Decadent crispy chocolatey goodness

When you think "rice crispy treats" what might come to mind (other than the fact that I spelled it with a "c" because the "k" version is a registered trademark) is the gooey marshmallow version that begins with melting a whole stick of butter. Perhaps you've even had one that includes chocolate or butterscotch chips (I know I have...yum).

Well. This recipe contains none of those. And it's phenomenal.

Chocolate Hazelnut Crispy Squares
from Clean Eating Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 3
serves 24

1/2 cup unsalted raw hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups unsweetened brown rice cereal (gluten free, if you so desire--Rice Krispies are not)
3/4 cup rolled oats (again, GF if you need that)
2 1/2 ounces dark chocolate (70% cacao or more), broken into pieces
1 cup unsweetened dried pitted dates, pureed
1/2 cup unsalted hazelnut butter (or other unsalted natural nut butter)
2 Tbsp raw honey

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine hazelnuts, cereal, and oats. Mix well and set aside.

2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler (small bowl set above a pot of simmering water). When melted, remove top part of double boiler from the heat and stir in pureed dates, nut butter, and hone. Stir carefully with a wooden spoon until combined. If mixture becomes difficult to mix, set over simmering water as needed.

3. Add chocolate mixture to bowl with cereal and fold in with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined. Spread into a 9"x12" pan, pressing firmly to even out the top. Refrigerate 30 minutes to let bars set. Cut into bars and serve.

These can also be rolled into truffle-like balls rather than into bars.

Nutrition information per 1 1/2 inch square:
Calories - 110
Fat - 6g
Carbs - 13g
Fiber - 2g
Sugars - 7g
Protein - 2g
Sodium - 0.25mg
Cholesterol - 0mg

Gluten freaking-good flourless cake

The H wowed us all with this (not-so-clean) dessert recipe for Thanksgiving. (I know! It was ages ago! I thought I had one more photo to upload, but I guess not. Sorry for the tardiness! Try it for Easter.) He found it in a gluten-free cookbook I have, and decided to make it all on his own. The only thing I contributed was the ingredients... and my phenomenal taste-testing abilities.

Check it out!

The cake was, as expected, very dense. It had an almost candy bar-like texture. Incredibly rich and delicious fresh or left over! I told him that he may have worked himself into a permanent position as family baker. This recipe will likely be requested for a long time to come.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
from Incredibly Easy Gluten-Free Recipes
serves 12

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
12 squares (1oz each) unsweetened chocolate
4 squares (1 oz each) semisweet chocolate
6 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup strong coffee
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, divided
1 cup whipped cream (optional) for serving

1. Set oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350*. Spray an 8-inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray, or grease with Crisco.

2. Beat cream with 2 Tbsp sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at high speed until soft peaks form; set aside.

3. Place all chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high 2-3 minutes or until chocolate is melted, stirring every 30 seconds. 

4. Beat eggs and remaining one cup sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at high speed about 7 minutes, or until pale and thick. Add melted chocolate, coffee, and salt to egg mixture; beat until well blended.

5. Fold the whipped cream (from Step 1) and 1/4 cup walnuts into egg mixture. Carefully spread into prepared pan; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup walnuts. Place pan in large roasting pan and carefully pour hot--not boiling--water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the side of the cake pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until set but still soft in center.

6. To unmold, loosen edge of cake with knife. Place a serving plate upside down over pan and invert. Serve warm, garnished with the optional whipped cream.



We had some extra batter and didn't want the cake to go *right* to the tippy-top edge of the pan, not knowing how much it would rise, so we played it safe and made a second, smaller cake on the side.


 
(the font may appear different-colored because I typed the recipe in Word and pasted into Blogger later)

Clean eating chocolate biscotti

Clean eating what?!

Yeah. Chocolate biscotti.

This is the first time I've made biscotti, so I can't truly compare the "clean" version to a standard recipe, but let me just say that when I was blog-browsing the other day and came across a biscotti recipe that called for more than a full stick of butter, I was content to let this recipe be my one-and-only. No oil or butter here! Plenty of flavor and crunch, though. Works for me.

Mix up a batch of these to go along with your spiced hot chocolate! These biscotti are more crumbly when fresh, but still not too hard to bite into after they've had a chance to age slightly.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti
from The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno
serves 15 (haha...)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raw unsalted whole almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped, divided**
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
2 tsp instant coffee crystals (I use one little instant coffee "tube")
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup Sucanat
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp grated lemon zest (I've never used this)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Place 1/4 cup of the almonds**, both flours, cocoa powder, coffee crystals, baking soda, and salt in a food processor. Process for a few minutes until the almonds are finely ground. Transfer mixture to a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

3. Combine sucanat, egg, egg white, extracts, and zest (if using) in a blender and process until foamy, about 3-4 minutes. My bullet-style blender works just beautifully for this.

4. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture. Add remaining chopped almonds and mix well.

5. Divide dough into two (very sticky!) lumps on the baking sheet. Shape into logs--wet your hands a bit if the dough is sticking too much.

6. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, reduce heat to 300*, and let logs cool 10 minutes.

7. Cut each log on a diagonal into ten pieces. Spread slices out on baking sheet and return to oven for another 20 minutes. Cookies should be dry to the touch.

8. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

**Rather than messing with the food processor, I've found that using 1/4 cup almond meal in Step 2 and mixing by hand, then crushing another 1/4 cup raw almonds by hand for use in Step 4, is less mess and just as effective.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

OK, so these aren't the cleanest. But who doesn't need a "dirty" little treat now and then? ;)

This recipe caught my eye because it looks remarkably similar (taste-wise, anyway) to the chocolate-covered, peanut-butter-filled pretzel nuggets The H used to devour, but has since had to give up due to that pesky wheat allergy. I made them with a peanut butter whose ingredients list simply says "peanuts" and The H's gluten-free pretzels.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

from EatingWell.com via My Adventures in Becoming Domestic

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup finely chopped salted pretzels

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1. In a small bowl, mix pretzels with peanut butter. Freeze for 15 minutes or until slightly firm and partially frozen.

2. Roll filling into balls about (about 1 teaspoon each) and place on wax paper-lined baking sheets (I used two sheets of parchment left from baking cookies earlier). Freeze for 1 hour or until very firm.

3. Melt chocolate (I used a double boiler) and coat each ball. Refrigerate or freeze until chocolate is firm.

I doubled the pretzels--the pb mixture was really quite runny with just 1/2 cup. I attribute that to my peanut butter, which is always rather thin, even after refrigerating. I also needed another 1/2 cup of chocolate for the last step. I ended up with about 32 truffles... or "peanut butter crack clusters."

Work quickly when you're coating these! Again, it could've just been my choice of pb, but these started to thaw/soften very soon after being taken out of the freezer. Their swim in melted chocolate didn't do anything to keep them together, either. What worked best for me was to use two fondue forks for the dunking and transfer back to the baking sheets.

Mine certainly aren't as pretty as either online version, but they sure are tasty. I used a 1/2 Tbsp measuring spoon for scooping the half-frozen mixture and didn't waste time rolling them into bally shapes. Obviously...

Enjoy--and have a glass of milk and napkin handy!