I was preparing for a “Food from an Irish Garden” demonstration recently.  Eighty people eager to hear how I grow, rear and cook my food.  I don’t travel lightly for my demonstrations so fortunately my Ecar which is arriving next week has a decent size boot.  I like to bring a bit of everything with me for my talks – my ostrich egg, sloe gin, bread and butter pickle, frames of honey, sausage making equipment, pots of herbs, you get the picture…

The larder at Hunters Lodge

So there I was, raiding the larder for homemade goodies when I spied a bottle of raspberry vodka.  Over a year old and the raspberries from the garden still sitting pretty in the bottom of the bottle ( well not exactly pretty, more ghostly pale).   Now I know lots of people remove their sloes, raspberries etc from their vodka or gin once their colour has leached, but I like to leave them.  Now that its time to taste the raspberry vodka the raspberries will be discarded.  I’m not one to discard at the best of times, but vodka soaked raspberries?  Surely they would be delicious.  With a little bit of sprucing up, those pale, sad looking raspberries became delightful (very boozy) chocolate bites. If you’re not in the habit of making raspberry vodka, just soak fresh raspberries in vodka (or your favourite tipple) for a couple of days to make these boozy choccy bites.

Raspberry Vodka Choccy Bites

I used

Raspberries from my raspberry vodka (180g)

Chocolate (150g of 65% cocoa)

Pure honey (approx 2 tablespoons)

Here’s what you do

Pass the vodka through a sieve to catch all the raspberries.

Melt a 150g bar of chocolate.

Add 2 tablespoons of honey to the chocolate and mix well.

Add in the raspberries, mix until they are coated in chocolate.

Line a baking tray with parchment and spread the chocolate mixture onto the parchment.

Allow to chill in the fridge.

Boozy boozy chocolate….

When chilled, chop into bitesize pieces and store in a sealed container.

Serve with a cup of fresh coffee for an indulgent after dinner treat..

Warning:  These are kick-ass chocolate bites and NOT suitable for children..

To book a Food from an Irish Garden “Talk & Taste” demonstration with Fiona email: fiona.dillon@hotmail.com or phone 085 1057314.