Chewy Dandelion Root Brownies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl

Can you believe I'm keeping "On Track" with these gorgeous squares of chocolaty goodness?

Dandelion root is God's perfect detoxifier for liver / blood. 

The root powder is especially effective for removing toxins. 

Readily available today at health food stores or on line.

A few years ago, I really got obsessed for a few months with growing my own dandelions

to have a clean source of root, flower etc.  It proved to be an extensive project.

Not worth the time when you can get quality Dandelion products from health food stores

these days or on-line.

 Dandelion Root is one of those wonderfully nutritionally packed ingredients that can hide in your baked goods or hot drinks and really give a vitamin and mineral boost to your food.

More information on Dandelion Root: http://www.livestrong.com/article/343007-the-advantages-of-dandelion-root/

Nut Butter (Peanut in this case) Swirls through the Cocoa Brownie
See this post for Nut Butter recipe:  http://cannedtime.blogspot.com/2012/06/raw-vegan-caramels-with-chocolate-nut.html

 Full pan of brownies shot below shows the Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirled through the batter.

Chewy Dandelion Root Brownies w/ Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl

Gluten Free and Very Low Sugar

Combine Wet Ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix until a smooth batter is formed:

1 Cup filtered Water

3 Eggs (or egg substitute)

1 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia + 1 tsp. Plain Liquid Stevia

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

15 Whole Pitted Dates

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Melted Coconut Butter

Combine Dry Ingredients in a bowl and sift together to fully incorporate:

1/2 Cup Dandelion Root Powder

1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Sea Salt

1/2 Cup Ground Flax Seed

1 Cup Spelt Flour or other Gluten Free Flour

1/2 Cup Coconut Flour

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, stir well and form a wet, thick batter. 

Pour batter into a well greased, 9 X 9 pan and bake at 250 for about 45 minutes.

Check for doneness.  Do not over bake, they will be moist until the cool some.

Makes 12 good sized brownies.  Store covered and refrigerated for up to 1 week.

These brownies turned out surprisingly 'normal' tasting considering the vast array of ingredients.  Lots of substitutions could be made if you don't have certain items.  But if you do, I'd recommend these 'as is' for a healthy, gluten free, Very low sugar snack or dessert.

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl makes them fudgie and sweet.

Nut Butter recipe is here: http://cannedtime.blogspot.com/2012/06/raw-vegan-caramels-with-chocolate-nut.html

Another great Dandelion recipe from Canned Time check out:  Dandelion Greens Strawberry Salad!

Enjoy!

Raw Vegan Caramels with Chocolate Nut Butter

These Raw Vegan Caramels are adapted from a recipe at Averie Cooks

These are beautiful little bites of chewy, sweet goodness.

I took Averie's advise and added some homemade chocolate butter on top

just to make them even more perfect.

I made a chocolate sauce by blending sugar free peanut butter with cocoa powder and

NuNaturals Liquid Vanilla Stevia

The main sweetness comes from ground up dates.

Make sure if you're using whole dates to remove the pits.

Thanks to NuNaturals, they are sugar free except for the date sugar.

When you have the 'caramel' dough, flatten it out on a stick free surface to about 1/2 inch thick.
Refrigerate to firm the caramel.

 I combined the dates with sunflower seeds.  Blend the Sunflower Seeds first and then add in the other caramel ingredients. 

I had better success pulsing the blender much of the time until a paste formed.

The original recipe calls for pine nuts, but I'm saving money using sunflower seeds but
I'm sure that these would be even better using Pine Nuts.

Raw Vegan Caramels with Chocolate Nut Butter Frosting

Caramels

1 Cup Raw Unsalted Sunflower Seeds (or Pine Nuts)

15 Pitted Medjool Dates

2 Tbs. Olive Oil (if using Pine Nuts, omit the oil)

2 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia

Pulse Sunflower Seeds until pulverized.  Add in the dates

and pulse until lumpy batter forms.  Add in other ingredients and

continue pulsing until smooth and lay out on a non stick surface.

