Recipe: Nuts about nutty tray bake

Recipe: Nuts about nutty tray bake
Source: Delicious.

We’ve just celebrated another family occasion which called for me to get my bake on! This time, it was my Mum’s birthday, and she asked if I could make something that contained two of her favourite ingredients: dark chocolate and nuts.

There were lots of different tarts I could have made as a proper dessert but, since we were already having a BBQ and there’d be birthday cake, I decided to do something simpler and less rich as I anticipated people being too full to actually eat the fruits of my labour! As a result, I went for this Nuts about nutty tray bake from the Delicious. magazine website.

I followed the recipe exactly and used the same combination of nuts. To make up my 300g, I used 75g of each type – this didn’t make the recipe particularly cheap to make but at least I felt confident that the mix of flavours would work well together. Not all of the nuts were whole (I had walnut pieces and macadamia halves) but this wasn’t an issue. I was more bothered by the blisters I got on my thumbs from spending ages shelling pistachios! When it came to toasting the nuts, I did each type separately in order to keep a better eye on them, and found that this worked well. The macadamias, for example, were ready very quickly, although the pan was already very hot by this point. 

I’d realised well in advance that I didn’t have a baking tin that would be deep enough for the recipe but, instead of buying a new one specially, I decided to improvise with an ovenproof dish and just allow for longer cooking times.

When it came to making the base, I stupidly hadn’t twigged that I was effectively making a chocolate shortbread, so I wasn’t really sure what I was aiming for in terms of appearance or consistency. I’d spread the mixture in the dish with the back of a metal spoon, to make it nice and smooth, but I was a bit unclear after that point! Having been in the oven for 20 minutes, it felt quite soft and a little grainy and, although I assumed it would harden, I sensed that it wasn’t yet done. In the end, I baked the base for 26 minutes and, thankfully, it did firm up before I added the nutty topping.

My other concern with the base was that I wasn’t sure if I’d actually mixed it enough as it didn’t seem to look as chocolatey as the picture on the website. However, I couldn’t do much more with it, and I was pleased that it turned out ok in the end.

When it came to the topping, I had a sneaky taste of the syrupy mixture and found it tasted like a rich, almost salted, caramel. After mixing the nuts in, and topping the biscuit base, I gave the dish another additional six minutes in the oven, baking it for 16 minutes in total.

The smell that came off this Nuts about nutty tray bake was amazing – it was nutty, caramelly and buttery and reminded me of pecan pie which is a favourite of mine. Looking at it, though, I couldn’t see how it would ever serve 24. I managed to make 12–16 slices out of it easily but, when I tried to cut it smaller, bits ended up falling off so I decided not to risk going any further (even though I did get to eat the broken bits!).

I also found it was important to wait until the bake was completely cool before cutting it. I initially tried it when it was still slightly warm but this did cause a bit of breakage – I had no problems at all once it was cold. Having said that, if you weren’t bothered about appearance and wanted to try this with ice cream, it did taste delicious warm. It had a deep, sugary flavour and the nuts tasted nice too. Most importantly for me, my Mum loved it!

I knew from the quantities in the ingredients that this wouldn’t be a particularly chocolatey recipe, and that turned out to be the case. However, that did mean that it wasn’t too rich either. Several years ago I had a delicious bag of sugar-toasted cashew nuts from a food market and, to my delight, I found that the overall flavours on offer here were like that on a grander scale. The combination of nuts tasted great together and the buttery flavour was also evident. It was the caramelisation I particularly loved, though, with the experience reminding me of a particularly strong popcorn flavouring – I could quite happily munch on the topping alone in a cinema!

I was also really pleased with the texture. I hadn’t quite known what to expect so I was glad to find that the topping wasn’t chewy or like brittle. Instead, the caramel was soft, whilst the nuts were hard and crunchy and the base was crumbly – the only downside being that this combination was a bit messy to eat as the nuts shifted as you took a bite. The shortbread almost melted in the mouth and, when combined with the caramel and chocolate flavours, it reminded me a bit of millionaire’s shortbread. And if that comparison wasn’t enough, I also sensed similarities with another favourite in our family: fudge tart (although I very much doubt you good people are blessed enough to ever have experienced the wonders of that bake!).

As I suspected, not everyone had enough room to try this tasty treat as they were all too full from the birthday cake my sister had made (the Chocolate salted caramel marble cake, as it happens!). However, those who did really liked it, and I was very pleased with the delicious results from what was an incredibly simple recipe. You obviously do need to be a fan of nuts to like this but, if that’s you, you can’t go far wrong.

Ease of recipe: 10/10
Finished product: 9.5/10
Overall score: 9.75/10
Bake again? Yes

Clif Bar: White chocolate macadamia nut

Product name: Clif Bar: White chocolate macadamia nut
Purchase details: £1.28 for a 68g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 263 per bar
Country of origin: USA

As a huge fan of Subway White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies, I’ve had my eye on this variety of Clif Bar for a while. However, I did wait for it to be reduced before I took the plunge since I was a bit nervous about the fact it was an energy bar, following my not-so-great experience with the peanut butter Lenny & Larry's Muscle Brownie – proof that my favourite ingredients don’t always taste amazing!

The Clif brand was named after the founder and owner’s Dad, Clifford, who was his ‘childhood hero and companion through the Sierra Nevada mountains’ – this description didn’t half make me feel bad for munching on my bar as I sat on my bum in front of the telly! Anyway, it was clearly designed with active people and adventurers in mind, which is why the wrapper featured an illustration of a man climbing on a cliff. Despite the wrapper’s beige background colour, the blue from the sky and red from the logo really prevented the product looking boring.

