Chiquitita, you and I know…. Chokito!

Chiquitita, tell me the truth
I’m a shoulder you can cry on
Your best friend, I’m the one you must rely on                        (Abba)

Arghh! This song has been my ear worm since I started making this recipe. It has nothing to do with chocolate but the I can’t get the words out of my head!  Maybe chocolate is the shoulder I can cry on… and rely on!! Or best friend or….I dunno!? I’m not making sense!

When you were a kid, what was (or still is) your favourite chocolate bar?

After graduating from the infamous Bertie beetle as a kid, mine was the chokito bar. It must have been the crunchy bits encased in chocolate that appealed to me. I shared the passion with my brother while I remember that my sisters favourite was the Pollywaffle.  Interestingly both bars were manufactured by the now defunct Rowntree Hoadleys Chocolates (formerly Hoadleys chocolates) and then bought out by super-giant Nestle in 1988.

Last month we had our Ekka – the Royal Brisbane Exhibition & Show – the realm of showbags, and I always thought that the Rowntree Hoadleys showbags were the best! (They had Bertie beetles in them too). Fortunately, showbags or commercial chocolate do not interest me anymore but I do have fond childhood memories of them.

A chokito is an Australian chocolate bar containing caramel fudge with puffed rice crisps and coated in chocolate.  I believe you can also get them in New Zealand, Switzerland and Brazil and there is a similar bar in the United States called the $100 Grand bar. In the ’70s the tagline for advertising was “Chokito gets you going” but was changed to the current “big feed, big taste” (marketed to men aged 24-35), to increase chocolate sales in men as women continue to dominate the chocolate market.  I’m not sure what that says about my tastes – and I haven’t bought a chocolate bar since I can remember – but I was reminiscing recently and thought it was time to healthify this treat!

There are a couple of parts to this recipe and it is not as complicated as it sounds. The fudge is deliciously easy to make, just make sure it is properly chilled before you slice it up. I experimented with rolling the fudge in brown rice puffs but sadly, they lost their crunch. Using commercial rice puff cereal will maintain the crunch but it wasn’t optimum for me. I had more success rolling the fudge in a mix of toasted buckwheat and chopped walnuts; I think these are healthier for you than rice puffs anyway, but it’s a personal preference. I even tried toasted pinenuts which also worked. Then again, coating anything in chocolate is going to be a winner!

FUDGE CENTRE

120g raw cashews or blanched almonds (I used a mix)

70g cacao butter

50g dates

50g maple syrup

50g almond milk or cream

50g coconut oil or butter

vanilla to taste

Chop the nuts, cacao butter and dates on SP 7 for 5 seconds. Scrape the bowl down and add the syrup, milk, vanilla and oil and cook at 70°C on SP 5 for 5 minutes. Scrape the bowl down again and blend for 1 minute on SP 7.

Pour into a lined loaf pan and place in the freezer to chill well for at least 1 hour.

TO ASSEMBLE

1 cup of rice puff cereal

OR

50g buckwheat, lightly toasted

70g pinenuts or chopped walnuts

150g dark chocolate*

1 teas oil

Place the rice puff on a plate OR Mix the nuts and buckwheat together on a plate. Slice the fudge into 2 cm widths and roll in the combined nuts and buckwheat until well coated. Place back in the freezer while you melt the chocolate.

In the TM bowl, mill the chocolate on SP 8 for 5 seconds. add the oil and melt at 50°C for 2 minutes. It needs to be quite runny. Pour into a shallow bowl and dip each fudge roll to coat, using 2 forks, and drain on a wire rack. I place a piece of baking paper underneath so I can catch the excess chocolate and reuse. Keep in the fridge or freezer and try not to eat them all at once!

*If using homemade chocolate, omit the oil.