When Inbal Lavie, the baking blogger known as The Cookie Fairy, was asked to choose a children’s cookbook as her inspiration for our Kitchen of Wonders, she immediately chose “Mevashlim Kemo Gdolim” (Hebrew for “Cooking Like Grown-Ups”) by Hana Shaulov. As a kid and teenager, Lavie cooked many of the book’s recipes and it remains on her bookshelf today.
Like most Israeli children, she confesses, one of the first recipes she made was chocolate balls — a truffle of sorts made with cocoa and ground up tea biscuits. In Lavie’s version, margarine is swapped for raw tahini, which pairs perfectly with the chocolate and adds a nutty note. And, most importantly, the chocolate mixture is pressed into a cake pan instead of being rolled into balls, creating a fuss-free no-bake cake that’s vegan and gluten-free, but still deeply chocolatey.
Ingredients
21 oz (600 grams) Petit Beurre biscuits (regular or gluten-free)
1 ¼ cups (300 ml) coconut cream
10½ oz (300 grams) dark chocolate
¾ cup (180 grams) tahini
⅔ cup (130 grams) coconut oil, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
For serving (optional):
½ cup (120 ml) coconut cream
3½ oz (100 grams) dark chocolate
Rainbow sprinkles
Preparation
- Place the biscuits in a large resealable plastic bag. Using a rolling pin, crush them into small pieces (approx ½ in / 1cm) and transfer to a bowl.
- Heat the coconut cream in a medium pot over a low heat. Break the chocolate into cubes, add to the pot and stir until completely melted. Remove from the heat.
- Add the tahini, coconut oil, and a pinch of salt, mix well and let cool slightly.
- Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the crushed biscuits and mix to combine. Press the mixture firmly and evenly into the cake pan. Let set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
- Prepare the frosting: Heat the coconut cream in a small pot over a low heat. Break the chocolate into cubes, add to the pot and stir until completely melted. Cool slightly.
- Pour the mixture over the cake and refrigerate for 30 minutes, until set. Before serving, top with the rainbow sprinkles.
