With kids going back to school next week here in Adelaide,  I thought it would be the perfect time to share one of my personal favourite recipes from The Little Book of Allergy-Friendly Sandwich Fillers.

The Chocolate Tahini Spread is a great alternative to traditional chocolate spreads which usually contain nuts (not allowed at many schools) dairy (we don’t eat dairy in our house thanks to food intolerances) as well as sugar (have we all seen the infographic going around lately showing the breakdown of ingredients in regular chocolate spread?).

My chocolate tahini spread recipe contains 5 simple ingredients. It’s usually one of the favourites at our tasting events. The thing I love about the recipe is that it’s really simple and quick to make (<10 mins) and you can make up a couple of jars and just keep it in the fridge for when you’re ready to use it. It’s so simple that the kids can help you make it (mine like to help stir it and then lick the spoon;-).

So here is the recipe so you can make some too.

Lisa’s Chocolate Tahini Spread

Ingredients

• 2 tsp carob powder
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1 tbsp rice malt syrup
• pinch of Himalayan salt
• 50 ml safflower oil* (you can add a bit less, check the consistency as you go).

Method

1. Add tahini, carob and rice malt syrup to a bowl and stir together with a fork, spoon or small whisk until it is all combined. If the tahini is dry, add the safflower oil to help moisten the mix and make it easier to spread.

Top Tip:

• You can replace the rice malt syrup with other natural sweeteners if you like, although the flavour of the rice malt syrup is one of the most easily hidden.
• Always mix the tahini well before getting it out of the jar as the oils settle out and if you only take it from the top the rest of the jar will be really dry.
• Hulled tahini will have a slightly less better flavour than unhulled, so I tend to use the hulled tahini when making recipes primarily for the children.
• Carob has a sweeter flavour than cacao, so if you replace the carob with cacao, be mindful that you may need to add a bit more sweetener.

If you’re looking for more spread ideas, check out our savoury options which are also in our book: