Ingredients: 200 g of raisins, 100- 150 ml of sweet red wine, 200-300 g dark chocolate glaze, 200 g almonds, 200 g hazelnuts, 3 TBS condensed milk, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, cocoa powder (or instant coffee powder, or malt coffee powder), 1 rectangular form of 18 x 27 cm
Keep in mind that these are ca. quantities, and you may gather your own mix of dried fruits and nuts, or use a milk chocolate glaze if this is what you like better.
So, it’s still winter, and cold, and it lures me into eating unhealthily, and too much. Bad combination. Still, I need more energy to keep warm, a sunny mood, and a fresh mind. I’d need something small, and compact and concentrated, exploding of taste and fragrance.
Somewhere in the back of my cupboard, lingering around since Christmas, some chocolate glaze, a mix of almonds and hazelnuts, a half of bag of raisins.
I’ll put the raisins in a bowl, cover it with sweet red wine and marinate until the raisins have soaked all the liquid. This will take some hours; the best would be if you have time and wait until the next day.
When the raisins resemble more the grape drops they once used to be, you can go ahead with the rest. Roast carefully and without any fat, the nuts in a pan, continuously stirring. They should get a little bit darker, but take care: when roasting nuts, there is a certain moment, when they might get burned in 2-3 seconds. When they’re ready, empty them on a flat large plate, where they can cool up entirely. Consider they still roast inside even if not in the pan.
Melt the chocolate glaze, help with a little bit of condensed milk, or liquid cream, or just milk, not much, just a hunch to help the chocolate melt smoothly. Of course, if you want to preserve the typical glaze of the chocolate, you should use a thermometer, and take care that it doesn’t cross the 30° line.
With a sharp knife, chop the nuts as small as you wish to have them in the mix, and sieve any rest of wine from the raisins. Add vanilla, cinnamon, or any other spice you love in the melted chocolate, then stir well. Mix with chopped nuts and the “tipsy” raisins.
Pour the mix into a rectangular pan, cover with plastic wrap, then park it in the fridge. It will take some hours until the mix gets solid. When this finally happens, cut out either bars or cubes – bars for bigger crave, cubes for normal days – then run them through cocoa, or instant coffee, or malt coffee powder. Wrap every single bar or cube in aluminum foil; store into a metal box that shouldn’t be close to any warm source.
A kind note: don’t eat more than one a day. Even if tiny, they have a lot of calories.
Spice and Candy 