My friend, the chef Kali Jago, is a full-blown tahini obsessive. It was she who introduced me to (life-changing) whipped tahini and made me a batch of tahini and date chews, which I am now addicted to. To honour this joint infatuation, we made these slices together. The base is made using salted pretzels and brazil nuts, the centre oozes a squidgy tahini and date caramel, and it’s topped with a thin layer of dark, gently salted chocolate. We hope you will be just as smitten with them as we are.
Chocolate, tahini, date and pretzel slice
You’ll need a food processor and a 20cm x 20cm square tin or similar. The pretzels to use are the small snacking kind that can be bought in the supermarket (the most widely available are the Penn State brand).
Prep 5 min
Cook 25 min, plus setting time
Makes 25 squares
For the tahini and date mixture
360g pitted medjool dates (from 390g unstoned)
7 tbsp (100g) tahini
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp coconut oil
¼ tsp fine sea salt
For the base
120g pretzels
50g dark chocolate
100g brazil nuts
6 tbsp (75g) coconut oil
3 tbsp dark agave syrup
For the chocolate topping
100g dark chocolate
Flaky sea salt, to finish
Put the dates in a heatproof bowl, cover with 100ml just-boiled water, leave to soak for five minutes, then drain well.
Line a 20cm x 20cm cake tin with baking paper. Put the pretzels, chocolate, brazil nuts, coconut oil and agave in a food processor and blitz to a sandy, tacky crumb. Scrape out, press down very well into the tin, then put in the fridge to chill for five or so minutes, which is just as long as it takes you to make the date filling).
Meanwhile, put the drained dates in the food processor with the tahini, cinnamon, coconut oil and salt, and blitz to a sticky mixture. Remove the biscuit base from the fridge and evenly slather the date mix on top and pat it down to smooth.
Melt the chocolate in a microwave in 20-second blasts, stopping while some solid pieces still remain (they’ll melt in the residual heat). Pour the melted chocolate over the tahini and date mixture, spread it out evenly and sprinkle sparsely with sea salt. Refrigerate for 20 minutes, then cut neatly into five columns lengthways and again widthways to make 25 squares. To store, keep covered in the fridge.
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