Ingredients

The following ingredients have 25 Servings
  • 150 g / 1 cup dried dates, halved and pitted
  • 140 g / 1 cup almonds
  • 90 g / 1 cup rolled oats (GF certified if required)
  • 3 tbsp cacao powder
  • ¼ tsp fine sea salt
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 125 g / 4.5 oz dark (70 % cacao) chocolate
  • 90 ml / ¼ cup + 2 tbsp aquafaba / chickpea brine homemade or from a tin
  • 90 ml / ¼ cup + 2 tbsp coconut cream (separated from full-fat coconut milk)
  • ¼ tsp hot chilli powder, adjust to taste (optional)
  • 240 ml / 1 cup good quality raspberry jam
  • chocolate shavings
  • almond flakes
  • mini meringue kisses (recipe here)
  • freeze-dried raspberries

Instruction

  • Place pitted dates in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave them for 10 minutes to soften.
  • Place almonds and oats in a food processor and grind them both into flour. If you don't have a powerful food processor, you may want to grind them separately. Transfer ground almonds and oats to a large bowl. Add cacao and salt and mix well.
  • Squeeze excess moisture out of the dates and place them into the food processor. Process until you get a smooth, sticky mixture. Add them to the dry ingredients and knead by hand until you get a uniform dough.
  • Finally, add melted coconut oil.
  • Line a tart tin with a piece of baking paper and line the tin with the dough you've just made. Make sure you press it really well so that it's compacted and holds together well. Pop into the freezer for 10 mins.
  • Chop your chocolate very finely (unless you are using chocolate chips) and place into a glass bowl together with coconut cream. Place over a water bath (on the lowest heat) and allow the chocolate and coconut cream to melt gently into each other. Do not stir until most of the chocolate has melted, then turn the hob off and allow the rest of the chocolate to melt under the residual heat. Gently mix the two together and add chilli powder at this stage (if using). Chocolate is a temperamental beast to work with, if it happens to seize (gets thick, oily and grainy), see NOTES below. Take the bowl with chocolate off the pot with hot water to allow the chocolate mixture to cool down.
  • Place room temperature aquafaba in a clean (that's very important as any grease residue will prevent aquafaba from foaming) glass or metal bowl. Whip it until you achieve stiff peaks - you should be able to invert the bowl and the whipped aquafaba should not budge an inch, if it does it means that it hasn't been whipped enough.
  • Make sure chocolate is lower than body temperature before mixing into aquafaba. Gently fold whipped aquafaba into the chocolate ganache - 2 tablespoons of aquafaba at a time.
  • Take the base out of the freezer and spread the jam on the bottom. Next pour the chocolate layer on top. Let the tin sit at room temperature for around 30 minutes and then pop it into the fridge overnight or for several hours (at least) to set.
  • Decorate and cut into slices. Store in the fridge and consume within 1-2 days.