I’m finding all sorts of fun things to do with my home made nutella.
Today, the kiddo put a spoonful of it in hot almond milk.
Instant nutella hot chocolate.
That kid is a genius, I tell ya.
Meanwhile, I was scooping #70 cookie dough scoops of it into my hand, rolling it in balls, and rolling it in cocoa.
Or ground nuts.
Or coconut.
You get the idea.
Are we having fun yet?
(Just don’t leave these truffles out at room temp. They’ll get too soft.)
Nutella Truffles
I remember when nutella wasn’t readily available on the shelf of every grocery store in town. My sister, the francophile, discovered it when she went to France as a foreign exchange student. She came back raving about nutella on croissants for breakfast. Nutella on baguette for snack. Nutella on cake for dessert. It was all nutella. All the time.
We had to make a special effort to buy it. And, we’d get it for her for Christmas. And she loved us for it.
Now, nutella is easy to find. But, sadly, I can’t eat it. See, it’s full of dairy, which is definitely out for me. It’s also full of sugar, which isn’t so spectacular for me, either.
My version is not sugar-free. But, it is dairy-free. And, it’s as simple as it gets – just three ingredients. Even better, it’s a ratio recipe – meaning you can make as much or as little as you like, as long as you measure by weight.
The kiddo suggested eating it on apples. There’s my health-conscious kiddo for ya. I said, “Um, how about on these leftover banana pancakes instead?” He didn’t argue.
3 Ingredient Bittersweet Nutella
When cooking with ratios, you typically have 1 ingredient as the “base” ingredient off of which others are based. In bread, that’s the flour. In this nutella recipe, I’ve chosen the hazelnuts. I’ve listed the weights I’ve used in parenthesis after each ingredient. This batch makes enough to fill a quart pint mason jar about 3/4 full. To scale the recipe up or down, choose your weight for the hazelnuts and then do 1 and a half times more chocolate and twice as much coconut milk. Make sense?
1 part hazelnuts (100 g)
1.5 parts dairy-free chocolate, chopped fine (150 g)
2 parts full fat canned coconut milk (200 g)
Preheat oven to 350°. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, until toasted. Pour nuts into a clean dish towel and rub vigorously. Most of the skins will fall off. You may have to pick out the ones that are skinless and repeat the rubbing several times.
Transfer nuts to a food processor. Process until they become a creamy nut butter. (This takes about 10 minutes.)
In a double boiler or metal bowl over a sauce pan, heat the chocolate and coconut milk until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into food processor and pulse until mixture is fully mixed. Transfer to jars and cool.
I keep mine in the fridge. It does harden a bit more than regular nutella in the fridge, but softens at room temp, and is still soft enough to spread on sturdy bread or apples straight from the fridge.
For more slightly indulgent goodies, check out Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.
Some holiday traditions start when you’re a kid. They’re instilled in you by your parents, and you carry them with you all your life.
Frosting faces after frosting cut-out cookies? That’s one of those traditions.
Other traditions are borrowed, adapted, chosen as an adult, or gifted to you. Kolacky is one of those traditions. I never had one until my sister started working at a law firm with an administrative assistant of Czech heritage and generous heart. And every year she would make walnut kolacky for my sister. And every year, I’d get to eat it when we went to visit for Christmas.
One year, in my pre-gluten-free days, I asked for the recipe, and she generously shared it with me. But, I’d never made them. Some things are best when made by other people.
It’s been a few years since I’ve had her kolacky, and I still had the recipe in my giant 3-ring binder of recipes I’ve yet to convert.
And then I saw Cara’s post for Jam-Filled Kolache. Kolache, kolacky – same thing, different spelling. (Check out her beautiful photos for how to fill and shape these puppies.)
And I knew, this was the year.
Christmas Kolacky or Kolache - however you spell it.
6.25 oz coconut oil (softened)
1.5 cups (180 g) almond meal
1/2 cup (56 g) sifted coconut flour
1/4 t. salt
1/4 cup (28 g) arrowroot starch
1/2 cup warm almond milk
2 t. psyllium powder
2 1/2 t. yeast
The Night Before Baking:
In a measuring cup, mix together the warm almond milk, psyllium powder and yeast. Stir well and allow to sit for 5 minutes – until yeast starts to ferment and mixture (which will be very thick and gelatinous) starts to puff.
In the bowl of your food processor, pulse the coconut oil, almond meal, and coconut flour until crumbly. Add the proofed yeast mixture and process until well mixed. It will be sticky and wet. Scrape dough into a bowl. Lay plastic wrap on top of the dough and refrigerate overnight.
