My (His) Chocolate Nut Plums

I was a bit busy this week to think up a decent segue from the Tale of Death to a recipe, so here is part two of this week’s post...

(The busy-ness was caused by (a) my absconding to Ireland ALONE for a few days; (b) my return to London whereupon I was greeted by the Girl vomiting ALL OVER ME within 3 minutes;  and (c) my getting my finger out and doing – blatant promotion - this.)

Now that the dust has settled, I realise that I could, I s’pose, have done a Batman Cave spin-off.  The Boy has now decided – thankfully – that he doesn’t want a roaring, moon-eating, space-exploring dinosaur anymore;  and so, assuming that he LISTENS carefully and BEHAVES NICELY, he may get enough stickers this week to complete the Good Behaviour Snake, thereby becoming the proud owner of a ridiculous, and ridiculously large, piece of plastic which is cluttering up my wardrobe said bat paraphernalia.  

As before, the stickers are only given out once a day, and as before, this causes a slight disconnect.  Toddler bribes rewards need to be immediate to properly work, it seems.  So imagine my delight when a friend returned from Poland with a large bag of My Chocolate Plums... Ah yes, how we sniggered, puerile children that we are.  But the Boy went crazy for them:  prunes – one of his favourite things (don’t even get me started on the ramifications of that) covered in chocolate – his all-time favourite thing.  What was not to love?  And so they were handed out here and there, as a laxative inducement to remain on the straight and narrow.  And then, like all good things, they came to an end.  Shit happens (hohoho) is not a concept the Boy is familiar with, and so I got creative.  

I’m not sure what you’d call these - My Chocolate Nut Plums is an obvious, albeit rude contender, as is Nuts on Horseback.  Either way, they are FANTASTIC.  Brazil nuts and prunes is a favourite in this house anyway, esp during Lent, when you can convince the chocolate-bar-abstainers that they’re better than Fruit’n’Nut.  Add chocolate and you might even get some good behaviour in return. 

Oh, and they’re easy peasy too.  While they might look fiddly fancy, in fact they’re far from it; the actual work involved is a couple of minutes, then you just bung ‘em in the fridge to cool. 

My Chocolate Nut Plums on Horseback

You Need:  (For about 15)

• 8 or 15 brazil nuts (depending on how nutty you like it;  using 8 cut in half looks neater in the finished product)
• A large bar of chocolate (about 100 gram.  Regular Cadbury’s is fine)
• A small bag of ready to eat prunes, stone out.  (Go for Aegean if you can)

Break the chocolate up into small pieces and put in a bowl.  Put the bowl in a pan of bubbling water  and stir occasionally until the chocolate is completely melted. (You’re not meant to let the bowl touch the water, but I don’t find it makes any difference;  and in fact if you can’t be arsed, or don’t have a heat-proof bowl which will fit in a pan, just put the choc in the pan over a very low heat instead, and keep stirring to stop it sticking / burning.)

If using 8 nuts, cut them in half. Stick a nut up each prune’s bum Stuff each prune with a nut / half nut. 

Drop all the stuffed prunes into the melted chocolate and stir to cover.

Individually place them on a flat plate / tray covered with baking parchment.  

Resist the temptation to start scoffing them – they’re MUCH better once cooled – and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Serve with threats or pleas for good behaviour.