Happy new year! I hope you had a fabulous Christmas holiday and are feeling refreshed and ready to take on 2016.

At the start of each new year I like to review the most popular recipes on Swoon Food to get an idea of what you guys are loving te most.

I was pretty surprised to see the most popular recipe to date is my Almond, Pistachio & Cranberry Chocolate Fudge, which was also the very first recipe I ever posted.

Following closely behind is Crunchy Maple Banana Granola, Raw Chocolate Avocado Mousse, and fourth place is one of my personal favourites Banana & Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes.

Once again breakfasts and sweet treats seem to be where it’s at, which is lucky because I just happened to be working on a raw chocolate “fudge” before Christmas, but somehow it got lost amongst all the Christmas Spice Cookies and Festive Granola.

The best way to describe this raw white chocolate fudge is like the inside of a Lindt Lindor ball.

It’s smooth and creamy with a melt in your mouth quality that combines beautifully with the crunch of the almonds and tartness of the raspberries.

In truth, it’s really more of a chocolate than a fudge so I ended up adjusting the name to reflect that.

This recipe differs from the winning chocolate fudge above in that it’s completely raw (if you don’t toast the almonds) and contains no refined sugar. It’s also a little more tricky to make as it involves some beating and setting, but the effort is worth it I promise!

I hope you love this raw white chocolate and if you post any of your creations to social media I would love to see them, tag @swoon.food #swoonfood.

Enjoy x

Raw White Chocolate with Almonds and Raspberries

125g cacao butter
125g coconut oil
125g pure maple syrup
125g cashew butter
1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt
250g raw almonds
15g freeze dried raspberries

If you prefer your chocolate to be completely raw, simply chop the raw almonds into pieces. Alternatively, to toast the almonds preheat an oven to 160ºC fan bake and place the almonds on a baking tray in the centre of the oven. Toast until their centres turn a light brown colour, approximately 10 minutes. Allow to cool and then roughly chop into pieces.

Line a small slice tin e.g. 20cm x 20cm or 18 x 30cm with baking paper.

Place the cacao butter and coconut oil in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of steaming water with the heat turned off. This ensures the ingredients won’t go above 42ºC and will remain in their raw state.

When they are completely melted add the maple syrup and whisk to combine. Add the cashew butter and salt and whisk to combine. At this point the mixture will be a warm, caramel coloured, thin liquid. To speed up the setting process place the entire bowl in the freezer and check every 5 minutes. When it starts to set around the edges remove from the freezer and use an electric hand whisk to beat it. The mixture should start to thicken after a few minutes and turn a pale cream colour. If not, return to the freezer for another 5 minutes.

When the mixture has turned into a thick pale cream, fold in the chopped almonds. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and spread out evenly. Crush the freeze dried raspberries a little in your hand and sprinkle evenly over the top, pressing them in where needed. Place the chocolate in the fridge to continue to set.

When the chocolate is set, remove from the fridge, place on a chopping board and cut into slices. Store the chocolate in a sealed container in the fridge where it will last a couple of weeks.

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