Walnut Filling
1/2 pound (8 ounces) walnuts
1 T. Earth Balance soy-free
2 T. almond milk
1/3 cup palm sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
In the bowl of your food processor, pulse walnuts until finely ground. In a small saucepan, heat Earth Balance, almond milk, and palm sugar until melted and sugar is just dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract and walnuts. Set aside until baking time.
(You don’t want to do this right before you bake, but you don’t have to do it the night before, either. You just want to make sure it’s fully cooled before filling the kolacky.)
On Baking Day
2/3 cup palm sugar – processed in a coffee mill until finely powdered
Preheat oven to 350°. Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with powdered palm sugar. Roll out half of the dough at a time. Cut with round cookie cutters. Transfer cut dough to a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Put a spoon full of walnut filling in the center of each circle, and fold two sides up to meet in the middle. You’re making a little “bowtie” kind of shape. Gently press the edges of the dough together. If the dough cracks, gently smooth over any cracks.
Repeat until all the dough is rolled, cut and filled.
Bake each sheet for approximately 12-16 minutes, or until edges are browned. Cool until you can handle the kolacky. Dust with additional powdered sugar, dumping off any excess back into the bowl.
These are best the next day.
While these are far from healthy, they do have a plethora of health-supporting ingredients – coconut oil, walnuts, almonds. And, it IS the holiday season. So, I’m thinking I MIGHT be able to get away with adding these to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend. Right, Ricki?
You know that saying, “best laid plans?” Well, that’s how things have been going around here lately. It’s December 5th and I haven’t made a single Christmas cookie.
Well, strike that. I made a raw cranberry almond pinwheel cookie. Um….no.
Anyway, this was going to be my post for the Secret Recipe Club. My reveal day isn’t for another 2 weeks. I was ahead of the game! I let the kiddo pick what he wanted us to make, and we got to baking. I let him make all the choices. And, by the end, we had something totally delicious. And totally, completely, unlike the original recipe, which was supposed to be a blondie.
Oops. Best laid plans….
These turned out dense and chewy and a whole lot like those date nut bars I remember from when I was a kid – the ones where you throw in a little of this and a little of that and come out with a chocolately, nutty, scrumptious thing.
Except this one doesn’t have any dates.
Anyway, it means I get to post this completely not holiday-esque, completely not Secret Recipe Club recipe today, instead of making you all wait 2 weeks.
That’s a bright side, right?
Magic, in a bar (too bad I don't have magic sunlight for the photo)
1/2 cup (96 g.) palm shortening
1 cup palm sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
1 T. ground flax seed
1 T. psyllium husk powder
2 t. vanilla
1 1/4 cups (150 g.) almond meal
1/4 cup (28 g.) sifted coconut flour
1/4 cup (30 g.) arrowroot starch
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup salted cashews
1/4 cup unsalted almonds
Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, beat the shortening and sugar with a hand mixer until creamy. Mix the boiling water with the flax seed and psyllium powder. It will be very thick. Add it to the shortening and sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the almond meal, coconut flour, arrowroot starch, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and cashews.
Spread the mixture into the greased pan. Press the almonds into the top of the dough.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Cool completely before cutting. (It will be very crumbly while warm and will become quite solid and chewy after cooling.)
Try this with whatever mix-ins you like. Coconut, other nuts, white chocolate, craisins, etc.
This may be more than slightly indulgent, but ’tis the season, right? Check out Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.
Thank you to everyone that entered the contest for the wonderful Glass Dharma straws gift certificate. I wish I could give you all a chance to try these great straws.
Glass Straw Fairy - If only she could visit all of us! (courtesy of Glass Dharma)
Sadly, I can’t. So, I’m pleased to announce that the winner is Andrea. Andrea said,
I like the lifetime guarantee against breakage and the fact that they are reusable!
Congratulations Andrea. I’ll be sending you an email soon to get your mailing information.
I’m super excited about this giveaway, because I love straws. Bendy straws. Loop-de-loop straws. Great big straws. Those itty-bitty straws you get in mixed drinks. Yep. I dig straws.
But, sadly, when I got all green and eco-conscious and such, I quit using straws. They’re made of soft plastic. In other words, drenched in nasty chemicals and destined to sit in the landfill for eons. *sigh* Badness.
But, apparently the love for straws is genetic, because the kiddo loves them, too. And, he always wants me to buy some for him. And, he’s always disappointed when I don’t.
