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

Nakd Berry Cheeky

Product name: Nakd Berry Cheeky
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 30g bar or three for £1.20 (tesco.com)
Calories: 100 per bar
Country of origin: Britain

Next up in my reviews of the Nakd range from Natural Balance Foods is this ‘yummy’ Berry Cheeky bar that was made from raw fruit, oats and nuts. As with the Strawberry Crunch and Banana Bread, it contained no wheat or dairy.

The wrapper had the same design as the Banana Bread but used a red theme and pictures of a strawberry and a close-up raspberry. On reading the ingredients, I decided that it had been named ‘Cheeky’ because it was a bit misleading! The only berries in the bar were raspberries and strawberries which each contributed to 2% of the overall vegan product. In contrast, 37% of the product was dates, 26% was oats, 12% was raisins, 9% was peanuts, and even apple juice concentrate took up 8%. Almonds and walnuts also provided another 2% each, and there was some natural flavouring too. I don’t know about you, but that didn’t sound like berries were the main feature to me! On the plus side, I was pleased to see the different varieties of nuts that had been included.

The healthy snack was, again, brown in colour, and this variety looked more bitty and less pre-digested than the others – the nuts, in particular, were very evident through the baste of the bar. It also looked and felt a bit dry. It produced an earthy scent and, although there was an added ‘zing’, I didn’t find it very appetising.

As suggested by the appearance, the Nakd Berry Cheeky had a very different texture from the other types I’ve tried so far. It was soft and dry with a slightly rubbery crumble, but I liked how this was broken up with little chunks of nut, as well as the odd raspberry seed!

My initial thoughts on the taste were not good but, after a couple of chews, I found that the tangy berries really did make an impact on the flavour. Furthermore, the nuts all made a contribution, and I particularly enjoyed how the the almonds combined with the berries. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as keen on the aftertaste, as this left a bit of a muddy taste in my mouth.

As you’ve probably gathered, this wasn’t my favourite Nakd snack, although it was perfectly edible. I wouldn’t buy it again because there are so many other tastier flavours on offer in the range but, if that weren’t the case and I were in need of a healthy treat, I wouldn’t need much convincing to have another one of these!

Appearance: 6/10
Aroma: 4.5/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 5.88/10

Nakd Strawberry Crunch

Product name: Nakd Strawberry Crunch
Purchase details: £0.75 for a 30g bar or three for two (tesco.com)
Calories: 109 per bar
Country of origin: Britain

Although I eat fruit as daytime snacks, you may have noticed that, whilst I still count calories in the evening, I don’t tend to go for treats that are healthy in themselves. However, I’ve been intrigued by the Nakd range of bars from Natural Balance Foods, containing natural ingredients that had simply been ‘smooshed together’.

This new Strawberry Crunch bar came in an attractive pink wrapper that featured strawberries and various claims. Containing raw fruit, crunchies and nuts, it was also ‘packed’ with 18% protein which did make me a little concerned after my last experience with a purposefully protein-heavy product – Lenny & Larry's Muscle Brownie: Peanut butter. However, the difference here was that the Nakd bar wasn’t trying to be anything except a ‘simply yummy’ but healthy treat. It was free from gluten, wheat and dairy, contained ‘no added sugar’, and was vegan. Overall, it encouraged you to ‘love your body’, and wanted people to look and feel better by helping them to eat nourishing foods. Let’s just pretend I didn’t eat this after a chippy meal...

I wouldn’t normally list all the items on an ingredients list but I was impressed by just how ‘real’ this ‘filling’ product was. It contained 43% dates (I don’t generally like these but I know they’re in sticky toffee puddings which I love!), 17% soya crunchies (made from soya, tapioca, starch and salt), 17% cashews and 17% raisins (one of my favourite fruits!). Surprisingly, only 2% of the product was strawberries, and it also contained 2% apple juice concentrate, along with a ‘hint of natural flavouring’.

The ‘satisfying slice of simple goodness’ was a compressed brown bar with white flecks which I can’t say screamed ‘eat me!’. However, it could have been mistaken for containing cocoa, and it was a refreshing change to have a product that contained no colourings (natural or otherwise). In terms of aroma, I could just about sense raisins mixed in with a slight strawberry tang – I couldn’t wait to tuck in!

To the touch, the bar felt slightly sticky but, bearing in mind the amount of squashed fruit, this wasn’t bad at all. In the mouth, it was soft with a noticeable crisp, and had a rough and slightly bitty texture.

As for the taste, I was surprised at how many of the individual flavours came through. After first tasting the subtly sweet berry flavour, an earthy nuttiness then came through, followed by an almost muddy sweetness on the back of the tongue that was provided by the raisins. It really was nice and didn’t taste too dissimilar from Go Ahead! Fruit Bakes.

I have to say this bar has left me feeling really impressed with the Nakd brand. The product itself was great and I loved the little extra touches on the packaging like introducing the ingredients list in other languages by saying ‘Hello, world’ and ‘Hope we spelt everything right...’. I can’t wait to try the other varieties I bought! 

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