Coffee Thyme Meltaways have a lovely melt in the mouth feel and a beautiful complexity of flavours. The addition of thyme rounds out the taste on the palate by bringing in a savoury element, but you could omit this or swap it for another hearty herb, like rosemary or sage. Because herbs are so strong in flavour, we don't want to over power the chocolate with it. So, start small, as it just takes a little bit to make a big difference in the recipe. This base caramel recipe is one of my most favourites as it's super easy to make and really versatile as a base recipe. You can sub out macadamia nut butter for any nut butter you want to use. For example, I used Peanut Butter in these Snicker Bites. I've used macadamia in this recipe because I wanted a 'milky' colour in the finish of the caramel. If you want to know how to make chocolate at home, click here and learn how to make and temper dark chocolate at home.
Ingredients
Coffee Thyme Caramel
40gcoconut oil, melted
55gcacao butter, melted
80gmacadamia butter
50gxylitol, powdered
50gcoconut sugar, powdered
2dropsthyme essential oil
1tbsplemon juice
½tbsplemon zeston a microplane
40g-55gwarm water or milk of choice
2tbspcoffeeroughly ground
Honey Ganache
50gcacao paste
20gcoconut oil
40gmaple or honey
1tsptamari
Instructions
Coffee Thyme Caramel
In high speed blender combine all ingredients, except milk and coffee, and blend on low speed just to combine.
With the blender running on low/medium, drizzle in the water until you achieve a silky smooth caramel.
Add the coffee and pulse just to incorporate.
Pour the mix into a cling film lined 500ml container that’s deep enough to give you the size pieces you’d like, put in the freezer while you make the ganache layer.
Honey Ganache
Melt the cacao paste and coconut oil over a double boiler.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the remaining ingredients.
Allow the ganache to cool to room temp before pouring on top of the semi firm caramel layer. The caramel needs to be semi set before adding the ganache so the two don’t mix.
Allow to set in the fridge for 2-4 hours or until firm.
Once set, cut into the desired shapes and finish by enrobing in chocolate.