Tahini and Date Caramel Bars

Method

These smooth snacking bars pair our tahini paste with a rich purée of whole dates, cooked down into a soft, flowing salted caramel and sealed in creamy milk chocolate for a sticky-toffee centre with a real halva edge.

Ingredients

Date purée

Make this first; it is better a day ahead.

• 96g Whole Dates, pitted (SCN302A), roughly chopped
• 72g Boiling water

Caramel

• 120g Caster sugar
• 56g Confectionery Glucose Syrup DE60 (SCA120)
• 40ml Water
• 164g KerryMaid Whipping Cream Alternative
• 144g Date purée (from above)
• 64g Tahini Paste (SCM198), stirred well before weighing
• 32g Unsalted butter
• 3.2g Fine sea salt

To Mould

• 140g Callebaut Milk Chocolate 823 (SCC1521), tempered — worked from a bath of about 500g and use the leftover for the next batch.
• Equipment: Bar Buche Smooth chocolate mould (SMP3005) x2

Method

1. Roughly chop the dates, cover with the boiling water and leave 20 minutes until completely soft.
2. Blend to a smooth purée, then pass through a fine chinois or drum sieve. This yields about 168g; weigh out 144g for the caramel. Sieve it properly — date skins leave a fibrous grit that blocks a piping nozzle and shows in the finished bar.
3. Temper the milk chocolate. 
4. Fill the cavities, tap out the air bubbles, turn the mould over and tap out the excess, scrape the face clean and leave the shells to set.
5. Warm the cream and date purée together to about 60°C and keep them to hand. Weigh out the tahini, butter and salt.
6. Cook the sugar, glucose and water to a light amber caramel at 160 to 165°C. Take it a shade lighter than you would for a plain caramel; the dates deepen both the colour and the bitterness on their own.
7. Off the heat, deglaze with the warm cream and date purée, adding it in three or four goes and stirring between each. It spits hard, so use a tall pan and go slowly.
8. Stir in the tahini and the salt, return to a medium heat and cook to 107°C, scraping the base of the pan constantly with a spatula. Date solids scorch far more readily than a plain cream caramel, so use your heaviest pan and keep the spatula moving.
9. Off the heat, let it drop to about 70°C, add the butter and blend with a stick blender until completely smooth and glossy.
10. Cool the caramel to about 27°C, then pipe 30g into each set shell, leaving a 2mm gap for closing. Any warmer and it will soften the shells.
11. Chill briefly, just until the surface has skinned and the caramel has stopped moving. Retemper the remaining milk chocolate and close the bars, scraping the backs flat.
12. Leave to set fully at 16 to 18°C, then turn out.