Lamingtons & Lemon Tart

Our mouths are watering over Darren Purchese's latest release - Lamingtons & Lemon Tart. Whatever the occasion - bake sale, dinner party or nanna is coming over for afternoon tea - this delicious book will have a treat for every sweet tooth.

CHOCOLATE-COATED  CARAMELISED HAZELNUTS

These are incredibly delicious, crunchy and decadent. I use them in the book to garnish the Chocolate and salted caramel tarts with caramelised hazelnuts (the recipe for this is in the book too!), but they can be used as a garnish for any dessert or tart. They also make a great gift for someone as they can be bagged up nicely with a ribbon.

Makes lots

40 g (1½ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
75 g (2¾ oz) whole shelled hazelnuts
100 g (3½ oz) dark chocolate, melted
Dutch (unsweetened) cocoa powder for dusting

Place the sugar, 25 ml (¾ fl oz) water and the hazelnuts in a saucepan over low heat and start to heat gently. Stir gently but constantly over the heat. The water will boil and begin to evaporate then the nuts will crystallise heavily. Continue to cook and stir past that stage then the nuts will start to gain an even caramel coating. Don’t cook the nuts and sugar too far – a golden colour caramel is perfect.

Using a fork, flick the nuts onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Ensure no two nuts are touching as they will stick together once cold. If the pan loses heat too quickly and the nuts become tricky to extract, simply place the pan back over low heat to warm them through.

Once all the nuts are removed from the pan, allow them to cool. 

Place a couple of nuts at a time into the melted dark chocolate, coat and remove them with a fork making sure you tap away any excess chocolate. Immediately roll the nuts in cocoa powder.

Once the nuts are all coated, remove them from the cocoa powder and store them in a sealed container until ready to use. These nuts will last for up to 3 months in a sealed container. 

VARIATION

Try other whole nuts such as almonds, peanuts and macadamias. You could also spice them up with the addition of a ground spice of your choice at the start of the recipe. I like to use cardamom.