Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.
Photo: Peter McIntosh
The Corner Store's raw mocha slice
Ingredients
Base
160g pumpkin seeds
10g cacao
200g dates, chopped finely
50g coconut
Filling
400g cashews
175ml Common Ground Espresso (25ml-30ml double shots)
⅓ cup real maple syrup
10g cacao
150g coconut oil, melted
Topping
80g rice malt syrup
80g coconut oil
25g cacao
Method
Soak the cashews for the filling in the espresso for at least 2 days.
Blitz pumpkin seeds in the food processor until fine crumbs.
Add the cocoa, dates and coconut and blitz until brought together - add a couple of drips of water or coffee to bind it together. It should be a little sticky and holding together.
Press into the base of a paper-lined tray. Place in the freezer to set while you make the filling.
Process the cashews with the coffee in the processor until smooth.
Add the real maple syrup, coconut oil and cacao and blitz until smooth
Pour the filling over the base and place back in the freezer.
Melt the coconut oil and mix the topping ingredients together until smooth.
Pour over the filling and place in the fridge to set the top.
Garnish with Ocho cocoa flakes.
Recipe requested by Christine Wilson. Recipe provided by The Corner Store (formerly Sugar Cafe), Dunedin.
If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.
