Mint Chocolate Cake

What I made for St. Patrick's day:

Leprechaun-friendly.  Will trade for pot of gold.

MmmMmm. I made 4 mini cakelets.

THE RECIPE:

Flourless Chocolate Cake:

4 ounces fine bittersweet chocolate -- I used a little under 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, plus ~ 4 tbs coconut sugar
1/2 cup ghee (or other butter substitute)
3/4 cup coconut sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt

---> Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8 inch round springform pan, or four 4-inch springform pans.  Line bottom of pan with a round of parchment paper, and grease the paper.
Chop chocolate into small pieces. In a microwave safe bowl, Melt the chocolate over low heat, and stir in butter substitute until they are melted together.
Add cocoa, then whip in eggs, vanilla, and salt.
Pour the batter into cake pan(s).
Bake for ~25 minutes.  Let cool in springform pan.

Mint Frosting:
1 can full-fat coconut milk, chilled. --> scoop the thick coconut fat off the top of the can, after it has chilled. leave the watery stuff behind.
mint extract, to taste (i used ~1/8 tsp)
green food coloring (I usually don't use food coloring.... but i couldn't resist!!)
Add powdered xylitol and erythritol in 1:1 amounts until desired consistency
     Note: to make powdered xylitol/erythritol, add the granulated form to a magic bullet, with a dash of tapioca starch or potato starch.  The starch will help it to 'powder' easily. Bullet until powdered.

Topping:
Shaved mint chocolate bar.
    I used Endangered Species Chocolate, Mint Chocolate and shaved off curls using a vegetable peeler.

Assembly:
After cake has cooled in springform pan, pour frosting on top of cake. Chill until frosting is firm.  Then add chocolate shavings on top of frosting.  Garnish with mint leaves if desired.

To serve, gently remove sides of springform pan, then transfer cake onto serving platter.  Enjoy!

Rainbow Truffles

Orange creme heart.

Purple raspberry.

Truffles galore!

Coconut creme eggs.

Pink strawberry delight-- my favorite!

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 Naturally flavored, naturally colored, and even featuring tempered chocolate! What is tempered chocolate, and why temper?

Short answer: tempering chocolate allows it to retain its crispness, darkness, and shine. But! it's a tricky process (which I really only half-attempted here! but, it kind of worked!)

Long answer: Tempering is a process that uses temperature to control the crystal structure that develops within a material-- whether it's steel, or chocolate. In the case of chocolate, tempering allows the chef to ensure that only one type of crystals form. Naturally, chocolate can form six different types of crystals-- meaning that the structured array of its molecules can for in six regular patterns. Which of these patterns, or crystal structures, forms is determined by temperature. The most desirable crystal structure for the chocolate chef is most stable when forming around 89 degrees F.

So-- to temper chocolate, when using melted chips? First, melt chips to around 104 F to melt ALL crystal structures that may have previously been present. Next, let chocolate cool slightly and "seed" the mixture with some un-melted chocolate of the same type. The seeding causes the melted chocolate to adopt the crystal structure of the newly added chips-- provided that it doesn't melt again! To prevent the destruction of the desired crystals, do not heat the seeded chocolate over ~89 degrees. (Tricky tricky.)

I semi-did this for my recipe, and it semi-worked! I DID achieve nice, dark, glossy chocolate with a snap- thus, I consider my chocolate tempered. However, as I was making a fair amount of truffles, I had to re-heat my chocolate halfway through, and at that point it got too warm and un-tempered itself. This was evident by the lighter color and softer-shell of my egg-shaped truffles. Additionally, both varieties "sweated" when I stored them in the fridge- an undesirable effect that I'm not sure how to prevent.

Either way, tempered, untempered, chocolate is delicious. I was especially excited about these creations, because they feature natural foods as colorants! Just wait, colored frosting is next.... eventually ;)

THE RECIPE:

Filling Base:

1 c soaked cashews
2 tsp almond milk
1/2 tsp chia seeds, powdered
1 tsp lemon juice
8 drops liquid stevia

Use the following combinations to make the base into different flavors and colors:

Lemon:
1/2 tsp lemon juice
5 drops stevia

Green Banana:
1/4 large banana
1/8 c baby spinach
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp arrowroot powder


Purple Blackberry:
10 blackberries
5 drops chocolate raspberry stevia
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Coconut Creme:
1 tsp coconut oil
tiny dash salt
1 tsp almond milk
2 tbs coconut
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp agave

Pink Strawberry:
2 large strawberries
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp agave
1 crack spoon stevia

Orange:
2.5 tbs cooked sweet potato (~1 inch slice)
1 tsp agave
~7 drops {/ 1/8 tsp) orange extract / or use grated orange peel


To get nicely shaped truffles (like the heart pictured above) freeze fillings in shaped ice-cube trays, or equivalent. I used silicone ice trays that made it easy to remove frozen shapes without having to grease or line them.

EDIT: to get even better, 100% PERFECT shapes (not pictured, yet), chill shaped ice-cube tray (silicone, or greased with coconut oil). Then, generously coat insides of the shaped well with chocolate mixture. Next, scoop filling in, and top with an even coat of chocolate to seal it off. Refreeze. Then, when removed, shapes will be perfectly molded!

Chocolate shell:
1 bag Sunspire Grain-Sweetend Chocolate Chips--> use a double-boiler (or two nested pots) to JUST melt (aka, not over-heat) chips; add:
1/4 c coconut sugar
1 crack spoon stevia
3 tbs coconut oil
seed with ~1/4 c more chocolate chips, stir until smooth; do not over-heat chips, if you want to maintain "tempered" consistency!

Dip frozen filling-shapes into the chocolate, or use a spoon to help coat all sides. Place on waxed paper to set. To make egg shapes, roll semi-frozen filling between fingers to an oval shape, then roll in melted chocolate.

Check out Foodista for more Homemade chocolate truffles!

Homemade Chocolate Truffles

Cookie Baskets

All the cool kids are getting them.

I don't think there's a single ingredient in the recipes for these that is ACD friendly, so I'm not going to post them. But how can you not love a cookie on a stick?!