Snickers Slice

One of my most popular recipes to date... The taste of Snickers, only better! And a little more nutritious :)

INGREDIENTS

Recipe: Peanut Base:

• 3 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts

• 5 medjool dates. pitted

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• 3 Tbsp coconut oil

• 1 Tbsp almond butter

• Pinch of sea salt

Chocolate Topping:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

• 1/3 cup cacao powder

• 3 Tbsp coconut nectar syrup or maple syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the dates, coconut oil, honey, almond butter, salt and 1 1/2 cups of the peanuts into a food processor and process on medium speed for several minutes until the mixture forms a thick paste. Scrape down the sides at regular intervals.

2. Add the remaining 2 cups of peanuts and mix through on a lower speed, until mixed. You want the peanuts to remain fairly chunky. Press mixture firmly into a 20cmx20cm cake tin lined with baking paper and refrigerate.

3. Mix all topping ingredients together, beating or processing until smooth. If the coconut oil has solidified, melt gently under low heat. Standing the jar in a bowl of warm water works well to liquify the oil.

4. Spread topping evenly over the peanut base and freeze until set.

TAMARAS' TIP: If you have a powerful enough food processor, you can use ordinary pitted dates instead of medjool - just soak them for at least 10 minutes first, drain the water and you're good to go.

A Word from Tamara Lee

If I were to take my mind back a few years to when I lived on the Standard Australian Diet (yes that's right, the SAD diet) and think about what foods I actually miss, quite honestly there wouldn't be many. Cheese maybe, because vegan cheese tastes nothing like the real thing (no vegans, it doesn't!), but my desire for cheese has pretty much evaporated now I'm much more clued in as to what goes into the processing of it. And because it's basically just concentrated milk and dairy makes me snot like a toddler with a bad head cold. Seriously. I've always been quite the sweet tooth, so most of the desserts I enjoyed back then I can still enjoy raw now, with the added bonus that they fill me up and don't make me feel sick as a dog afterwards from over-consumption. So at the top of the list for recipes to create when I started on this new way of life was Snickers and Cherry Ripe (which is published in my Chocolate recipe book). Snickers has proved to be the favourite. I've lost track of how many requests I've had for it during raw food workshops, reckon it must be something to do with the peanuts. The people of Perth seem to be a little peanut-crazed here (me included). Because they just make everything taste AMAZING. Now, it's vitally important you get the right sort of peanut here or it won't taste anywhere near as good as it should. I want this to be an epic culinary experience for you so just trust me on this please. The peanuts MUST be dry roasted. Not regular roasted, toasted, sugar coated, salted and definitely NOT raw. What? Not raw? I thought this was a raw food website for crying out loud! Well yes it is, but listen up for a sec. Peanuts are actually a legume which means they are digested differently to regular nuts. They're harsher on the digestive system, especially when eaten in their raw form. Cooking or roasting legumes can make them easier to digest - and that's a good thing too, because in my opinion raw peanuts taste worse than licking spirulina powder straight off the spoon. Much much worse. Buying them raw though is a fair bit cheaper, so if you want to have a crack at roasting them yourself here's 3 ways it can be done (but please do not choose the microwave option!!! I may have a conniption if you do). And before you ask - regular roasted (the oilier looking variety) just don't taste right either. They're too, well, oily, and leave a funny aftertaste. So dry roasted only please.