Chocolate Fruit Roll-Up

When I was a kid, I’d occasionally get the fig roll from Aurion—the craziest thing about it was probably the price. I remember it as a fruit spread that contained tons of big fig seeds that got stuck in my teeth for days. Then there was the Castus roll with a nut mix, which was the one we got most often, and it often tasted strangely musty—yes, there was something indefinable about it.

What many people forget to check before buying fruit rolls, sticks, and bars is whether they contain seed oils such as sunflower oil, canola oil, and shea butter. In any case, they’re in all of Castus’s rolls, sticks, bars, etc., and when a product says “Strawberry” or “Blueberry” on the label, there’s often only 1 gram of those berries in the entire product. It’s primarily extracts and “natural” flavorings that provide the taste, and “natural” flavorings rarely have anything to do with what you imagine. A strawberry flavoring might just as well be made from corn as from real strawberries—and as a consumer, you’re not entitled to know that. Most “natural” flavorings are therefore simply called “natural” because they’re made from corn—corn that’s been processed and broken down into atoms to create the flavor compounds meant to resemble a strawberry, a blueberry, a vanilla bean, and so on. So yes, it’s not as natural as one might hope—far from it, in fact…

However, Aurion currently produces several fruit rolls that do not contain seed oils and cost between 79 kr. and 129 kr. per roll, which is quite a lot of money for a fruit roll. Most rolls contain primarily fig paste (63-90%), and some are made with date paste. You can buy both fig and date paste at Middle Eastern specialty stores and make these rolls yourself for much less. However, it’s also possible to skip the store-bought fruit paste entirely and make a roll using just simple dried fruits—in under 30 minutes—and yes, it tastes much better, too.

Furthermore, water and honey are often used in Aurion’s bread, which must be said to be quite unnecessary, since you can easily make a fruit roll without adding water or additional sweetness. As I see it, there’s plenty of natural sweetness already present in both the dates and the figs. However, it’s important to use the right type of dried fruit, since the rehydrated dried fruit sold in various supermarkets today They simply turn into a mushy, soggy mess—and yes, water does one thing really well when it comes to shelf life: it shortens it.

I also make this fruit roll with mini figs because their seeds are so small that they break down easily and therefore don’t get stuck in your teeth (which is definitely preferable). I also use Medjool dates because they’re so delicious and naturally moist that no additional liquid is needed in the recipe. Plus, Medjool dates easily turn into a paste without much processing— I’m talking about a maximum of 30 seconds in a chopper or mini food processor, and then they’re usually just right, whereas regular dates have a tougher skin that doesn’t break down as easily, and their sweetness is also different.

I like the idea of a homemade chocolate fruit roll like this because it can be used as a fruit topping on a roll, as a sweet snack, or as an energy bar—without a lot of added sugar.

The most important thing about a fruit roll is that you should be able to cut slices without the roll losing its shape. Even very thin slices—and that’s where the time, packaging, and storage of the roll come into play. Otherwise, it’s a piece of cake—there’s nothing easier than making these yourself, so why waste money on a mass-produced product? And yes, the one from Aurion is also mass-produced—just on a smaller scale—but it’s still mass-produced, and there’s really no reason for it. I make this roll with the kids; they enjoy helping out, and they always find it fun when we have to use a chopper or some kind of food processor. They also love having a few slices as a snack while they’re doing their schoolwork.

It’s a simple recipe with 6 relatively inexpensive ingredients. I’ve calculated that it costs me about 45–50 kr. to make this top-quality bread: organic mini figs, organic Medjool dates, organic cocoa, organic chocolate without lecithin, organic vanilla powder, and organic coconut flour. That’s half of what Aurion charges for their chocolate fruit roll, which doesn’t even taste like chocolate. So yeah, judge for yourself!

If you try out the recipe, please feel free to leave a comment below—I’d really appreciate it if you did. Have a wonderful day!

Love

P.S. All posts on this blog are written and photographed by Belle Frost; no AI was used to generate content, and all copyright belongs to Maison Frost.