago, but now it’s mid April and we’re currently experiencing the five day heatwave that may end up being our ‘summer’. I watched a programme today about how positive affirmations and beliefs attract those things to you, so I’m putting it out to the universe that it’s going to be a long, hot, ice-cream-filled summer. I can’t do anything about the first two, but the latter I can definitely make happen.

I don’t know why I haven’t thought to make these before; they’ve got a chocolate ice cream base, a caramel middle and a coating of delicious raw chocolate. They’re amazing to keep in the freezer and whip out on a hot day (or any day) and I personally think they’re so much better than anything you can buy in the shops! And with only seven ingredients, what’s not to like!

Ingredients

Makes 6 bars

For the ice cream

  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1/2 cup coconut cream
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 3 medjool dates
  • 3 tbsp cacao powder

For the caramel

  • 6 medjool dates
  • 4 tbsp coconut cream
  • 2 cashew butter
  • Pinch of Himalayan salt

For the chocolate

  • 6 tbsp coconut oil
  • 6 tbsp cacao powder
  • 6 tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 3 tbsp cashew butter

To make the ice cream, place the ingredients in a blender and whizz until you have a smooth chocolate mousse. Spoon this into a mould (if you don’t have one you could use cake cases instead) and place in the freezer to set.

For the caramel, again place all the ingredients in a blender and whizz until a sticky caramel forms. Spoon this on top of the chocolate ice cream layer and place back in the freezer overnight to set.

To make the chocolate, melt the coconut oil in a bowl over a saucepan half full with water on a medium heat and then add in the other ingredients and stir well. Remove the bars from the moulds and dip each one in the chocolate. Eat immediately or place back in the freezer for later!

Love, Mrs H xx

Chocolate covered cookie dough Easter eggs

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Easter is totally one of my favourite times of year – spring is springing, we get a four day weekend and it’s completely acceptable to eat as much chocolate as physically possible. What’s not to like!

I wanted to celebrate this year by creating something a little different, because as much as I love chocolate eggs (and boy do I love them), it’s nice to mix it up sometimes too. We’ve got four days after all! Now these beauties may look and sound pretty fancy, but they’re actually really easy to make. You just need a handful of ingredients, a quick whizz in the food processor, and then a dip or three into the most delicious raw chocolate imaginable.

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The worlds most amazing quadruple chocolate truffles

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Ok, so you might have heard of double chocolate, or maybe even triple chocolate, but quadruple chocolate? Our unofficial motto in the Hollingsworth household seems to be ‘if in doubt, chocolate’ – both Mr H and I are long-standing chocoholics (we think it’s genetic, my dad and his mum are both of a similar disposition so we must have inherited the chocolate gene) and rarely a day goes by when we don’t both indulge in a little cacao (raw of course).

So now that Easter (an event high up on any chocolate lover’s calendar) is fast approaching I knew it was time to get chocolatey. I wanted to make something with a truffley chocolately centre and I also wanted to experiment with dark and white chocolate so these truffles are basically the amalgamation of everything I dreamed up!

They’re honestly just the most divine things ever, and I promise you even the biggest of sugar addicts will love them, despite the fact that they are completely free from refined sugar and anything remotely nasty. They’re also really simple to make, and you only need eight ingredients!

Makes about 10 of the worlds most amazing truffles

Ingredients 

For the truffles

  • 3 tbsp cacao powder
  • 2 tbsp cacao nibs
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup cashews
  • 1/2 cup cacao butter
  • 1/3 cup coconut cream

For the dark chocolate coating

  • 2 tbsp cacao powder
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup cacao butter

For the white chocolate coating

  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup cacao butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil

For the truffle fillings, combine all the ingredients except the cacao butter and cacao nibs in a food processor and whizz until you get a smooth, gooey mixture. While this is mixing, melt the cacao butter in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water until it is all melted.

Pour the melted cacao butter into the food processor and blend for another 30 seconds or so, until it is all mixed in. Spoon the mixture into a bowl and stir in the cacao nibs. Place the bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes, so that it hardens enough to be able to form it into balls. Remove from the freezer and shape into smallish balls. Pop them back in the freezer to set.

For the dark and white chocolate coatings, melt the cacao butter for each in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, then stir in the other ingredients. Remove the truffles from the freezer and dip them in the melted white and dark chocolate – the more times the better! Pop them in the fridge for ten minutes to set then enjoy!

Love, Mrs H xx

Frosted chocolate brownie batter balls

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Brownie batter and chocolate frosting, she said. Chocolate on chocolate, she said. Need I say any more? Probably not, but I shall. On my quest to create the world’s best brownies, I taste tested rather a lot of brownie batter (in the name of research, obvs) and it really got me thinking. It turns out brownie batter is just as delicious raw as it is post-bake. And chocolate + chocolate > chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate (because after all what better thing to speak about), I created this recipe to celebrate The Chocolate Show, one of the highlights of my culinary calendar,  which is being held at Olympia on 13th-15th October (tickets are available here) and is set to be one SERIOUSLY delicious weekend. There’s masterclasses, tastings and heaps more – I mean what more could a chocoholic want! OK, maybe Ryan Gosling and some chocolate body paint but this is totally the next best chocolatey thing!

So in honour of this wonderful weekend I set myself a challenge to create something extremely chocolatey and insanely tasty. The result? The most heavenly brownie recipe that can be rolled into balls and eaten raw, no baking necessary. And boy is it good. But what makes these bites even more special is the frosting. Honestly, the frosting on these babies is every bit as decadent and delicious as real life chocolate buttercream. Even Mr H, a harsh dessert critic and fellow chocolate fiend, declared these some of the best things I’ve ever made, which is high praise indeed from such a choconnoisseur (not a word but should be).

So in summary, think rich and gooey raw brownie batter covered with creamy and soft chocolate frosting. I’m practically drooling just thinking about them, and something tells me that I’m going to be making these rather a lot from now on, and you probably should too!

P.S. I seem to have recently discovered a love of piping. There’s no real need for it in this recipe, and it’s just as yum if you just plonk the frosting on top with a teaspoon but I do like making things look pretty. I expect there might be a lot more piping coming to the blog in the future…just call me the pie piper – get it? And on that note…here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup medjool dates, pitted
  • 1 cup cashew butter
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 4 tbsp cacao powder
  • 4 tbsp cacao nibs

For the frosting

  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 5 tbsp cacao powder
  • 5 tbsp maple syrup
  • 4 tbsp cashew butter (or any other nut butter)
  • 4 tbsp coconut oil

Another super simple one here folks! Just bung the ingredients for the balls into your food processor and whizz for a couple of minutes until smooth, sticky and slightly crumbly. Roll the mixture into balls and pop them in the freezer for at least an hour to cool, as this will make the icing stick much better.

For the frosting, scoop the insides out the avocado and combine these with the other ingredients in a food processor. Blend for around five minutes until a super smooth and silky mixture forms. Remove the balls from the freezer and either use a teaspoon to spoon the frosting on top or get your piping bag and nozzle out!

I hope you love these as much as I do!

Love, Mrs H xx

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