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Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Balls

Written on January 11, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Snack

Lately I’ve been obsessed with these raw fruit and nut snacks. And I’m always obsessed with chocolate peanut butter. I can’t understand what took me so long to combine the two.

I’m not going to sugarcoat these and say they taste like Reese’s peanut butter cups; they don’t, and anyone who could get that flavor with just fruit and nuts would be a miracle worker. But these do taste deliciously sweet and salty with a hint of cocoa and silky smooth peanut butter. They’re certainly good enough to satisfy a snack craving. And if you want to take these to the next level, you can always mix some chocolate chips(or peanut butter chips!) into the batter for a real chocolate peanut butter treat.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Balls

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(makes about 14 balls):

16oz pitted dates
1/2 cup peanut butter
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons chia seeds
1/4 cup peanuts or chocolate chips(optional)

Method:

Blend the dates in a food processor until they stick together and form a big dough ball.
Add in the peanut butter and cocoa powder and continue mixing until all of the ingredients are blended together.
Stop the processor; move the dough to a separate bowl and add in the chia seeds and any other mix-ins you might want. Knead them in throughout the dough.
Break off 1oz pieces and roll them into 1-inch balls. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

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Raw Salted Almond Brownies

Written on January 3, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

The last time I made raw brownies, I didn’t share the recipe. I wasn’t planning on it this time, either, but these came out so well I felt I’d be holding out if I didn’t share them.

These almonds from Trader Joe’s are incredibly addicting; I’m pretty sure they’re all gone by now. Anything with chocolate and salt and I can’t stop snacking. Why not make some brownies with the same mix-ins?

The almond butter in these brownies make them a little more fudgy and decadent than your typical date bars. You can use any type of nuts you have on hand.

Raw Salted Almond Brownies

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes a dozen brownies):

16oz pitted dates
1/4 cup raw almond butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup almonds
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Method:

Put the dates in a food processor and blend until they stick together into a ball of dough. If the dates haven’t come together after a few minutes, add a tablespoon or so of water until they do.
Add in the cocoa powder and almond butter and continue blending until they are mixed into the dough.
Add in the almonds and sea salt. Pulse until the almonds are broken up into pieces.
Turn off the food processor and move the mixture to a different bowl. Work it with your hands until all of the ingredients are well mixed together and the almonds stick in the batter.
Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and press with your hands into a square shape roughly 9×9. Cut into 12 pieces. Store in a sealed container at room temperature when not eating.

These are particularly good with some salty peanut butter spread on top as a snack or dessert. Next time I think I’ll use the chocolate covered almonds in the brownie dough assuming I don’t eat them all first again.

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Raw Salted Caramel Chocolate Pecan Torte

Written on January 2, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

Happy New Year! I wanted to get the year off to a sweet start, so here’s the dessert I made for Christmas, which just happened to turn out to be one of my favorite desserts ever.

As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I wanted to make it. I love things that are salty and sweet and pecans are never a bad thing either; add chocolate and you have to have a winning dessert.

I actually think it’s easier to make raw tortes and pies than cooked ones; you don’t have to worry about cutting cold butter into the crust or cooking them in a water bath. This recipe comes together extremely quickly and is full of flavor.

I used maple syrup because I had plenty on hand. To make this fully raw, use agave nectar or raw honey.

Raw Salted Caramel Chocolate Pecan Torte

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 1 torte):

For the crust:

6oz(about 1 1/2 cups) dates
6oz(1 1/2 cups) pecans

For the caramel:

2oz dates
6 Tablespoons maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

For the filling:

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
Sea salt and pecans for garnish

Method:

To make the crust, pulse the dates and pecans in a food processor until it forms a dough ball. If after a while the dough hasn’t come together, add water by the tablespoon slowly until it does.
Grease a 9-inch pan lightly with coconut oil. Press the dough into the pan and spread it out evenly into a pie crust shape, raising it at the side. Make sure there are no holes in the bottom.
Make the caramel by blending together the maple syrup and dates in a food processor until smooth and golden in color. Once it’s blended into a sauce, add in the sea salt and mix gently.
Pour the caramel in a thin layer on top of the bottom of the crust, spreading it out evenly.
To make the filling, blend the melted coconut oil, cocoa powder, and maple syrup in a food processor until it’s uniformly mixed.
Carefully cover the caramel layer with the chocolate layer. For me it was easiest to add a little bit of topping all around the pie and lightly blending the top together with a soft spatula.
Garnish the top with pecans and sea salt if desired.
Refrigerate your torte until the filling sets. Remove it from the refrigerator about 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. Personally I liked this when it was still slightly chilled but you can also eat it at room temperature.

