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!

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

Cheerios Creamy Peanut Butter Cookies

Silicone Flower Cookie Mold

I wanted to come up with something new using the Peanut Butter Cheerios I won in Love Veggies and Yoga's  giveaway last week, (thanks again Averie!) and I wanted to use a new silicone mold I found at TJ Maxx Friday

so here's what the results are:

White Chocolate Banana Cream Peanut Butter Cookies.....................wow, too long of a name Huh?

Anyway, here's what's in them and I'm sure you could use any type of cupcake mold to make the same shape for them.

For the cream layer:
2 large frozen bananas slightly thawed
4 oz. Dairy Free Cream Cheese ( I used Tofutti)  softened
1 tsp. liquid Stevia
1 tsp. Agave nectar
Blend all these ingredients in a blender until ice cream like mixture is achieved.  Store in the freezer until ready to spoon into molds.

I had about 2 oz. of melted dark chocolate and 2 oz. of white chocolate for layers

And the peanut butter layer is:

2 Tbs. melted organic spread like Nature's Promise
1 tsp. liquid Stevia
1 1/2 Tbs. Natural Unsweetened Peanut Butter like Crazy Richard's
1 cup of Cheerios cereal (new Peanut Butter flavor)
Blend all these in a food processor until crumbly wet mixture is achieved.

Spray the mold or pan with some vegetable spray lightly.

Spoon in the first layer with enough dark melted chocolate to cover just the bottom of each section.
Cool in the freezer until firm.
Spoon on the second layer just like the first with white melted Chocolate and cool again in freezer.

3rd layer is a Table spoon or so depending on what mold you're using, of the peanut butter mixture pressed down firmly into the mold leaving enough room for the final layer of cream.

Peanut Butter and Cheerio crumbs

The final layer is filling what space is left in each section with a spoonful or so of the banana cream mixture, you might need to let it sit out a minute before spooning it into molds if you've had it in the freezer a while.  Smooth out the cream as this will be the bottom of each cookie.
Optional:  I pushed some more Cheerios down into the cream layer to finish off the bottoms.

Freeze the finished cookies until firm and then unmold or pop out of pans.  Keep frozen for storage in a sealed container.

PS:  I took the leftover melted chocolate I had and mixed in some more Peanut Butter Cheerios and made an awesome crispy chocolate bar..............yum, thanks again to Averie and General Mills for their inspiration on these.  I will be purchasing more soon! 

Enjoy!
This post is linked to:  http://simplysugarandglutenfree.com/  and http://glutenfreepantry.blogspot.com/2012/02/allergy-free-wednesdays-blog-hop-week-5.html
http://allergyfreecookery.blogspot.com/2012/02/allergy-friendly-lunchbox-love-22412.html