On reading the description of the ‘oat, macadamia nuts and white chocolate flavour energy bar’, I realised the word ‘flavour’ didn’t sound great. The ingredients did list 16% rolled oats and 5.2% macadamia nuts, but the ‘white chocolate’ came in the form of ‘soy cocoa butter chips’ (6%). In fact, I’d never seen so many soy-containing ingredients listed on one product, but I was pleased to see lots of vitamins and minerals in there too.

The rectangular bar was quite a dark syrupy colour and looked like a knobbly flapjack with a white chocolate drizzle and visible macadamia nuts. The aroma was a bit unusual – it was like a waxy, floral vanilla scent which didn’t seem to match the bar that was sat in front of me.

As for the flavour, I wasn’t convinced at first. It almost tasted of alcohol which, as I’ve mentioned before, is not something I like. However, I found the flavour improved as I went on. The nuts tasted good but, overall, the bar was a bit bland and I couldn’t pick up on the white chocolate element at all. It certainly wasn’t a match for the Subway cookie, although I did like how it was sweet without being sugary.

Texturally, the Clif Bar was like a really dense and substantial cereal bar. It was chewy and crispy which made me think of cornflakes, at first, but then I realised that it contained rice crisps instead. I was also pleased that, despite being bitty and grainy by nature, it wasn’t dry.

On the whole, I’d say the Clif Bar: White chocolate macadamia nut was great in terms of what it was designed for – a filling boost that didn’t taste too shabby. As a ‘treat’, though, this didn’t quite work – the flavours on offer didn’t live up to my expectations and, for the calories, it just wasn’t worth it. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 6.75/10

Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star

Product name: Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star
Purchase details: £1.40 for an 80g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 112 per 20g serving (448 per bar)

Country of origin: UK

I’m a big fan of Tesco’s Chokablok range so I was excited when I spotted this new Utter nutter rock star variety.

Made by House of Dorchester, this slab was made up of milk chocolate (containing a minimum of 30% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids) that had been swirled with dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids minimum). It came in the usual simple and transparent packaging, which allowed the glory of the bar to be displayed, and the cardboard was a burnt orange colour to represent this particular variety.

 

The bar was Chokablok (see what I did there?!) of ‘caramelised hazelnuts and macadamia nuts’. Since my only previous experience of macadamia nuts had been with the Subway White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie, I couldn’t wait to tuck into this product. These nuts contributed to 6% of the bar and were chopped up, whilst the hazelnuts accounted for 8% and remained whole, having the appearance of a slightly less bumpy popcorn. To finish off the attractive appearance, the bar was topped with different-sized milk chocolate stars, as well as edible glitter.

I’d never turned over a bar of Chokablok before, due to the topping becoming dislodged, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was more attention to detail on the base. There were divisions marked for easy breakage (not that I used them!), the product name was imprinted across the chocolate, and I loved that the nuts were visible all the way through.

The Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star gave off a proper chocolate smell that was of a good quality with a slightly woody nut element. The hazelnuts themselves tasted exactly as you’d expect but, on their own, they weren’t particularly caramelised. In contrast, the macadamia nuts were lovely and sugary, providing a hard and crispy texture that contrasted well with the soft crunch of the hazelnuts.

The slab itself had a smooth and quite milky chocolate flavour which had a slightly bitter aftertaste from the dark chocolate. Despite being thin, the stars added to the very chocolatey experience, and the overall texture from the chocolates was chunky yet soft. The slab also melted well, and the Chokablok logo provided an interesting and bumpy texture, but the nuts obviously prevented a comfortable melt in all sections of the bar.

As hoped, this was a very enjoyable product, and I loved how creamy the chocolate was. However, the highlight for me was the caramelised macadamia nuts, since these provided a fantastic sugary flavour and crunch that reminded me slightly of the Ritter Sport Gebrannte Mandel bar. 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.5/10

Subway White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie

Product name: Subway White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie
Purchase details: £0.50 for a 48g cookie (Subway)
Calories: 218 per cookie 

I love Subway’s cookies so I wasn’t going to turn down a free one in return for providing some online feedback after my last lunch visit. I decided to get my favourite variety for the purpose of this review: White Chip Macadamia Nut. I’ve loved this version for years but, to be honest, all of their cookies are good, with their soft centres and not-too-crispy edges. 

Whilst it’s well-known that Subway sandwiches are made fresh in-store, I’ve never actually noticed where their baked goods come from. However, I assume that, even if they are brought in from elsewhere, they are still made in the UK. Although they are simply sold in a generic paper bag, thankfully, the nutritional information can be found on their website.

This slightly sweet-smelling cookie was fairly large with a bumpy top and smooth, flat base. Its centre was quite greasy in appearance (and to the touch) but this was a feature I love since it made for a doughy texture – the cookie could be torn apart rather than snapped because it was so soft! The macadamia nuts and white chocolate were scattered through the cookie in large chunks with the chocolate being a little smaller and less rounded than the nuts. 

Due to the fantastic texture, I always nibble the edges of Subway cookies and leave the middle until last. As expected, this cookie’s edges were slightly crispy but gave way easily when bitten into. The white chocolate taste was also noticeable from the first bite despite, by nature, not being the strongest flavour in the world.  

The cookie’s middle was deliciously soft and moist, with the sweet dough blending beautifully with the great chocolate flavour provided from the white chocolate chips. I can’t say I’ve ever eaten a macadamia nut that wasn’t in a Subway cookie but my impression of them is they’re quite bland when competing with other elements. However, they did provide a slightly nutty flavour here which wasn’t dissimilar from Brazil nuts, and they also delivered a great crunchy texture which went fabulously with the doughy cookie and chunky chocolate. 

What a treat! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 9.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10