I have to tell you I’m not a big fruit and chocolate person. I like fruit + nuts, and nuts + chocolate but I don’t like dried fruit in my chocolate bars. However, this is different. The dates sandwiched between the chocolate and the nuts remind me of the layer of caramel in chocolate bars. If you like that (or if you like all of the above in any combination), you will like this and will pleasantly surprised at the excellent ratio of reward to effort here. It’s pretty high.
Fruit and Nut Chocolate Bites
*You could ice a small cake with this amount of ganache or whip it into mousse for 4-6, so scale down this recipe if you’d like. But better yet, freeze what you don’t use and warm it to room temperature before using it again.
For the ganache:
250 g heavy cream
500 g dark chocolate, chopped fairly evenly
1 tbs unsalted butter, softened
For the bites:
Pitted dates
Salted nuts, use larger ones such as Brazil nuts or cashews
First, make the ganache: Heat the cream to just simmering in a small saucepan. Immediately pour over the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and stir after 1 minute. Add butter and stir through. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then pour some ganache into a small bowl.
Set a wire cooling rack over a baking sheet. Slice open the dates and fold them snugly around one nut each. Using chopsticks or a fork, coat the stuffed dates in the ganache, shake off any excess and transfer to the wire rack. Chill the bites for at least 2 hours before serving. They will stay fairly solid at room temperature but will start to melt on contact, so store or transport with parchment paper to line and separate.