Vegan junk food for summer BBQs: beer battered chocolate bars recipe

Summer is for BBQs and parties. Surprise your friends with unusual vegan junk food platter they won’t be able to resist.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 vegan chocolate bars (about 50g each)
• canola oil, for deep-frying
• 75g self-raising flour
• sea salt and freshly groundblack pepper
• 125ml chilled beer

Suggested toppings:

• sea salt flakes
• vegan chocolate sauce
• vegan chocolate cookies,broken into chunks
• soy or rice whip
• pretzels

METHOD:

1. Place the chocolate bars in thefreezer for 2–3 hours to firm up.
2. Heat the canola oil in a largesaucepan.
3. Place the flour in a bowl and seasonwith salt and pepper. Toss the frozen chocolate bars in the flour to lightly coat, then remove and set aside.
4. Pour the beer into the flour, stirring constantly, to create a batter. The batter should be runny but still cling to the chocolate.
5. Dip each chocolate bar into the batter. Scoop the bars out with as much batter as you can keep clinging. Drop the battered bars into the oil. Cook for 2–3 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.
6. Remove the chocolate bars and drain on paper towels. Serve warm with a sprinkling of sea salt flakes, chocolate sauce, chocolate cookies, soy or rice whip and a few pretzels.

Recipe extracted from Vegan Junk Food by Zacchary Bird, published by Smith Street Books, RRP $45.00. Photography © Pete Dillon, Food Stylist © Bridget Wald

smithstreetbooks.com/books/vegan-junk-food/