What We Ate Wednesday--German Chocolate Cake Treats

Hello lovelies! Since last week was the anniversary of our first date where I ate all the German Chocolate Cake (No, really. And he still married me) I thought it would be fun to make some German Chocolate cake flavoured treats.

So what so you need for German Chocolate Cake flavour? Pecans. Toasted coconut. Caramel. Chocolate. Those are the hallmarks of a GCC. 

So I splurged on some pecans (they cost over £3 for 200g) and bought some coconut from our zero waste shop The Green Scoop (no packaging!) and used dates for the caramel and cocoa powder for the chocolate that I already had. I threw in oats for a cake flavour and some vanilla and salt. 

There will not be a picture of these luscious treats as no matter how good they taste (and they taste *really* good) they look like something a dung beetle has just rolled up. So here is a photo of some German Chocolate Cake instead. 

This recipe calls for toasted coconut. Which feels like this when you are toasting it:

Me: (Shakes the pan) Hurry up. It's been ages. (Stirs the coconut) Come on...hurry up and toast. (shakes pan again) OH FOR FRITH'S SAKE WILL YOU....oh wait! Nevermind. it's toasted.

German Chocolate Cake Treats

1 cup of pecans

1 cup of toasted unsweetened desiccated coconut (see instructions below)

1/2 cup (GF) oats

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

pinch salt

1 cup soft sticky dates (soaked in hot water if your dates are dry)

a few TB water if it needs it

1. First toast your coconut. 

Toasted Coconut:

Toast in a dry frying pan over medium heat stirring and shaking the pan frequently until the coconut browns. Incidentally, toasted coconut tastes smashing on top of a vanilla cake. It will seem like ages with nothing happening but do not leave it unattended as it goes from white to brown in a matter of moments once it finally gets hot enough. When brown, set aside. If you are not making this right away, decant into another container to cool as it will continue to brown in your hot pan. 

2. Add all your dry ingredients into your food processor and blend until broken down. You can leave it a bit chunky for texture if you like. 

3. Add the dates and vanilla and blend again. Stop and scrape it down and see if it is sticking together enough to roll into balls. If not, add a TB water and blend again until it sticks together.

4. Roll into balls and store in the fridge. Mine made 16 walnut sized GCC balls. 

This was lovely to get all the flavours of GCC but less faff and sugar and fat.