Homemade Twix = Giant Twix
Ingredients (Cookie Base):
- 3 cups almond flour
- 1/3 cup thick coconut milk (refrigerate it overnight)
-
1/3 cup coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons xylitol or other sweetener
- a pinch of sea salt
Buy Ingredients (Caramel Layer):
- 20 medjool dates
- 2 pinches sea salt
-
2 tablespoons coconut oil
-
½ cup nut butter (any kind)
Ingredients (Coating):
- 3 bars dark chocolate
-
3 tablespoons coconut oil
Today I have a real sweet bomb for your Sunday dessert. Chocolate, a shortcrust base and healthy caramel. Homemade twix is an easy snack for everyone. It doesn’t contain any white sugar or trans fats, and thanks to good ingredients it tastes great and gives you something useful along with it. Who’s up for a giant twix?
Preparation
Pie crust: Combine the flour and sea salt. In a pot, mix together the coconut oil, coconut milk and xylitol. Then combine all the ingredients, form a ball and refrigerate it.
The bottom: Melt the dark chocolate with the fat in a pot, line a loaf pan with baking paper, pour in the chocolate and refrigerate.
The middle part: Take the shortcrust out of the fridge and roll the dough into two rectangles the size of your loaf tin. Dock the dough with a fork and bake for 15 minutes at 150°C (300°F).
Caramel layer: Blend all the ingredients until smooth. Transfer half of the caramel onto the cooled chocolate in the pan, put one shortcrust base on it, then the rest of the caramel, and cover with the second shortcrust.
Another chocolate layer: Melt the chocolate as before, pour it over the cake and refrigerate.
Take the cake out of the fridge and out of the loaf pan, turn it upside down and cover the sides with the last of the melted chocolate. If there is enough coating left, decorate the top with zigzag patterns. Wait for it to set and enjoy.
Build it in the tin, upside down
The order looks odd until you see what it is for. The chocolate that goes into the pan first becomes the top of the finished cake, because the whole thing is turned out and flipped at the end. That is why it has to set in the fridge before anything else goes on it: a soft chocolate base means the caramel sinks into it and the layers merge.
Line the tin with baking paper up the long sides with an overhang, and lifting the set cake out becomes a matter of pulling the paper rather than prying at the edges. Chilled chocolate against bare metal is very hard to release in one piece.
Refrigerate the shortcrust, and dock it
This dough is almond flour held together by coconut oil, with no eggs and no gluten, so chilling is what makes it possible to roll at all. Warm, it is a paste; cold, it behaves like pastry. If it cracks while you roll it, it is too cold rather than too dry, so let it stand two minutes and try again.
Docking, the pricking with a fork, matters more here than in wheat pastry. There is no gluten network to hold shape, so trapped steam lifts the whole sheet into a dome and the layers stop being flat. Prick generously, right across the surface.
150 degrees is low, and that is deliberate
Almond flour browns much faster than wheat, because the sugars and fats in the nuts catch quickly. At 150 degrees the sheets dry out and set without darkening; twenty degrees higher and the edges are burnt before the middle is firm.
Fifteen minutes gives a base that is still slightly soft coming out and crisps as it cools, which is what you want. It will not look impressively golden, and that is correct for this dough.
The caramel is dates, so blend it further than you think
Twenty medjool dates, nut butter, coconut oil and salt make a caramel with no sugar and no cooking, and the entire quality of it comes down to how smooth you get it. Stop too early and it is a date paste with pieces in it, which reads as a different thing entirely.
If the blender labours, add a tablespoon of hot water rather than more oil, which would make the layer greasy and soft at room temperature. Medjool dates are soft enough to skip soaking, but if yours are dry, fifteen minutes in hot water first makes the difference. The two pinches of salt are not optional: salt is what turns sweet date paste into something that tastes of caramel.
Coating the sides without a mess
The last chocolate goes on a cake that has come straight from the fridge, so it sets on contact, and that gives you one pass rather than a chance to smooth things over. Work quickly, pour along the top edge and let it run down rather than trying to paint it on.
Stand the cake on a rack over a tray so the excess has somewhere to go, and use whatever collects for the zigzags on top. A little coconut oil in the melted chocolate, as in the first layer, keeps it thin enough to flow and stops it cracking when the cake is sliced.
Cutting and keeping
Cut it cold, with a long knife warmed under hot water and wiped dry between slices. Chocolate over a soft caramel shatters under a cold knife, and the warm blade goes through cleanly instead.
It keeps two weeks in the fridge in a closed container and freezes for three months, best sliced first with baking paper between the pieces. Eat it cold: the coconut oil in both the crust and the caramel softens at room temperature, and the layers lose their definition within about twenty minutes. If you would rather have desserts like this one planned into the week along with your meals, that is what the Diet & Training by Ann app does.
Homemade giant twix
Ingredients
Method
- Combine the almond flour and sea salt. Mix the coconut oil, coconut milk and xylitol in a pot, combine everything into a ball and refrigerate.
- Melt part of the dark chocolate with coconut oil, pour it into a loaf pan lined with baking paper and refrigerate until set.
- Roll the chilled dough into two rectangles the size of the tin, dock them with a fork and bake for 15 minutes at 150 C (300 F).
- Blend the dates, salt, coconut oil and nut butter until completely smooth.
- Spread half the caramel over the set chocolate, lay on one shortcrust sheet, add the rest of the caramel and cover with the second sheet.
- Melt the remaining chocolate, pour it over and refrigerate.
- Turn the cake out upside down, coat the sides with the last melted chocolate, decorate the top and let it set before slicing cold.
Notes
Frequently asked questions
Because the cake is turned out and flipped at the end, so that first layer becomes the top. It has to set in the fridge before anything else goes on it, or the caramel sinks into soft chocolate and the layers merge. Line the tin with paper overhanging the long sides so you can lift the cake out by pulling.
It is almond flour held together by coconut oil, with no eggs and no gluten, so chilling is what makes it rollable at all. Warm it is a paste. If it cracks while you roll it, it is too cold rather than too dry, so let it stand two minutes.
It stops the sheet doming. There is no gluten network to hold the shape, so trapped steam lifts the whole thing and the layers stop being flat. Prick generously right across the surface.
Almond flour browns much faster than wheat, because the sugars and fats in the nuts catch quickly. At 150 the sheets dry and set without darkening. They will not look golden, and that is correct: they crisp as they cool.
Blend it further than feels necessary, and if the blender labours add a tablespoon of hot water rather than more oil, which would leave the layer greasy. Medjool dates rarely need soaking, but dry ones benefit from fifteen minutes in hot water. The two pinches of salt are what make date paste taste of caramel. Desserts like this one come planned into the week alongside your meals in the Diet & Training by Ann app.
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