Chocolate, Cherry & Oat Balls

Imagine chocolate crinkle cookies. Now think about Russian teacakes — you know, those cute little balls covered with powdered sugar that are the mainstay of holiday cookie swaps. Then let your mind flit over to oatmeal-raisin cookies. What do you get when you put them all together? Chocolate, Cherry & Oat Balls. Or, if you prefer, Chocolate, Raisin & Oat Balls. Made with 100% whole-grain and no refined sugar, of course.

I was inspired to come up with this recipe when a friend said that his two favorite cookies were chocolate-chip and oatmeal-raisin. Seeing as I was completely out of my beloved 85% chocolate bars (a crisis that I’ve since remedied by means of restocking), I went with the chocolate crinkle approach of using cocoa powder instead. And since I happened to have oats and dried cherries on hand, I threw those in as well. Necessity is the mother of culinary invention, too!

Chocolate, Cherry & Oat Balls
Makes about 64 cookies.

1/2 cup sorghum flour*
1/2 cup brown rice flour*
1/2 cup teff flour*
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably non-Dutched/non-alkalized (the baking soda will react better if the cocoa is still in its natural acidic state)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Dash sea salt
1/2 cup rolled oats (be sure to get gluten-free oats if you’re making gluten-free cookies!)
6 T. butter, preferably from grass-fed cows (Kerrygold and Organic Valley are great choices), softened
3/4 cup to 1 cup sucanat
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, preferably from free-range hens
1 cup dried cherries OR raisins
1/2 cup cocoa nibs (optional)
Powdered sucanat for dusting/rolling (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F and cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and oats. In another large bowl, cream the softened butter for at least a full minute. Note that if you use butter from grass-fed cows, the butter will soften in about 10 minutes when left at room temperature since the butter naturally contains less saturated fat (which is very stiff when refrigerated). If you use conventional butter, plan on letting the butter sit out in the bowl for at least an hour to soften.

Gradually add sucanat to butter, creaming as you go. If you want not-so-sweet cookies, go with 3/4 sucanat; if you want cookies that approach a more traditional sweetness, use 1 cup. (I used 3/4 cup.) Beat in vanilla and eggs, then beat in flour mixture. If you are using wheat-based flours, stir in the flour rather than using an electric mixer. Either way, finish by stirring in the dried cherries and nibs.

Refrigerate the dough for 20 to 30 minutes to get it hard enough to roll into balls without the dough unduly sticking to your hands. Shape into balls 1″ across and place on parchment-covered sheets. Bake for 11 minutes. You’ll need to do two batches, so while the first one is baking, go ahead and shape the second half into balls and put them on a waiting plate. When the first batch is done, let the sheets cool for about 5 minutes or until you can comfortably touch them, then reload and rebake.

If you’d like to roll the cookies in powdered sucanat as a finishing touch, run some standard sucanat through a spice or coffee grinder while the first batch of cookies is baking. Put the powdered sucanat in a small paper bag. Drop the fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies into the bag 4 at a time, scrunch the bag closed, and gently upend the bag so that the cookies roll around inside and become coated with sucanat. Remove cookies and repeat with the remainder.

Let cool completely before storing the cookies in an airtight container. Warm cookies can be eaten immediately, of course.

Enjoy!

* These are gluten-free flours. If you’d like to make a wheat-based version of this recipe, use equivalent amounts of kamut, spelt, and/or whole-wheat flours instead.

Peanut Butter, Coconut & Cocoa Truffles

Not that you ever need an excuse to enjoy some good-quality chocolate, but now that the holidays are here, what better time to make your own truffles?  And this version is much, much quicker to make than the traditional version, because instead of slowly heating cream and chocolate and then using molds to get a glossy-smooth finish, you can zip these ingredients through a food processor and then roll them by hand with a minimum of mess. (Major bonus point: using dates makes the mixture stick to itself more than it’ll stick to your hand.)

What you roll your truffles in will determine the final flavor combo, so choose whatever suits you best.  In addition to the options listed here, you could also use ground nuts or even mix a hint of spice — cinnamon would be wonderful! — into whatever accent you choose for your batch.

