Paleo chocolate bars with hazelnuts

My favourite treat is nutty chocolate. If you look around the supermarkets it's everywhere but usually with heaps of sugar... sweet shop windows in Florence are stacked with enticing looking organic chocolate bars that shamelessly taunt me. I have yet to see a 90% cocoa Lindt bar with any kind of reference to nuts barring the disclaimer on the back of the packaging for those with allergies. 

When my mum came up from Cape Town to visit me in Florence in April we finally took things in hand and started making our own chocolate bars! It is so painlessly quick and simple that you will be wondering why you haven't done it before and soon come up with your own ways to spice up your chocolate creations. Miranda (my endlessly talented housemate) is keen to try adding coffee... 

Some of the benefits of eating dark chocolate which I got from a blog called paleo leap:

• Dark chocolate is a good source of iron, magnesium, copper and manganese.
• Dark chocolate is very low in sugar.
• It can be used effectively to fill a craving for sweet foods.
• It is a source of antioxidants and can help repair free radical damage.

I have put in some sneaky Italian vocabulary for you to learn while you cook today. Also, for those of you in Firenze I have added where I source my ingredients.

From the rooftops in Santo Spirito, Firenze
Sofia and Miranda

Recipe 

You will need:

2 pots that fit into each other to make a double boiler (pentole)
1 wooden spoon (cucchiaio)
Baking paper (carta di forno)
2 containers to pour your melted chocolate into (lunch boxes work well - square corners)

2 Lindt chocolate bars 90% cocoa  (I got mine at the Lindt shop in Piazza del Duomo)
250g roasted, skinless hazelnuts (nocciole) (Conad supermarket.... but Mercato Centrale, San Lorenzo market if you can get there)

Melt the Lindt bars in a double boilers so they don't burn.

Add the hazelnuts.

Line your containers with baking paper.

Let the chocolate cool for a few minutes. Pour into your containers. It should be about 1 nut thick.

Put your containers into the fridge for 2 hours or until hard enough for you to break into rough pieces.

Snap your chocolate into bite sized pieces and store in the fridge.

Raspberries, Lightly Toasted Hazelnuts and Crème Fraîche: breakfast (quick and perfect for on the go)

When I was working in an office for years I struggled with a breakfast that I could take with me to eat after going to the gym. Soggy fried eggs and bacon in a tupperware does not appeal to me! This is great for a tupperware and I also regularly eat this at home if I want a break from the daily fried eggs and bacon.

Ingredients:
6 -8 raspberries
15 raw hazelnuts (skin on)
2 big dollops of creme fraiche
1 teaspoon of desiccated coconut

Recipe:
Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C and scatter your hazelnuts on to a baking tray. I usually do far more than needed here as you can store them for all your breakfasts that week and even freeze them. Put them in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or until the skins have darkened and are flaking away from the nuts. You do not want to cook them too much, this is why I prefer to do it myself as opposed to buying ready-roasted hazelnuts.

Once the nuts have been removed from the oven place them in a tea-towel and rub them firmly to remove most of the skins. Then allow them to cool before adding them to a bowl (or tupperware) of the fresh washed raspberries and creme fraiche, sprinkle your desiccated coconut on top.

Creme fraiche is very high fat is a more suitable in this recipe than yogurt. You can replace the raspberries with strawberries or other berries.

Olivia's "I'm already sweet enough" extra high fat Chocolate, Pecan and Coffee bites

As a 26 year old MA student much of my life revolves around sustaining study energy. These little high fat rich chocolate treats are perhaps more friendly to the non-LCHF tastebuds than 85%/90% chocolate as they are laced with delicious pecans and ground coffee. The coffee and chocolate combination gives me a second wind when trying to finish off that last chapter of art theory.

Ingredients:
180g high quality 85% chocolate (you can go as dark as you like or as low as 70% if you don't mind the sugar content)
100g unsalted butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)
1 tablespoon of raw coconut oil
15 pecan nuts (you can use more if you like it really nutty)
1-2 teaspoons of ground strong coffee (put less in if you are sensitive to coffee!)

To make the bites: Begin by snapping the pecans in pieces (approximately quarters) into a small frying pan. Place the frying pan on a medium heat and cook the pecans for about 3 minutes or until then start to go dark brown in places, tossing regularly. Once they have been cooked place to one side.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a medium saucepan with all of the butter and coconut oil. Heat these at a very low heat stirring continuously, it is important that the chocolate does not burn. Once the chocolate, butter and coconut oil have melted together turn the stove off and remove half of the mixture and set to one side.

Add the cooked pecans and the ground coffee to the remaining mixture in the saucepan and stir through. Then pour this into a small dish (one that you can use a knife on) and then top this with the other half of the chocolate, butter and coconut oil mixture. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Once you are sure they are set cut them into small pieces and remove from tray. If I'm not demolishing them on my own I usually serve them after a dinner party with fresh strawberries and raspberries to cut through the richness. Due to the high butter content they melt quickly.