With the Holiday season upon us now, I wanted to give you an easy walnut brittle recipe that you can make for friends and family as a gift. Brittles are so easy to make, they look rather impressive and taste amazing! This one in particular has all the flavours of Christmas — candied walnuts, brandy soaked cranberries, fresh ginger, cinnamon, orange and sweetness. The chocolate for this walnut brittle is one I am playing with from Elevated Cacao – a former student of mine who’s making beautiful chocolate in Bali. His chocolate is smokey, dark and rich, which I love. It goes perfectly with nuts and dried fruits.
Walnut Cranberry Brittle
Ingredients
Walnut Cranberry Brittle
- 125g (1 cup) walnuts, soaked 1 hour, rinsed and strained
- 5g (1/2 tsp) chia seed powder
- 10g (1 tbsp) coconut flour
- 50g (1/4 cup) maple syrup
- 25g (2 tbsp) coconut sugar, powdered
- 4 drops vanilla medicine flower extract or ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 2 tbsp ginger finely grated on microplane
- 3 drops orange essential oil
- 3 drops cinnamon bark essential oil
- Pinch sea salt
- 40g (1/4 cup) dried cranberries soaked in brandy to cover min 24 hours
For Enrobing
- 300g (10oz) Elevated Cacao’s Pink Salt in temper
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients, except cranberries, in a food processor and break the walnuts down to a rough crumble or granola consistency.
- Sieve the cranberries and quickly pulse them through to combine.
- Transfer the mix to a teflex sheet and spread to ¼-⅓ inch thickness, approx 8 inch x 5 inch.
- Dehydrate for 10 hours on 115f - 130f, flip onto mesh and dry a further 10 hours or until crisp.
- Allow the brittle to cool before enrobing in chocolate.
To finish
- There are a few ways of enrobing the brittle. One is to pour a little chocolate into the bottom of a baking tray that fits the brittle snuggly. Another is to break the brittle into 2 pieces and dip each by hand. I chose the first option. I’ll outline the first option here.
- Firstly, when I spread the walnut mix out, I make sure I do it to the specs of my smallest baking tray which is approx 8.5 inches x 6 inches.
- With the chocolate in temper and the brittle cooled, pour a little chocolate onto the tray and swirl it to cover.
- Place the sheet of brittle on top and gently press. Sometimes the brittle can bow and this will mean the chocolate won’t cover evenly and could lead to air pockets… so just swirl it into the chocolate.
- Pour the remaining chocolate on top and spread with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula so it’s even.
- Pop in the fridge 5-10 mins or until the chocolate is pulling away from the tin.
- Remove from tin, break into pieces and store in an airtight container for several weeks.
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