A jar of cocoa nibs from our pre-Covid years sat on my shelf- hadn’t needed to resort to eating those again. UNTIL…supply chain shortages! With TJ’s out of stock on my Montezuma Unsweetened Chocolate, and THEN, their Extra Dark Pound Plus Chocolate Bar getting stuck on some cargo ship, I resorted to those cacao nibs after all.
Use a crockpot to warm chocolate and coconut oil, for the easiest chocolate fountain ever. I served this at a women’s retreat this spring, at a camp with minimal kitchen conveniences, and it worked. For minimal effort in serving, set the chocolate out with baskets of graham crackers and marshmallows, pretzel sticks, and strawberries. Hardly any prep involved, but so fun to eat.
I need to eat chocolate (ha!), but I don’t need all that sugar. Or the expense of designer chocolate bars. I also need to get coconut oil in my diet (good for my brain). This works for both! So perfect, since it’s sweetened with dried fruits and palm sugar (more minerals and fiber), with added crunch from macadamias (which are lower on the Omega 6 scale and thus less inflammatory that other nuts).
OK, you may ask: Do I have to make this sound so scientific and GOOD for you? Would it be better to say, “Here’s a naughty confection you’ll love?” Cuz it almost passes for that!
Had a reason to celebrate- my friend came off her 30-day cleansing diet. Now we needed a yummy chocolate dessert, gluten-free. nicely garnished. Tricky part: there are no good strawberries in winter to garnish this stuff! Solution: I made a raspberry chocolate bark by boiling down frozen raspberries, spreading on melted chocolate, chilling, and breaking into pieces. YuM!
This is a take on the traditional “Pavlova”, which typically has fresh fruits garnishing a meringue crust, with plenty of whipped cream in between. I wanted to use the egg yolks though, so the chocolate mousse gave me a way to work those in. I guess you could also call this “Gluten-free Chocolate Dessert”, since that’s trendy. Or maybe, “Healthy Chocolate Pie”, since it uses bittersweet chocolate and not very much sugar. Oh, who am I kidding?! I just love meringue, and take any excuse to eat it!
I have fond childhood memories of my great grandpa bringing us poppy seed pastries from a Dutch bakery. So of course I was excited to try a torte recipe using the poppy seed paste. My husband wasn’t acting very excited that we were having a poppy seed cake for dessert on Sunday. ‘Till he found out about the chocolate part! Then we were both happy 🙂
I cut way down on bread. And I try to eat more organic produce, + free-range, grass-fed, wild-caught, yada yada… But… sometimes I just need CHOCOLATE! I can keep from sabotaging my health but making a quick drink out of this stuff. (Or eating as-is.)
Whip the whole eggs until fluffy- easier than separating out the whites… Also, mix the cocoa powder into the honey 1st, which removes lumps. A plus: Honey fights allergies & infections- whoot!
Need a fast, easy, delicious birthday cake? It’s even almost healthy, w/toasted hazelnuts thrown in. (Nutella, watch out.) Perfect for a small celebration!
A New Deli fave! Easy to make that mint layer if you melt butter 1st, then add other ingredients. It’ll make a stiff “frosting-dough”. Top w/ bittersweet chocolate. So good!