(I will say that the traditional cream-and-chocolate way is fun, too.  About a year ago, I posted a recipe for dark chocolate truffles with roasted corn.  Feel free to make those, too, and then compare them!)

No-Fuss Holiday Truffles

For the dates:
6 ounces dates, pitted
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably non-Dutched
1 tsp. vanilla

For the accents:
Peanut flour
Additional cocoa powder
Flaked coconut

To make the truffles, place the dates, pecans, cocoa powder, and vanilla in a food processor. Process in spurts until the mixture comes together in one large ball. You may need to add a teaspoonful or two of water to get the ball to form.  Having that ball is important, because that means the mixture will stick together enough to make little truffle-sized balls. Place the big truffle ball in a large bowl, cover tightly, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (You can keep it in the refrigerator for a day or two at this point if you like.)

Roll the truffles into 1″ balls. Pour a little of each accent onto a clean plate and roll the truffles on the plates, only rolling each truffle in one flavor so as not to confuse your taste buds. (Peanut flour is great and so is flaked coconut, but I’m not sure about the combination…) I split my truffle pile into thirds and rolled each third in one flavor so that I would have a nice assortment at the end.

Store your truffles in an airtight container in the refrigerator…that is, if they last that long!

Enjoy!

Mexican Mole Stew

Although we’ve become accustomed to the taste and style of European-made chocolates (most American chocolatiers stick to Continental methods when it comes to cocoa), the great chocolate traditions originally came from Mexico — specifically, the Aztec civilization.  They drank their chocolate unsweetened, accenting their frothing cups with chilies, cinnamon, and vanilla rather than sugar. Not surprisingly, their richly-blended hot chocolate beverages were the province of the ruling class.

Remnants of that penchant for combining cocoa and spices can still be tasted in today’s Mexican mole family of sauces.  They’re flavorful and thick (although not chunky) and are particularly popular with chicken.  Although many sauces qualify as “mole” from the standpoint of being a type of sauce — guacamole, for one — in modern culinary parlance, mole refers to the tomato-based sauce that also contains cocoa powder, crushed chiles, and cinnamon.

Whether you use a sweet chile like sweet paprika (which is dried sweet red bell peppers) or one that’s closer to cayenne is up to you.  Also, since certain brands of chili powder are blends of chile pepper and red pepper that have already been underscored by cocoa, cinnamon, and cloves, sometimes just choosing the right chili powder can give your dishes a bit of a mole feel.  You can also make your own Aztec version of hot chocolate by adding cinnamon, cloves, and a hint of cayenne.

Mexican Mole Stew

1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, cut into thin rounds
2 T. chili powder, preferably Spice Hunter
1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sea salt
32 oz. broth (can be vegetable, chicken, or beef, although if it’s the latter two, preferably broth from free-range animals)
15 oz. canned black beans (the Eden line of canned beans is BPA-free)
15 oz. canned diced tomatoes
3/4 cup frozen peas
3/4 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pasta (corn pasta happens to go wonderfully with this recipe and is gluten-free, but any whole-grain pasta is fine)
Lime juice to garnish

In a stockpot or large soup pot, sautée onion in 1 T. butter or ghee over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add garlic, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in spices and cook for another minute. (Heating the spices in the fat gives them a chance to release their essential oils and therefore their flavors.)

Stir in broth, vegetables, and almonds. Since I use Eden beans — which are in BPA-free cans and are only seasoned with kombu seaweed and sea salt — I like to add the entire undrained can of beans, but that’s up to you. (I find that the bean “juice” thickens the stew nicely.) Let stew simmer for about 20-30 minutes. More time won’t hurt a bit, so if you want to let it happily burble away while you tend to other matters, feel free. Stews like this taste even better when they’re cooked for a long time. (They’re also delicious the next day, after they’ve “married”!)

Check the noodle package to see how much cooking time your pasta requires and add it accordingly. If the noodles require 10 minutes, for example, stir them in 10 minutes before serving, then immediately remove stew from stove.