And, then I found Glass Dharma - maker of beautiful hand-crafted, eco-friendly, reusable glass straws. Heaven. Kiddo is happy. I’m happy. The Earth is happy. (Okay, well, maybe not the Earth, but at least she’s not more annoyed with me than usual.)
Straw Diameters
Glass Dharma straws come in 4 diameters: sipper, ice tea, smoothie, and bubble tea. We’ve found the ice tea size to be the most versatile. It’s wide enough to use in a smoothie, and small enough to use with juice. If you make your smoothies super thick or very chunky, you might want to go with the smoothie size. We’re not bubble tea drinkers, and did not try that size. And the sipper size? Perfect for kiddie cocktails (or the grown-up variety).
Beautiful Bends, Straight, Decorative Dots
They also come in straight, beautiful bends, and decorative dots styles. The kiddo requested the beautiful bends, and there was some complicated kiddo algorithm involved in the decision – something about height of glass and height of table and bend of the neck to reach the straw and such. So when we bought the straws, we only bought the beautiful bends. When Glass Dharma sent additional samples for us to review, they sent 2 of the decorative dot variety, and the kiddo’s algorithm fell apart. Decorative dots rose to the position of “most beloved.” The shorty sipper decorative dot is now the most coveted straw in the bunch. Your kiddo mileage may vary.
Glass Dharma has an excellent lifetime guarantee against breakage. These straws are tough and are advertised as “unbreakable.” Well, I’ve never met an unbreakable that I couldn’t manage to break, and these straws are no exception. I’m a super klutz, in case you didn’t know. And, I managed to drop a beautiful bend straw onto my hardwood floor. It did not survive. Sadness. But, all I have to do is ship it back, and they’ll replace it free of charge. (Fellow klutzes make note – it helps to save your receipt and your shipping box.)
So, now that you know I love these straws, and the kiddo does, too, I’d best give you a kiddo creation with which to enjoy them, right?
The Most Coveted Straw
1 banana, broken into pieces
1 large handful of spinach
1 T. raw cacao powder
2/3 cup frozen cherries
2/3 cup So Delicious Unsweetened coconut milk (for raw, use 1 T. coconut butter + 2/3 cup water)
1 t. maca powder (optional)
Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
Are you ready for your own Glass Dharma straws? Glass Dharma has generously offered to give one lucky reader a $25 gift certificate! All you need to do is tell me what you love most about Glass Dharma. For bonus entries, you can also like Glass Dharma on Facebook, follow Glass Dharma on Twitter, like The Mommy Bowl on Facebook, or follow The Mommy Bowl on twitter. Leave 1 comment per person, (not one comment per entry) and let me know which things you’ve done. I’ll put all names on a spreadsheet with one entry per name, randomly sort them and announce a winner 1 2 weeks from today, on Sunday, November 27th December 4th. (I realized that lots of folks are probably away for the holidays. So, to be fair to everyone, I’m going to hold this open one more week.)
Please note that Glass Dharma provided free products for me to review. I was under no obligation to provide a positive review, nor did I receive monetary compensation. All opinions expressed above are solely my own.
I’ve already posted a recipe for Choco Nut Drops. But, I got a question on that post wondering if they could be made somehow without the peanut flour.
I get substitution questions often, and while I always try to offer my best guess, I rarely actually try out what I suggest.
Except these are cookies.
And we all know cookies are my favorite thing.
And, they were already grain-free and vegan. And chocolate. And peanut butter.
Like you could stop me from trying out my suggestions. Jessica – this one’s for you.
Choco Nut Drops - No Peanut Flour Needed
1 cup natural smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup palm sugar
2 flax eggs (2 T. ground flax + 6 T hot water)
1 t. vanilla (I may have just dumped whatever was left in the bottle in there this time. Maybe.)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup (28 g) sifted coconut flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, beat the peanut butter and palm sugar until creamy. Add the flax egg and beat until well incorporated. Add the rest of the ingredients (except peanuts) and beat well. Knead a few times to form a dough. The dough will seem greasy. Don’t worry. The cookies don’t. Knead in the peanuts.
Scoop spoonfuls and roll into rough balls. Flatten them with the palm of your hand onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
I haven’t forgotten about that giveaway coming up later this week. I’ll give you a hint. It’s something you can reuse over and over again. And it’s something that kids love. Don’t forget to check back later this week!
For more slightly indulgent recipes, check out Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.
