These chocolate crunch bars need no oven and only five real ingredients. One tablespoon of tahini is the difference between a clean bite and a shattered shard.
They also happen to be a reasonable thing to eat. Walnuts and pumpkin seeds bring omega-3, magnesium and zinc, the dates carry fibre and potassium alongside the sweetness, and very dark chocolate brings flavanols with almost no added sugar. It is still a treat, but it behaves far better than a supermarket chocolate bar of the same size.
A single tablespoon of tahini in 200g of chocolate barely registers as a flavour, and it changes the texture completely. Very high cocoa chocolate sets hard and brittle, which means a bar that shatters rather than breaks and leaves shards all over the bench. The fat in the tahini interrupts that set just enough that you get a clean bite instead. It also adds a faint sesame note underneath the cocoa that people notice without being able to name.
The dates are doing all the sweetening here, and they are doing plenty of it. Pair them with milk chocolate or even 70 per cent and the whole thing tips sickly within two squares. Very dark chocolate is bitter enough to hold its own against that sweetness, which is the balance the recipe is built on. It also means far less added sugar than any comparable slice.
There is no egg, no flour and no baking here. The only thing holding these squares together is how tightly you compacted them in the tin. Use the base of a flat glass rather than your hands, work from the middle outwards, and lean on it. A loosely pressed slab falls apart the moment the knife goes in.
This chocolate crunch bars recipe is one of 50+ in the Pilates Classes Online recipe library, all cooked and written by Melissa herself. A new one lands every week.
The bits I only worked out after making chocolate crunch bars a hundred times.
Everything people ask about chocolate crunch bars. Tap any question to open it.
Two weeks in an airtight container in the fridge. They soften noticeably at room temperature because of the tahini, so keep them cold, especially in summer.
You can, but the dates are already very sweet and it tips sugary fast. If 90 per cent is too bitter for you, 85 is the sensible compromise.
Water got in, or it overheated. Melt it over barely simmering water with a completely dry bowl, or in short microwave bursts with a stir between each.
Yes, and they freeze for three months. Freeze the cut squares in a single layer on a tray first, then bag them, or they fuse into one block.
Almonds, hazelnuts, pecans or macadamias all work in the same quantity. Keep the pumpkin seeds if you can, since they add a crunch the nuts do not.
It softens the set so the squares bite cleanly instead of shattering, and it adds a faint sesame note under the cocoa. One tablespoon is enough.
Four more from the library that go well with chocolate crunch bars.
Or open the full recipe collection, book your next Pilates class, or have a read of the blog.
Part of the Pilates Classes Online recipe library. 50+ recipes, a new one every week.
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