Ingredients (makes 30 slices)

• 150g Almonds
• 40g Shredded Coconut
• 6 large (or 9 small) dates with seeds removed
• 65g Coconut Oil
• 14 large (or 19 small) dates with seeds removed
• 100g Cashew or Almond Butter (or try Mayvers Original Super Spread)
• 2 tbs Golden Syrup
• 2 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt (or Pink Himalayan Salt)
• 50g Raw Cacao Powder
• 75g Coconut Oil
• 200g Rice Malt Syrup

Method

1. Grease and line a biscuit tray with baking paper (I use a tray that is about 40cm x 25cm).
2. To make the base of the slice, place ingredients 1 - 4 (almonds, coconut, dates and coconut oil) in a good quality food processor. Blitz for 1 - 3 minutes until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. You may need to stop a couple of times and move the mixture around with a spatula.
3. Empty the complete mixture into the baking tray and then press evenly until the full base of the tray is covered. Place into the fridge to set.
4. For the 'caramel' layer, add ingredients 5 - 9 (dates, cashew butter, golden syrup, vanilla and salt) into your food processor and blitz for 1 - 3 minutes until the mixture looks a lot like a smooth caramel. It won't look exactly like normal caramel but blitz as much as you can to make this smooth.
5. Pour mixture onto the chilled base (which should be a little hard by now from the fridge) and spread evenly. If the caramel filling is hard to move around, dip your spatula or metal spoon into hot water every now which makes it much easier to spread. Place the tray back into the fridge to set.
6. For the 'chocolate' layer on top, you can make this two ways: If you have a Thermomix, place ingredients 10 - 13 (cacao powder, coconut oil and rice malt syrup) into the bowl and cook for 5 minutes on 70 - 80 degrees celcius at a speed of 3 or 4. If not, place all ingredients into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with simmering water and stir for 2 - 3 minutes until the mixture looks like molten dark chocolate and all lumps are gone.
7. Pour the chocolate topping over the top of the caramel layer - using your wet spoon or spatula to spread if necessary.
8. You can sprinkle some salt flakes over the top of the chocolate while it is still wet if you like the idea of a Raw Salted Caramel Slice.
9. Place the slice into the fridge or freezer for at least 2 hours. This slice is very rich and very intense so make the slices quite small - I like to go for about 4cm x 3cm.

Notes

I like to keep a container full of Raw Caramel Slice pieces in the freezer. Anytime someone wants a little sweet treat, these are our go to. Mind you, there is a limit of 1 or 2 per person per day! Sadly these are no good for school lunches (because of the nuts) but they are brilliant for after school, after dinner, with a cuppa and on the weekends. Everyone in the MoM office love this recipe too!