Push batter down to form a large 1/4 inch thick rectangle.  Refrigerate for

30 minutes to firm up caramels before icing.  Cut into squares.  Store in a

sealed container.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

16 oz Jar of Natural Peanut Butter

1/4 Cup Palm Sugar or other sweetener

1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbs. Cocoa Powder

1 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia

1 Tbs. Non Dairy Milk

Pinch of Sea Salt

Blend in a food processor until smooth.  Store in a sealed container

in the refrigerator or freezer for up to 2 months (they won't last that long but they could)

See the original recipe for other options and flavors. I think next time

I will make a smaller batch and use the Pine Nuts.

I'm also thinking that some coarse Sea Salt sprinkled in would be a great addition too!

Guilt free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free delicious little bites of sweet enjoyment!

Fantastic heathy recipe.  Thanks again Averie....

Enjoy!

Make sure you've entered to win in the NuNaturals giveaway!

Nutella Flax Seed Coco Butter Bars

I needed something to munch on this holiday weekend with all my time at home and these bars are perfect.  A little sweet, a lot healthy and freezer convenient as well.  They took less than 10 minutes to mix up and get chilled ready to eat.  The Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread is low sugar, the ground flax seed works well as a binder instead of white flour,
and the Coco Butter helps keeps the shape.

Nutella is running a Sweepstakes right now to win a case of Nutella!

Now that would be awesome!  Check it out here: http://www.nutellausa.com/giveaway.htm

Any bar with Chocolate, Hazelnuts, Coco Butter and Shredded Coconut can't be half bad right?

Just don't tell anyone they're held together with Flax Seed and they'll be a new favorite to snack on.

The recipe for these lovely little bits couldn't be easier:

Line a container with wrap to make cutting the bars easier or spay w/ vegetable spray

Cover the batter with shredded coconut and push down into batter

Be sure and check out the great Cookbook giveaway going on now through Monday at
"Averie Cooks"

Coconut Butter Biscoff Spread Fudge

 Dairy Free if you don't add the Jiff Mocha Cappuccino icing, and "no cook" fudge with 
just 3 ingredients?  Awesome..........

 This fudge was inspired by Chocolate Covered Katie's Triple Chocolate Nutella Fudge but.....

I like this one even better!

 If you want to make it a little more decadent, and don't mind the dairy, spread a little

Jif Mocha Cappuccino  spread on top........yum!

 The combination of Coconut Butter, Biscoff Spread and Mocha is....well......
you'll have to try it yourself to realize just how great the taste is!

The recipe for this fudge is still in my head, as easy as it gets:

1 Cup Biscoff Spread, softened slightly in the microwave (maybe 10 seconds, not melted)
1 Cup Coconut Butter (Manna is a great brand) Melted inside a bowl filled with warm water
1/4 Cup slivered Almonds

Blend together Biscoff and melted Coconut Butter in a mixer. 
Stir in Almonds to mix through.
Pour the fudge into a lined freezer safe container and freeze
to set the fudge.

Optional icing:   Jif Mocha Cappuccino or melted Chocolate
Store in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container.

Enjoy!


This post is linked to Allergy-Free Wednesdays

Peanut Butter and Jelly Truffles

Peanut Butter and Jelly Truffles  - Sugar & Dairy Free

The inspiration for these truffles started out to be this wonderful recipe for

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars.
From Averi Cooks

Well............they didn't quite work out when I tried to adjust them to Dairy and Sugar Free...Oh well.
Try Averie's recipe to try those beauties.  But my Peanut Butter and Jelly version is darn good too. 

Here's what mine turned out to be in the end:

Peanut Butter & Jelly Truffles
1 2/3 Cup Coconut Flour
1 Cup Old Fashioned Steel Cut Oatmeal (you could use either quick oats or regular)
4 Oz. Softened Organic Vegetable Spread like Earth Balance

Mix dry ingredients and then add in:

1 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia ( I used NuNaturals brand)
1 Cup of Nut Milk Creamer ( I used an almond / cashew creamer this time, Coconut would be fine)
1 Cup unsweetened Peanut Butter softened in the microwave but not melted
1 Cup of shredded Coconut

When all this is stirred in together,  fold in 2 Cups of frozen mixed berries.
I used my hands to blend everything together evenly, sometimes fingers just work better than spoons......add more creamer if the dough is too try to stick together.

