Choc Hazelnut Crumble Slice

A nutty chocolate filling, sandwiched between two oat-y biscuit layers, makes for a lovely homemade morning or afternoon tea slice. It's quite the treat!

 Squares of scrumptious slice.

The recipe is just a chocolate-y version of our favourite Lovely Lemon Slice.  Rather than a luscious lemon curd filling, I spread a generous layer of a choc-hazelnut spread. This is how I made it:

Choc Hazelnut Crumble Slice

(Not suitable for those with nut allergy.)

Base & Topping

1 1/4 cups white spelt flour (or plain flour)

1 1/4 cups rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

1/3 cup dessicated coconut

170g butter, melted

Filling

1/2 cup of chocolate-y hazelnut spread   (I used Pure Harvest's Coco 2 Hazelnut Spread.)

1.  Preheat oven to 180C.

2.  Line a 20cm x 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.

3.  Combine dry ingredients for the base/topping in a large bowl.

4.  Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter.

5.  Mix thoroughly.

6.  Spoon half of this oaty mixture into the cake tin and press down gently with fingertips to cover the bottom of        the tin evenly and form the biscuit base of the slice.  Set remaining mixture aside.

7.  Bake base for 10-15minutes until lightly golden.  Cool.

8. Spread choc-hazelnut spread evenly over base of the slice.

9.  Crumble the rest of the oaty mixture over the top of the filling and press this topping down very gently with

      your hands. 

10. Bake in oven for 20-25mins until topping is lightly golden. Remove and cool in the tin.

11. Cover and refrigerate overnight before removing from the tin and cutting into small squares. 

     Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.

A homemade treat.

The next time I make this scrumptious slice, I want to use a homemade choc-hazelnut spread.  You could use Nutella but, according to this review of its ingredients, more than half of that product is sugar and only 13% hazelnut.  While the Pure Harvest spread I used contained no cane sugar, and was far less sweet as it's primary ingredient is rice malt syrup, it only contains 10% hazelnut.  By making my own, I will be able to make a simple spread like this one, from the Living Healthy with Chocolate website, which is made from a base of hazelnut butter blended from ... just hazelnuts!

In a nutshell, that is for me one very big benefit of homemade versus shop bought. You know exactly what is in whatever you have cooked or made. You can experiment too with alternative ingredients and by adjusting quantities for ingredients like sugars and syrups, oils and fats, to arrive at healthier versions.

Meg

p.s. I am not affiliated in any way with Pure Harvest, the makers of the choc-hazelnut spread I used.  I just had a jar of it in the cupboard to use up.