Here is a really simple, slightly healthier take on a recipe for chocolate rice crispy cakes!

You can get puffed rice without additives from world food shops – Abu Bakar sells plain puffed rice – and health food shops sell lots of different puffed grains as well as rice, so you can experiment with different types. You can also buy them on Amazon. A really good brand for puffed rice (and lots of other great stuff) is Rude Health. You could just use the traditional rice crispy cereal though and they will still be a bit better for you than your normal rice crispy cakes, as dark chocolate and honey are full of antioxidants and much more nutritionally dense than your traditional rice crispy cake ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 200g 70% (or higher) dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp honey (set honey will make them a bit more solid if you have it, but runny honey is fine)
• 200g puffed rice

 

Method

Melt the chocolate and honey together in a big glass or china bowl, resting on a pan filled with an inch or so of boiling water. It’s best to do it this way instead of in a pan because the chocolate melts more slowly and won’t burn.  You could melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave, just make sure you heat it in short bursts and take it out before it’s all fully melted, and stir together to melt fully.

Mix the puffed rice with the melted chocolate and honey.

Use two spoons to make the mix into balls to fit into the fairy cake cases. Work quickly before it solidifies! If it starts to solidify and becomes hard to mould just put it over the hot water again or in the microwave for a couple of seconds to soften the chocolate.

You could now decorate them if you want to, with:

• Desiccated coconut
• Cocoa nibs
• Dark chocolate drops
• Dried fruit
• Chopped nuts
• Some shop-bought mini chocolate eggs… (It is Easter after all!)

Put them in the fridge on a tray to harden completely, and eat them along with all the other chocolate at Easter!

 

Patsy O’Neill 

Image courtesy of www.kerrycooks.com.