Recipe - Posh Chocolate & Strawberry Toastie
Because sometimes when you're on your own, it's good to tart things up...
This is a recipe for a very decadent, posh chocolate toastie, from Episode 1 of the 'How to eat Alone' podcast with chef, Katie Holton. You can listen to the episode here. I imagine this would be eaten as an afternoon snack during those times when you really need a pick-me-up. Or, you know, as a really naughty dinner. I would just like to say that I will be in no way offended if you just decide to use nutella or some other such chocolate spread instead of MAKING YOUR OWN CHOCOLATE SPREAD. Honestly, when you’re cooking on your own, sometimes you just need to make it easy for yourself. Although, conversely, other times it’s good to tart things up a bit.
Time: 20 minutes (if you are using unroasted nuts, add 15 minutes… top tip, don’t use unroasted nuts)
Faff Level: 6/10
Plant Based Diet: This recipe is suitable for vegans
Makes: I've given you the recipe for one chocolate toastie, but technically this also makes four portions of chocolate spread. Please don't be mad at me, I know it doesn't strictly fit the brief, but on the plus side you can have three more meals or snacks involving chocolate spread. Store the extra spread that you don’t manage to eat in the fridge in a sterilised jar, it’ll keep for about a month. Or, I dunno, just eat it all in one go with a spoon by yourself.
Ingredients:
2 slices of sourdough bread, sliced quite thin. If they're too thick, they will be a nightmare to fry and eat. If you do one thing, please make sure to use sourdough. I will have a rant about why another time, but for now just know that the sourness of the dough and the crunchiness of the crust work really well with chocolate.
170 g pre-roasted nuts. I've used hazelnuts, but you can use whatever you have at home, from pistachios to almonds, they all work well and it's fun to experiment. If they aren't already roasted, please roast in a pre heated oven at 180oC for about 10 minutes then let them cool before you cook with them.
100 g dark chocolate
A pinch of flakey salt. Make sure it's flakey.
A handful of chopped strawberries or some other kind of soft, sweet fruit (like bananas, kiwis or plums).
Directions:
1. Break up the chocolate and melt in a bain marie.
2. Blitz the melted chocolate and nuts in a blender to form a smooth(ish) paste. Don't worry about totally decimating all of the nuts, as it’s actually quite nice to keep a bit of crunch. Season with salt.
3. Butter the outside of each slice of bread with plant based butter. The buttered sides are the ‘outside’ of your toastie.
4. Smother the unbuttered sides with A LOT of chocolate paste. On one side, lay the chopped fruit over the chocolate and close the sandwich up.
5. Fry the sandwich in a pan, at first on a high heat until it begins to sizzle, making sure to keep turning the toastie over (use tongs). Once the toastie starts to sizzle, turn the heat right down and opt for a low and slow approach. Toast to your preference, I personally like to see three different colours on my toastie - black, dark brown and golden brown.
6. Take off the heat, slice in two and eat when it is still piping hot! Applaud yourself, you are wonderful.