I love salt and sweet together. Almost all of my desserts have at least a pinch of salt in them. It’s essential to bring out the flavour of chocolate and, as the current rage for salted caramel confirms, it hugely improves that sweet, fatty confection. I wanted to make a caramel that was a little less bad for you, and came up with these caramelised walnuts, using maple syrup instead of sugar. The fat comes in a healthy form from the nuts, rather than from butter or a vegan spread. They are delicious on their own, or as a topping for ice cream or mousse. Here they perk up the densest and squidgiest of chocolate brownies. Though sweet and fudgy, the brownies too use healthier fat in the form of coconut oil and coconut cream and part of the sugar is replaced with brown rice syrup. And yes, they are gluten free too.

Salted walnuts
1 cup walnuts
¼ cup maple syrup
½ teaspoon Himalayan salt

Brownies – dry ingredients
2/3 cup cocoa
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 potato starch
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarb soda

Brownies – wet ingredients
½ cup coconut cream
½ cup coconut oil
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
¾ cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
½ teaspoon Himalayan salt
3 tablespoons arrowroot
½ cup chocolate chips, or chocolate chopped into small pieces

Set the oven for 180° C. Grease and line a 20cm (8”) square tin.

Toast the walnuts in a dry heavy-based frying pan, cast iron is ideal, until they start to brown a little. Remove from the heat, add the syrup and stir until the walnuts are coated with syrup. Sprinkle with the salt and set aside. Mix the dry ingredients well in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients, except the arrowroot, in a saucepan and melt over a low heat. When melted, remove from heat and whisk in the arrowroot. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Pour into the tin. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and walnuts. Bake for 20-25 mins, until just dried out on top. Don’t over-bake or the edges will dry out as they cool. The brownie will cool to a nice chewy texture.