I would have liked to have gotten better pictures of this but it was too good not to just dig into. It may not be one of the prettiest desserts, but it’s by far one of the tastiest I’ve made in a long time. I can’t wait to make this again.

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Eat Healthy: Raw Brownies

Written on December 27, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Snack

filling-up-on-raw-brownies

I could never give up chocolate. It’s a daily thing for me. Even when I want to eat healthy, I’m always drawn back to it, and frankly I have no willpower to resist.

That’s where the beauty of something like raw brownies come in. These are sweetened with dried fruit and the only fat comes from nuts, which are whole foods. It’s a big improvement over refined sugar, cocoa butter and milk fat. To make these, I threw together some dates, figs, hazelnuts and walnuts in my food processor, and then folded in extra walnuts when it was done to give them an added crunch. Not only are they delicious, but they’re filling, too.

Since that’s not exactly a recipe, I thought I’d share a few raw chocolate cake recipes I have made in the past that are similar and just as delicious:

Gabriel’s recipe is super simple. It has added coconut oil and agave nectar which makes the brownies a little more moist and extravagant. It’d be the perfect thing to make if you want to impress someone and show off how good raw food can be.

Katie’s recipe has just fruit for the sweetener and nuts for the fat like the ones I made. I like the addition of vanilla for a stronger chocolate flavor.

I went through the first batch of these all too quickly. You’d better double the recipes since I’m sure you’ll fall in love with them, too.

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Chocolate Mint Almond Butter

Written on December 21, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

Have you tried Justin’s chocolate almond butter? Don’t because you might never want to eat anything else. It’s really terrific. I just love the combination of chocolate and almonds; I figured this could only be made better with mint, and I think I was right.

This is another super easy do-it-yourself gift for foodies(vegan and gluten-free!) or a treat for yourself. I can’t believe how good this is in the morning in a bowl of oatmeal. I used Trader Joe’s creamy unsalted almond butter to get things going a little quicker, but you can also make it from raw or roasted almonds for a fully homemade treat.

Mint Chocolate Almond Butter

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 16oz):

12oz(3 cups) almonds OR 12oz(1 1/2 cups) natural almond butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon mint extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Method:

Put the almonds into a food processor and blend until smooth and runny. If you’re starting with almond butter, skip this step and just scrape the almond butter into the food processor.
Add in the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and mint extract and blend until completely emulsified.
Scrape the almond butter into a seal-tight jar. Store at room temperature for up to a month.

If you want to eat this off of a spoon, I wouldn’t judge; there’s been plenty of that this week.

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Raw Chocolate Ganache Tortes

Written on September 27, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you’d know I’m obsessed with the raw chocolate ganache torte(pictures here) from Wildflour bakery. Time and time again I’ve tried to make my own, but it just never comes out as good as there’s.

Until now.

I can honestly say this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The raw chocolate taste so much more intense than anything that comes in a wrapper. And the crust and filling blend seamlessly together for a smooth, nutty bite. It’s perhaps my favorite recipe to share and I hope becomes this site’s most popular, because it truly deserves the attention.

You can use any nut butter in place of the almond butter. Just don’t leave it out. It helps to lower the solidity temperature of the coconut oil so that the dessert is easily cut through straight from the refrigerator.