(Note: if you’d like to make this a meat stew, feel free to stir in strips/cubes of leftover cooked meat when you add the pasta. If you have a tougher cut of meat in mind — i.e., one that will benefit from long cooking — cook it at the very beginning with the onions and let it stay in the pot the entire time. I often brown oxtails at the beginning if I want to turn the vegetable stock into beef stock.)

Squeeze a squirt of fresh lime juice into each bowl before serving. You could also serve the stew with sour cream, cheese, or fresh cilantro.

Enjoy!

PB&C (Peanut Butter & Cocoa)

Who doesn’t like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup?  Peanut butter and chocolate just go together.  But I guarantee that once you make your own PB&C in solid form or smoothie/shake form, you won’t ever want to go back to the prepackaged kind.  The homemade variety tastes better, it’s a whole lot better for your health, AND you probably already have the ingredients for it on hand.

In the interest of brevity, I’ll just put it this way:

Milk Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Milk Non-Fat, Milk Fat, Lactose, Soy Lecithin, PGPR, Emulsifiers, Peanut(s), Dextrose, Salt, TBHQ (off the Reese’s label)

OR

Whole milk , 100% peanut butter, cocoa powder, maple syrup (out of your own blender).

Seriously, you gotta try making your own!  I swear you’ll never want a commercial PB&C again.

Liquid PB&C

Blend 1 cup whole milk (preferably from grass-fed cows, like Calder’s or Organic Valley), 1 T. 100% peanut butter, 1 T. cocoa powder, and 1 T. maple syrup (preferably Grade B) until smooth.  Enjoy!

Traditional PB&C

Dunk a square of dark chocolate (at least 70%; I go for 90%) in 100% peanut butter.  Enjoy!

Ultra-Chocolate Brownies

Warning:  these are not for the faint of heart–i.e., those who prefer milk chocolate to dark.  These brownies have such a high cocoa content, in fact, that the batter doesn’t flow into the pan, but rather behaves more like a semi-malleable chocolate bar that you have to spatula in one clump at a time.  Don’t expect the baked brownies to have the traditional moistness, either–there’s simply too much pure cocoa in them to allow for that.  In short, if you don’t like seriously dark chocolate, you won’t like these.  If your idea of “dark” is 85%, though, you’ll be in Theobroma heaven.

As a cocoa purist, I refuse to add nuts to my brownies, but you could certainly do that if you’re a nut fan.  Chopped dried fruit would also be interesting to add to the mix. Also note:  you can easily transform these ultra-chocolate brownies into gluten-free ultra-chocolate brownies by substituting brown rice flour for the standard wheat flour and doubling the amount of baking soda to 2 teaspoons.  (Pictured brownies are gluten-free.)

Thoroughly grease an 8×8 glass baking dish and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, whisk together:

1/2 cup coconut oil or melted butter
1 cup sucanat
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt roughly 3.5 oz. or 100 grams of 99% dark chocolate bar in the microwave and stir into mixture.  (The best 99% is made by Lindt, but Scharffen Berger is a close second.)  Note on melting chocolate:  only heat (on stove or in microwave) until the chocolate is partially melted.  Stir to melt the remaining chunks.  Do not heat chocolate until it is completely melted–you will burn it and ruin it.  The best way to make sure you don’t overdo it is only put it into the microwave for about 45 seconds at a time so that you can monitor how fast it’s melting.  You’ll be amazed at how rich and smooth the melted 99% is–Nestlé this ain’t.  You won’t see oily spots floating on the surface, and the color will be almost black.

Whisk chocolate mixture until smooth, then thoroughly stir in:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour*
1 tsp. baking soda*
1/4 cup cocoa powder (for a fuller flavor, avoid Dutch-processed)
3.5 oz or 100 grams of 75% dark chocolate, broken into chunks.

Use a spatula to get the batter into the greased pan.  Try to spread the batter out as evenly as you can; you may find it easier to work with if you grease the spatula.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Cool in pan before cutting into squares.

Now, that’s a brownie!

*For gluten-free brownies, substitute 1/2 cup brown rice flour and 2 tsp. baking soda.