Chocolate Coated Caramel Brazils

These chocolate Brazils may not be quite as healthy as the sugar-free We Should Cocoa challenge I have set for January, but they were jolly delicious and contained only a small amount of sugar. Brazil nuts are high in selenium, a trace element we are short of in British soils. This is a shame as it is reputed to be mood enhancing, immune system boosting and has anti-cancer properties. It's also good for the skin and circulatory systems. The chocolate coating was a dark 72%, so also quite healthy really.

There was plenty of chocolate left over from making the rosemary chocolate truffles last month, so I thought I'd try experimenting with my own version of chocolate Brazils. I envisaged a Brazil nut coated in crunchy praline then enrobed in dark chocolate - now to  see if I could make it happen.

This is what I did:

• Poured 150g caster sugar into a large pan and placed over a low heat.
• When the sugar had liquified and turned a light caramel colour, added 200g of Brazil nuts and stirred to coat.
• Poured onto a wooden board, separating out the Brazils so they didn't stick together and left to set.
• Dipped each one into melted dark chocolate (G&B Cook's 72%) and left to set.

These turned out exactly as I hoped they would and were delicious. I was so tempted to save them all for myself, but I womanfully packaged them up into bags and boxes along with the truffles to be given as Christmas gifts. CT did get a bag of them in his stocking and he generously shared, so I didn't do too badly after all. My Christmas chocolates made a surprising nine boxes of chocolates plus one bag - not a bad total.