Raw Chocolate Ganache Tortes(adapted from this recipe and inspired by Wildflour)

Prep time: 15 minutes

(Un)cook time: 2 hours

Ingredients(Makes 8 small tortes):

For the crust:

6 Tablespoons almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons coconut oil, softened or melted
2 Tablespoons agave nectar

For the filling:

1/2 cup cocoa powder + more for dusting
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted completely
7 Tablespoons agave nectar
2 Tablespoons almond butter

Method:

Combine all of the crust ingredients and mix until a uniform dough forms.
Press the dough in an even layer into the bottom of a small loaf pan. Alternatively, you could make these in a muffin tin and have them be round.
For the filling, beat together all of the ingredients until it makes a soft ganache.
Pour the ganache over the crust base. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Sift extra cocoa powder over the torte. Cut with a sharp knife into 8 equal-sized tortes.

I will never pay for another raw chocolate ganache torte again. I will, however, still pay for their carrot cake truffles, chocolate pound cake, raw macaroons, raw cheesecake, raw oreos and rum balls, so I wouldn’t worry about them losing much business.

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Black Bean And Kale Tacos

Written on June 6, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

If cooking has taught me anything, it’s how to cover up mistakes. That’s my favorite part of cooking as opposed to baking: It’s never too late to fix things. I wanted to make a black bean and tempeh taco filling until I realized the tempeh I bought had barley and rye in it which I’m severely allergic to, so that was a no-go.

The second mistake that day was the chickpea flour “grits” you see in the top left of that plate. That’s what you get when you mean to make a tortilla but the batter’s too thin and never comes together. It actually wasn’t bad with a little seasoning and would have been even better with some shredded cheese or Daiya. See? Never too late to fix things.

So even if this wasn’t what I intended to make at all when I started cooking that day, it still tasted incredible. And isn’t that what matters? Oh, that and looks. Looks always matter.

Spicy Cocoa Black Beans With Kale

Ingredients(Makes 2 servings):

1 can black beans, drained
1 cup kale, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons taco seasoning
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine the black beans and kale in a pan over medium heat with the oil already heated. Cover the pan for 2 minutes until the kale has steamed and changed into a deeper green color.

Remove the cover and season with the taco seasoning, cocoa powder, and cinnamon.

Serve hot into a tortilla wrap, taco shell, with rice or all by itself. Use a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt to mellow the spice if necessary.

I really like this, mistake or not. And that grits I could eat again and again with enough cheese on top. So don’t be afraid to make mistakes because you just might knock one out of the park anyway.

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Baking Chocolate 101

Written on May 23, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in How To

Last week I got this question on my Outrageous Triple Chocolate Brownies recipe:

“What type of baking chocolate do you recommend for these? I have just been using semi sweet chocolate chips”

I’ve never met chocolate I didn’t like, but some are undoubtedly better than others, to eat and to bake with. Here’s what 2+ years of home baking has taught me:

95% of the time chocolate chips are fine. I use these chocolate chips for my baking all the time. I eat them out of the bag sometimes. Don’t give me that look; who are you, the cops?

However, that other 5% of the time when I’d be baking to really impress someone—say, something for Paula Deen or Bobby Flay—I would look at the other baking chocolate options.

Baking chocolate is available either in the baking aisle or with other specialty products. It usually comes in bar form as Scharffen Berger is in the top photo, but if you’re buying it by the pound it might be in chunk form like above. To use in recipes simply chop the chocolate into smaller sizes like chocolate chips come; this will help the chocolate melt more evenly.

Semi-sweet and bitter-sweet are practically interchangeable, so if you only have one and the recipe calls for the other don’t panic. Bitter-sweet has slightly less sugar so it will have a darker flavor. Don’t, however, interchange unsweetened chocolate with bitter-sweet or semi-sweet since that will throw the recipe’s flavor off entirely.

When a recipe calls for cocoa powder, make sure you’re using pure cocoa powder, which comes unsweetened.

The product on the left already has sugar in it and is better for hot chocolate mixes, whereas the one on the right is what most recipes will call for. Alkalized or dutched cocoa powder has been treated to remove some of the natural bitterness of chocolate. Most recipes are written for dutched cocoa powder but both will work; non-alkalized cocoa powder will have a more pure chocolate flavor.

Ultimately chocolate is chocolate and the best way to know if something’s good for baking is to taste it. You shouldn’t bake with a chocolate you wouldn’t eat. The higher percentage of chocolate that’s in the recipe the more you should consider what flavor it will bring.

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