Chocolate and Tahini Caramel Slice

What do you like to do on your birthday? Do you throw yourself a party, or take yourself somewhere special? Do you have one day where anything goes, or do you like to stretch the celebration out over a week?

At our house, we like to have birthday festivals. For our birthday festivals you get the whole week surrounding your birthday to make all the decisions and do some special things, things like driving across town to your favourite bookstore, just to look for the afternoon. Or taking yourself out for a really excellent quality ice-cream in the middle of the week.

Birthday festivals are all about getting to do the things you love on a whim; you get to celebrate the festival of you, and any of the little things that you don’t normally treat yourself to! I really like the birthday festival approach because you get to feel special for more than one day, and it takes the pressure away from having one perfect birthday day. Sometimes that kind of pressure just feels too much. Doing lots of little things makes me feel special, it makes me feel happy and lighthearted and free.

This year during my birthday festival we drove across town to visit my favourite bookstore, and have a handmade ice-cream in the middle of the week. The ice-cream was so good, we went back a second time before my festival was up and I got to decide that I wanted to go out for dinner on my actual birthday, so I took us somewhere new, a place that as a family we were always a little bit afraid to go to incase somebody didn’t like it. Guess what, we all loved it! I also went to see an Italian film, and on another night danced to a french gypsy band that I had never heard before. This year was a pretty great festival.

Birthdays usually involve some kind of cake, and because I don’t just like any old cake I often end up making my own. Inspired by my health and nutrition study this year, my husband bought me a healthy cake from an amazing raw chocolate place that I had been wanting to try for a year. It was a total surprise and looked and tasted gorgeous! I didn’t know that I was going to be getting a surprise cake, so I had already made myself this chocolate and tahini caramel slice! Oh no, a birthday with more than one cake 😉 a very happy accident indeed.

Variations of this slice have been popping up in my instagram feed over the past couple of months, so I had been dreaming about just such a thing for a little while. Funnily enough, my other cake was also salted caramel, so I must have been sending thought messages…

After eating our way through them both, we all decided that the flavour of this slice just couldn’t be beat. It’s such a good treat because it is made from real whole foods, so it is full of yummy goodness and grain free too. You keep it in the freezer, so you can make it ahead of time, or pace yourself and have a delicious little bite every now and then. It really was very good, and made us feel good too. In fact it was so good that didn’t last very long in our house, but luckily just long enough to round out the festival nicely.

Because of the tahini and dates in the slice, you can feel happy that you are getting a good dose of lots of important minerals (from the dates) and calcium (from the sesame seeds). None of the ingredients will cause a blood sugar spike, so as far as birthday treats go this one is an all-round winner. And really, it is the most delicious treat. We all had a very nice time this birthday festival, and this slice will definitely make an encore performance again sometime soon…

Chocolate and Tahini Caramel Slice

For the raw base:

120g roasted hazelnuts
80g desiccated coconut
6 medjool dates
2 tablespoons tahini
1/2 tablespoon cacao powder

For the tahini and maple caramel:

3/4 cup tahini
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

Plus 200-300g of your favourite dark chocolate for pouring on top plus some salt flakes for sprinkling

First let’s make the base. Pop the hazelnuts into a food processor and process until the nuts are chopped into small pieces. Then add in the coconut, dates, tahini and cacao powder and process again until the mixture comes together into a paste.

Press the base mixture into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and then pop into the freezer.

Now let’s make the tahini caramel (so good). Blend together the tahini, maple syrup, melted coconut oil and salt (don’t skip the salt, it takes the caramel to higher heights). Blend on high speed until beautifully smooth and voluptuous. Pour the mixture over the base and return to the freezer for an hour until it is set.

Melt your favourite chocolate (I used 80% cacao organic chocolate, you can use vegan chocolate if you are keeping the slice vegan) and pour over the set caramel. Sprinkle over a pinch of flaked salt and return to the freezer until set.

Cut slices directly from the freezer, and enjoy. So yum, so good.

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Print Recipe

Chocolate and Tahini Caramel Slice

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Serves: 10 - 20

Cooking Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

• For the raw base:
• 120g roasted hazelnuts
• 80g desiccated coconut
• 6 medjool dates
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1/2 tablespoon cacao powder
• +
• For the tahini and date caramel:
• 3/4 cup tahini
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• +
• Plus 200-300g of your favourite dark chocolate for pouring on top plus some salt flakes for sprinkling

Instructions

1

First let’s make the base. Pop the hazelnuts into a food processor and process until the nuts are chopped into small pieces. Then add in the coconut, dates, tahini and cacao powder and process again until the mixture comes together into a paste.

2

Press the base mixture into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and then pop into the freezer.

3

Now let’s make the tahini caramel (so good). Blend together the tahini, maple syrup, melted coconut oil and salt (don’t skip the salt, it takes the caramel to higher heights). Blend on high speed until beautifully smooth and voluptuous. Pour the mixture over the base and return to the freezer for an hour until it is set.

4

Melt your favourite chocolate (I used 80% cacao organic chocolate, you can use vegan chocolate if you are keeping the slice vegan) and pour over the set caramel. Sprinkle over a pinch of flaked salt and return to the freezer until set.

5

Cut slices directly from the freezer, and enjoy. So yum, so good.

Notes

• gluten free • grain free • raw • vegan •