White Chocolate-Walnut and Dates Bar
My husband had ordered 3 large packs of sukkari dates online. The dates were sweet, soft and just melted in the mouth. They were even better than Medjool dates. It’s sweet caramel like taste made them incredibly moreish. He had also ordered couple of big bags of walnuts and I was worried that the walnuts might get bitter if we didn’t use them up quickly. I found this recipe for Dark Chocolate-Walnut Date Bar by Martha Stewart and adapted it slightly as I am not too keen on dark chocolate. The recipe is quick to make and easy to assemble.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Sukkari dates with the stones removed you can use any dates)
- 2 cups walnuts
- ¼ cup peanut butter ( you can use crunchy or smooth)
- 2 cups melted butter (vegans can use coconut oil)
- 2 tsps vanilla essence
- ¼ tsp coarse salt
- 150 grams white chocolate (you can use any chocolate)
- ¼ tsp flaky sea salt
Instructions
- First line a loaf tin with grease proof paper with a bit of a over hang.
- Transfer the walnuts, dates, peanut butter, vanilla, the coarse salt and butter into a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Transfer the mixture onto a greaseproof lined tray. Shape the mixture into a square if possible. Put the tray into the fridge for an hour.
- After the hour, halve the mixture and transfer one half to the loaf tin. use the loaf tin to work out the size of the first layer.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave and spread half of it over the mixture and transfer this to the fridge for 15 minutes. this should allow the chocolate to firm up.
- Tranfer the remaining half of the dates and walnut mixture on top of the white chocolate and cover this half with the remaining chocolate. If you do have any remaining mixture, cut it into squares and arrange it over the white chocolate. Spread the top with the flaky salt and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Gently use the overhanging grease proof papaer and remove the walnut and chocolate bar from the loaf tin.
- Slice the walnut and chocolate bar and enjoy it as dessert. Any remaining bars can be stored in the fridge.
- Adding salt to the mixture and sprinkling salt on the top at the end gives the dessert an exceptional taste.
Notes
Further recipes using dates and nuts are listed below: