Whole Food Honey-Sweetened Chocolate Goodness

Chocolate is tricky when you're eating no processed sugars.  I was a really good girl when I was following the GAPS diet.  I thought that meant deprivation.  So I did not partake of chocolate for more than a year, since I couldn't find any that tasted good and used whole food ingredients.  My amazing friend Angelica Orr helped me see that life can be both delicious and healthy. She brought me this amazing hot fudge, as well as the PB chocolate cups, and I was inspired.  We found hot chocolate (and the cake that's on another post) with the help of my dear friend Nicole R, who adapted her daughter's birthday party treats to accommodate my little girls (I love you Nicole!).  The ice cream recipe was inspired by three I found online (after we had a lot of raw milk and needed help using it for a while).  Thanks ladies!   Happy healthy chocolate eating.  :)

Whole Food Hot Fudge

THANK YOU Angelica Orr!

1/3 c. coconut oil
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1/3 c. raw honey
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. milk or almond milk
1/4 tsp. sea salt

In a small sauce pan, heat ingredients on medium-low until everything is melted together, whisking constantly.  Store leftovers in fridge.

Honey Chocolate Ice Cream

1 c. honey

3/4 c. cocoa powder

1/3 c. butter

1 pinch sea salt

3/4 tsp. vanilla

1 1/3 c. cream (raw milk cream is perfect)

2 2/3 c. whole milk (raw milk is divine)

Combine honey and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan; stir to incorporate

Add the butter, burn the heat to low on the pan, continually stir to combine

Turn off the heat once most of the butter has melted and continue stirring until the butter is fully incorporated.

Add the cream a little at a time, stirring after each addition, to fully incorporate the chocolate sauce

Add the milk, stir to combine.  Add salt and vanilla.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours

Follow instructions on your ice cream maker.

Honey Sweetened Hot Chocolate

Adapted from "Recipes to Nourish"

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 Tbsp. raw honey

3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

In a sauce pan, heat milk on medium low heat until warmed through

In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, honey and extract until you make a sauce (like for the chocolate ice cream)

Stir the syrup into the warmed milk and enjoy.

Makes 1 serving

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix 

Just 3 ingredients!  You can make this ahead and just add warm milk when you are ready)  SO DELICIOUS!

http://deliciouslyorganic.net/homemade-hot-cocoa-chocolate-mix/

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups

THANK YOU Angelica Orr!

1/2 c. coconut oil

1/2 c. natural peanut or almond butter

1/3 c. cocoa powder

1/3 c. raw honey

1 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan on medium heat just until melted together.  Use mini muffin pans and paper liners, fill cups 3/4 full.  Makes 24.  Store in the fridge.

Incredible Whole-Food Chocolate CAKE!

Since we began our whole food journey two years ago, I've been looking for a really good cake recipe.  Each birthday celebration would come and go with sad imitations, and my children were very good-natured about it.  But coconut flour recipes I'd used in the past never really got the texture right.  I consigned myself to this new texture, and moved on.  Until...my friend Nicole invited us over for a birthday party and served this delightful cake.  I was in love.  My birthday is coming, so I thought I'd post it in celebration.  My 12 year old is now in charge of cake-making, and I love that he can!  This recipe is based on this post: http://paleospirit.com/2012/paleo-chocolate-birthday-cake-coconut-honey-frosting/

We love to use raw milk and cream in our recipes, and I don't drink coffee, and we prefer honey...so I modified some things.  Here it is!

Amazing Chocolate Cake (Grain-Free/GF, honey-sweetened with DF option)
(makes two 9-inch cakes)
1 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. sea salt
9 eggs
3/4 c. coconut oil/butter/ghee, melted (plus some for greasing pans)
1 c. honey
3/4 c. raw milk (or water for DF)
1 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
parchment paper (to line cake pans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease cake pans and line with parchment paper
Sift coconut flour into small mixing bowl
Add cocoa, baking soda and salt to coconut flour and mix until combined
Put your whisk attachment on your Bosch/KitchenAid
Whisk the eggs in your mixer
Add the melted oil (or butter/ghee), honey, milk (or water) and vanilla to the eggs
Continue to mix until combined
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients
Mix on low until completely combined
Scrape the batter into the two cake pans
Spread out the batter so it is relatively smooth
Bake for 30 minutes, inserted toothpick will come out clean when baked through
Cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes
Loosen the cake from the pan and allow to cool completely.
Frost and enjoy!!

Gluten Free Crust (not grain free)

GF Pie Crust

There are lots of great tutorials online about making pie crusts, so if you need help, find a good one on YouTube.  This is just the ingredients and basic instructions.

Ingredients:

1 & 1/4 cups Namaste GF Organic Perfect Flour Blend (or your fave GF flour)

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/3 cup butter

1/4 ice water

Combine flour and sea salt in a medium bowl.

"Cut-in" butter with forks or whisk.  Keep cutting until butter is pea-sized.

Add water 1-2 tablespoons at at time. Use your fingers to get the flour wet (gently).  You're not mixing!  Mix gently until it's all evenly mixed.  You want to make the dough barely wet enough to form into a ball.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface, until about 1/8 inch thick.  Gently lift your crust onto your pie plate and follow pie directions (if you need to precook the pie crust, go for it).

Fill with yummy pie filling and enjoy!!

More GF, Honey-Sweetened Yummy Pies!!

It's Thanksgiving time, which means yummy pies on the table.  We struggled our first two years eating GAPS to find dessert recipes that we could eat.  It was a depressing first Thanksgiving.  Then my amazing friend Erica Miller shared her pies with us, and was kind enough to share her recipes.  She created a GF/DF/Honey-Sweetened Cream Pie recipe that is versatile and tasty.  We can now eat some grains, and we eat raw dairy, so we have modified the recipe a bit.  You will see our notes in parentheses.

Honey Sweetened Chocolate Cream Pie 

(Gluten-Free, Grain-Free + Dairy-Free option)

THANKS ERICA MILLER!!

Crust
2 cups blanched almond flour
2 Tbsp. coconut flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil (or butter), melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling
2 Tbsp. water
2 & 3/4 tsp. unflavored gelatin (1 envelope)
2 & 1/2 cups coconut milk (we use raw milk)
3/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp. sea salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
4 egg yolks
1 & 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For crust, combine ingredients and press into a 9 inch pie pan.  Bake for 12 minutes at 350. Erica found that the crust was really thick, she doubled the recipe and made 3 crusts with it).

For the filling, in a small bowl shake the gelatin over the 2 Tbsp of water and set aside.

In a medium saucepan heat coconut milk (or raw whole milk) and cocoa powder.  Combine egg yolks, honey and salt in a separate bowl.  Temper the eggs by adding half of the heated coconut milk to the egg yolk mixture, whisking continuously.

Return mixture to the saucepan and cook for 6 minutes, stirring frequently.  Do not allow to boil (eggs will curdle and get chunky--but it is still salvagable).

Whisk in the gelatin and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring to ensure the gelatin is dissolved completely.  Mixture is just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Add vanilla.  Pour the mixture through a mesh sieve (to catch any bits that curdled or didn't dissolve well) into the pie pan (we have skipped this step before when we know we didn't curdle the mixture).  Let stand at room temperature until cool then refrigerate.

Variations:
Chocolate Mint...add 10 drops peppermint essential oil to the crust mix.  Add 5 drops to the filling at the same time you add vanilla.

Banana Cream...omit the cocoa powder from the crust and decrease oil to 2 Tablespoons.  Omit the cocoa powder from the filling and decrease honey to 1/2 cup.  Cut some banana pieces into the pie crust before pouring the filling.  Top with more banana slices just before serving.