Double-nut chocolate

Double-nut chocolate isn't really much of a recipe. It's more of an improvement on store-bought chocolate. I really like chocolate bars with nuts but the ratio of nuts to chocolate is often dissapointing. So one day I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own chocolate with nuts. 

I usually make it when I have a surplus of chocolate or nuts. I know it sounds impossible to have too much chocolate, but I do buy and stock a lot of it in my cupboards. So when I feel like having some good almond chocolate I just make it myself. The preparation is really simple and can take as little as 10 minutes. 

Ingredients:

200g/7oz plain chocolate broken into pieces

400g/about 14oz nuts

It helps if you have nuts that are already blanched (have their skins removed). It's easy to blanch them, especially almonds, at home. Just put them in a bowl, cover with boiling water, leave for 2-3 minutes, and then drain. Leave for a couple of minutes to cool and then press each almond on one end and they should easily slip out of the skin. 

Melt chocolate in water bath. To do this take a small pot and fill it with about 1cm/less than half an inch of water. Put it on the stove and start heating up. Set a metal or a glass bowl over the pot so that it will be heated by steam. Put chocolate in the bowl. Give it a stir every once in a while.

At the same time you can toast the nuts. Place them on a dry frying pan and put on the stove. Keep stirring until they start getting brown spots on them. Transfer nuts to the now melted chocolate and mix well until all the nuts are coated.

Transfer to a small baking tray lined with baking parchment. Press down to achieve single layer of nuts. Put the tray in the fridge to cool and harden.

Once the chocolate is hard break it into pieces. Store it in the fridge since it melts quickly.

I prefer using almonds but you can really use any nuts you want and have on hand. You can also mix a variety of nuts or even add dried fruit of your choice.

I use a 2:1 ratio (2 servings of nuts to 1 of chocolote) but you can change it if you feel you want more chocolate (e. g. 150g nuts and 100g chocolate). You don't have to stick to the amount of ingredients given here, they are more of a suggestion. Just keep the right proportions.