Chill the batter in the fridge until you can roll spoonfuls into large balls.  Freeze the balls until they are firm. 


Roll the frozen Peanut Butter and Jelly balls in Cocoa Powder. 

Add in some Stevia Powder to the Cocoa if you want them really sweet.

Keep the truffles in the fridge sealed for storage.  They taste better a little thawed though.

I drizzled some melted dark chocolate on the

tops of these for added sweet but they are

fine without it.

They taste like little PB & J's dipped in Cocoa.


The recipe should make 24 large 1 1/2 inch balls or up to 30 if you used less batter for each one.

Thanks for all the Holiday LEDS String Lights Giveaway entries,

be sure and leave a comment for each entry.

This post is linked to http://glutenfreepantry.blogspot.com/2012/04/allergy-free-wednesdays-blog-hop-week_17.html

Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Bar (sugar free options)

I made a batch of Easter Chocolate.  Lots of candy to choose from in the stores but it's so easy to make up a healthier version of a chocolate Easter treat.   Chocolate can be a delicious sugar free option.  Especially with great products like Stevia, Vanilla Stevia is what I used today in this chocolate.

I used flavored marshmallows in this chocolate to give it an Easter feel but this recipe is mainly about making sugar free chocolate.

Melt some good unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.  I use a Ball Canning jar to melt and store my chocolate in so I don't waste whatever isn't used each time.  It stores well in the refrigerator for the next recipe.  I can easily add more chocolate to the jar when it gets low and can melt the chocolate right in the jar.

I usually put the whole jar in a bowl of hot water and set it on the warming burner on the stove top.  You can easily do this same process in a microwave but the bowl of water does speed things up and can keep the melted chocolate warm until you're ready for it.

Today, I mixed in about 1 tsp. of Vanilla Stevia (NuNaturals)
to sweeten the cocoa.  I've also used a little butter sometimes to give it a gloss. 

Chocolate is very much an experiment and can be adapted for whatever your recipe needs are when you make it from scratch like this.  It does take a little practice.  It's nice to taste your test batches though! 

For molds, I use a lot of 'take out' food container lids to pour the hot chocolate into.  I've found they make a good thickness and the bar pops out easily, stores cleanly in the fridge and I can make a couple flavors at a time using these dish lids.   Obviously you can use any glass or heat proof plastic to pour the chocolate into.  Just letting you know what I've used for a while now that works well.

This homemade Chocolate is a healthy and cheaper option than store bought and you can adjust flavors and ingredients to family and friends health concerns or allergies.  Give it a try.  It's easy!

HAPPY EASTER!

Thanks for all the NuNaturals Orange and Lemon Giveaway entries!

Ginger Snap Truffles

Winner of the Best Price Nutrition Probiotics Giveaway was Courtney.

This is a quick and easy recipe from Kraft Foods for tasty little ginger bites.

They only took 30 minutes to make and will probably be gone before I finish posting this if I'm not more controlled. They're wonderful!

I've adapted it to be Dairy Free:

1 8 oz. tub of Toffuti Non Dairy Cream Cheese (or TJ's or other non dairy)

40 + Organic Ginger Snap Cookies ( I used Nature's Promise)

finely crushed to make about 2 1/4 cups, divided

8 Oz. of Non Dairy Chocolate, melted

MIX cream cheese and 2 cups cookie crumbs until well blended.

CHILL the mixture until it is firm enough to roll in your hands.  I had to work fast here.

SHAPE into 30 (1-inch) balls; place in single layer in shallow pan. Freeze 10 min. Dip in chocolate; place in single layer in shallow waxed paper-lined pan. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs.

REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Keep refrigerated.

Here's the Kraft Foods version for regular Dairy Cookies:

Ginger Snaps Cookie Balls recipe

Thanks for all the Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil Giveaway Entries