Peanut Lime “Bacon” Bonbons

From what I can recall, Heston Blumenthal was the man to bring us the concept of mixing bacon with sweet stuff. His bacon ice cream was a big hit and landed itself in a lot of media back in the day.. like 7 years ago. I take great inspiration from chefs like Heston — people who push the boundaries and go against societal norms. Since then, the bacon trend really took off with the introduction of the Paleo diet a few years back. Bacon as a food item has grown so much in popularity again. Anyway, we ain’t makin’ no bacon here. I’m just sayin’ stuff.

These coconut “bacon” clusters are a HUGE winner in my Raw Baking Class. We make them in that class and then people sprinkle them on their salad and make lovely little ‘bacon” sandwiches with them ( and the awesome sauce bread we make ). We’ve made them into delightful little clusters by just mixing them through chocolate, but I wanted to next level this shizzzzzz.

The thing about what Heston was onto was the science of flavour pairing. Dude undertook scientific testing to prove that certain foods factually pair together. What a dude. Love that guy.

Peanut and Lime ? Yes. 

Peanut and “Bacon” ? Yes.  

Peanut, Lime and “Bacon”? Yes.

Peanut, Lime, “Bacon” and Dark Chocolate? You tell me the answer….

YES!! Yes is the answer. 

Candied Coconut “Bacon”
Make these first as they take 10-15 hours to dry

200g (5 cups) coconut flakes/chips – soaked 1 hour and sieved
50g ( ½ cup ) coconut sugar
45g ( ¼ cup ) apple cider vinegar
15g ( 1 tbsp ) tamari/
30g (2 tbsp ) coconut flour

Method

• Make sure you sieve the coconut very well so there’s no excess water remaining— this will just dilute the flavour.
• In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients.
• Transfer to a Teflex-lined dehydrator tray. Don’t spread the mixture out too much, you want it to “cluster up” when it’s done drying.
• Dry at your desired temp for 8-12 hours. Once the sugars have dried and crystallised, flip the clusters onto a mesh tray and finish drying until they are completely dry and crisp.

Peanut Lime Filling
80g ( ¼ cup ) peanut butter
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
30g ( 2 tbsp ) coconut sugar, powdered
30g ( 2 tbsp ) cacao butter, melted
1 tsp tamari
½ tbsp lime juice
4 drops lime essential oil
Pinch sea salt

50g ( ½ cup ) rough ground peanuts ( optional )

Method

• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl except the peanuts.
• Set in the fridge for 10 minutes.
• Roll the praline into small, bite-sized balls, and then roll in the ground peanuts. This add another layer of texture to the finished praline, but is optional.
• Pop in the fridge to set while you prepare the chocolate.

To finish
200g ( 7 oz ) of your favourite chocolate, melted ( or click here and learn to make your own )
100g ( 1 cup ) coconut “bacon”, processed into a rough crumb

Method

• Over a double boiler gently melt down the chocolate.
• Transfer to a shallow bowl.
• Grab the pralines out of the fridge and, one at a time, drop them into your melted chocolate, fish it out with a fork and tap the fork against the side of the bowl to release any excess chocolate.
• Drop the chocolate into your bowl of coconut “bacon” and roll the ball around to coat.
• Place the finished chocolate on a greaseproof paper lined baking tray.
• Repeat until all pralines are dipped in chocolate and coated in coconut “bacon”.
• Pop back in the fridge to set, about 10 minutes, and then dive in.
• Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 8 days.
• If you’d like to watch a video on how to chop up and melt down chocolate for enrobing, check out this handy video.