Tag Archives: chocolate

Dark Chocolate Covered Cashews

25 Apr

Chocolate-Covered-Cashews-2

We made it back to Chicago! Isn’t it awful when you get home and there is no food in the house? That’s how these little bits of deliciousness came to be. I had chocolate left over from the Thin Mints and wanted to use it up. So I popped open the bag of cashews, tempered the chocolate, dumped the cashews in and voila chocolate covered cashews!

I didn’t make a lot of these, so you may have to adjust the amounts of ingredients based on how many you want to make.

Chocolate-Covered-Cashews-Side

Ingredients:
1 bar of dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1/4 cup raw cashews

Directions:

  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Break half the chocolate into pieces and place in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 20 second and stir. Continue to microwave for 20 second increments and stir until the chocolate is melted. Add the rest of the chocolate and stir to melt. Microwave in 20 second increments, if necessary.
  3. Drop the cashews a handful at a time into the chocolate. Cover with the chocolate.
  4. Place the chocolate covered cashews onto the baking sheet. Once all the cashews are covered in chocolate, place the baking sheet in the refrigerator until the chocolate has hardened

As always, enjoy!

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Thin Mint Inspired Cookies

10 Apr

Homemade-Thin-Mints-Stacked

I finally realized that the best part about making your own Girl Scout cookies is that you can have them all year long! Amazing, right? My mom loves thin mints so I was inspired to try and make a healthier version of these cookies. Luckily these came much easer than the Do-Si-Dos.

I learned the microwave tempering technique on The Barefoot Contessa. It is so much easier than melting the chocolate over a double boiler and you don’t run the risk of burning the chocolate.

Homemade-Thin-Mints-Bite

Ingredients:
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp stevia
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp + 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
2 tbsp milk of choice (I used Almond Milk)
1/2 cup milk chocolate, melted
1/2 cup dark chocolate, melted

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325o.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the coconut oil, maple syrup, stevia, vanilla extract and peppermint extract.
  3. Add the flour and baking powder to the bowl and mix well.
  4. Add the milk, one tablespoon at a time and turn to medium speed for 3 minutes. The dough will begin to form a paste.
  5. Take one tablespoon of the dough and roll into a ball. Press the ball flat on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the remaining dough. Bake for 25 minute, rotating the baking sheet 180 degrees half way through.
  6. While the cookies cool, break half the chocolate into pieces and place in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 20 second and stir. Continue to microwave for 20 second increments and stir until the chocolate is melted. Add the rest of the chocolate and stir to melt. Microwave in 20 second increments, if necessary. Stir in 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract.
  7. Coat the cookies in the melted chocolate and place onto a plate lined with parchment paper. Once all the cookies are coated, refrigerate until the chocolate hardens.

Homemade-Thin-Mints-Plate

As always, enjoy!

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Cookie Dough Cookies

21 Mar

Cookie-Dough-Cookies-Top

I found this recipe for Raw Cookie Dough Bites which is amazing, because I too was at a loss for what to do with all of the almond pulp left over from my almond milk. I hate wasting food and I felt bad throwing away all that perfectly good almond pulp. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when Megan posted her recipe.

Cookie-Dough-Cookies

Just a note, I used peanut butter instead of almond butter. If you use peanut butter I would recommend reducing the coconut oil to about 2 tablespoons or omitting it all together. I haven’t tried it with almond butter only because we don’t eat almond butter. The peanut butter version is delicious. They are so good, it’s worth making almond milk just for these bites!

You can find the recipe here.

As always, enjoy!

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