chocolate / recipes / sweet+desserts / glutenfree / raw / sugrafree / vegan
I must admit that I don´t celebrate Valentine´s Day…and that I got to this recipe and its heart shape in a completely casual way. That´s to say, an idea, an action, a thought, in a nutshell, one thing led to another. Since I made the white coating of the truffle recipe, I was thinking about how I could use it in a different way.
At some point, I read something somewhere and it reminded me about the ability of that particular food to stain everything, that the beetroot is a natural dye (and therefore, your ally) if you are thinking of giving colour to a dough and of course, having that in mind it turn out that my coating was simply perfect. I started to think about pink things. One day, by chance, I saw in a shop some moulds to make pink panther-style buns and the thought of the pink coating came back to my mind.
A healthy pink panther! And when I was thinking about that, some advertisement or picture remembering the proximity of Valentine´s Day illuminated my mind at the speed of light.
I had by chance some heart moulds which I could playfully use and so, I decided to write a post with something tasty and healthy for the people who celebrate Valentine´s Day, and besides it is also a good choice for any occasion you want to say someone how much you love them (and it doesn´t necessarily have to be your partner). They can be a perfect gift for a pregnant woman! Or for a birthday! Moreover, you can also make them in any shape you like, if for example the mould has a circular or rectangular shape it will be easier to fill.
Although you may think that the recipe is quite long, it has several short steps you can make in advance and use for other elaborations later on. For example, you can make the cashews and pistachio butters two weeks in advance. You can also make the filling a few days before and take it out of the fridge a little while before making the bonbon. When all of the above is done, the rest is really easy and the reward truly unbeatable.
I can assure you that several people have tasted them and they went crazy for them. The pistachio filling makes a delicious contrast against the coating and its crunchy touch against the chopped pieces. There a sweet salty balance essential for the gustative balance, it took me a long time to get to it and so, you can really trust me.
The feeling of doing something good and healthy is amazing. Preparing something which resembles what you can buy everywhere, but something you can eat without feeling guilty. It feels like touching the sky and you really want to kick the shit they want to sell us. You really want to shout, shout it very loud, the loudest you can feeling a satisfaction and a sense of power and independence…I love it. And share it with the rest of the world…there are no words.
A small note before finishing with this: if you see different pink tones in the bonbons in the picture is because I have played a bit with the amount of beetroot juice…and you can also do the same! I would advise you to add it little by little and stop whenever you like the colour.
Ingredients
:::::::::::::::::::::chocolate coating (for 24 units):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
60 gr of cocoa butter
90 gr of cashew butter
60 gr of raw honey (or maple syrup if you are vegan)
1/8 tsp of salt
1 vanilla pod
2 tsp of beetroot juice
::::::::::::::::::::::::filling (60 units):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
10 gr of coconut oil
3 units of medjool dates
50 gr of pistachio butter
20 gr of chopped pistachios
1/8 tsp of salt
instructions
- Start preparing in advance the two nutsbutters, the cashew and the pistachio one. Follow the instructions in the blog recipe (link in the article). You can make it one week in advance (or two).
- For the filling, melt the coconut oil in a bain marie.
- Crush the dates with a fork in a plate until you get a sort of paste, add the pistachio butter, salt, chopped pistachios and melted coconut oil, mix well with a spoon until you see that everything has merged together.
- Put it in a small piping bag and put it aside out of the fridge if you are thinking about making the coating next. (if this is not the case, then keep it inside the fridge).
- For the coating, melt the chopped cocoa butter in a bain marie.
- You have two different options for the beet juice. The first one consists of making a juice keeping aside two spoonfuls. The second one consists of grating a medium beetroot, put the grated stuff in a thin cloth or gauze (be aware that it will get stained) and press crushing it well to get out the liquid, like when you are making vegetable milk...and put it aside.
- When the cocoa butter is melted add the cashews cream, the honey, the vanilla (previously scraped) and the salt. Put it again in a bain marie for about 2 minutes. Stir with a kitchen stick so that everything gets well mixed and add the beetroot juice afterwards. Pour the mix over a small jug which you will leave inside the bain marie pot and with the heat OFF!!!.
- Take your bonbons mould and put it over a tray or plate which you can put inside the freezer.
- Start putting a layer of coating (1/3) and put it inside the freezer. Place again the jug in the bain marie with the heat off to keep the same temperature and avoid it getting hard.
- After 15 minutes, take the mould out of the freezer and put carefully a little of the filling on it making sure that it doesn´t touch the edges of the mould (if this happens, take a small knife and try to separate it from the edges with the tip of the knife). Freeze it again for 5 minutes.
- Make sure that the coating is warm, if you see that it is starting to get cold, heat some water, put it off and place the jug inside. Stir it with a small spoon.
- Take the mould out of the freezer and finish filling with the coating - make sure to hit the mould against the table a couple of times to remove any bubbles which might be still in between. Freeze again.
- They will be ready in half an hour. Take them out from the moulds and keep them inside a tupper in the freezer until you decide to eat them.
- Enjoy!