Healthier Ferrero Rocher
[Vegan, Gluten-Free]

To Roast the Hazelnuts:

1. Begin by preheating your oven to 275°F, roast all of the hazelnuts on a baking tray for 15 minutes or until golden and aromatic. After they have cooled a bit rub them gently between a clean dish cloth to easily remove the skins.

To Make the Raw Dough:

1.  Next blend up 1/2 cup of the roasted hazelnuts until they are a rough flour consistency.
2. Add to the blender 16 dates, a pinch of sea salt, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, and 1/4 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Blend this until everything comes together in a raw “dough” ball.
3. Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper, then once it is about 1/2-inch thick use a small/medium sized cookie cutter to cut circles out of the dough (you can re-roll the excess parts until you have 8-9 equal sized circles). In the center of each circle place one roasted hazelnut.

To Make the Ganache:

1. Warm up 1/4 cup of coconut cream in the microwave until hot to the touch (about 30 seconds to 1 minute). Add to this 1 cup of chocolate chips and stir until completely melted. Set this in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes or until it has firmed up into a creamy ganache.
2. Place a dollop (about 1 teaspoon) of the chocolate ganache onto the roasted hazelnuts that you previously put into each of the eight raw dough circles. You won’t use all of the ganache for this recipe, but we found it hard to make a smaller batch that turned out properly. Store the excess in the refrigerator and use for chocolate truffles or as a topping to a vegan cheesecake.
3. Fold the edges of each circle together, encompassing the hazelnut and ganache into the dough ball, roll between your hands until the edges stay together (this doesn’t have to be perfectly round, it will be covered in hazelnuts later).

To Make the Crunchy Layer:

1. Roll each dough ball in a bowl of 1/4 cup puffed quinoa, you want each ball fairly coated. The quinoa should stick easily to the raw dough, if it does not feel free to wet the dough a tiny bit with wet fingers to make it more sticky.

To Make the Crushed Hazelnut Chocolate Shell:

1. In increments of 20 seconds, melt down 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips in the microwave, add to this 2 teaspoon of coconut oil to make a runny chocolate sauce. To this sauce add 1/4 cup of roughly chopped hazelnuts, you can use a blender or food processor to chop the nuts but we find that a knife works best to get the realistic Ferrero look.
2. Roll each chocolate ball into the chocolate and hazelnut sauce until completely covered, add a few more crushed hazelnuts over top and allow to set in the refrigerator for 5 minutes or until the shell has fully firmed.
3. Keep these in the refrigerator for up to four days, do not keep in the freezer as it will ruin the texture of the chocolate ganache.