Chocolate chia pudding

This is delicious, I adapted it off another recipe I saw but as always made it my own. If you want it to set properly you can leave it overnight. If you just want to enjoy the goodness that same night, leave it in the fridge for 15 mins and then devour it (in a healthy way of course!).

Ingredients:

1 cup Oat milk or Lactose-free milk or Almond milk (for this one I use Oat milk)
1 Tbsp Stevia (I used PureVia)
2 Tbsp cocoa
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1 x vanilla pod

Directions:

1. Place cocoa in a bowl and pour in the cup of milk
2. Whisk until all mixed together
3. Scrape seeds from vanilla pod and place into bowl
4. Add chia seeds and Stevia and whisk mixture again
5. Pour mix into glass cups and place in fridge for a minimum of 15 mins or overnight for firmness
6. Serve

Raw organic cocoa balls

You can make these little morsels of joy with cacao but I only had cocoa on hand. You need only a few ingredients for this. It's a delicious treat you can make as a gift for friends or just to munch on by yourself.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp organic coconut oil (softened)
2 Tbsp greens and black organic cocoa
150g ground almonds
2 Tbsp xylitol
3 Tbsp desiccated coconut

Directions:

1. Put the cocoa, ground almonds and xylitol in a bowl and mix together

2. Add coconut oil and mix thoroughly until the ingredients clump together. If necessary, add a touch more coconut oil

3. Take one heaped teaspoon of the mixture and put it in your palm and roll the mix into a ball

4. Roll the ball in desiccated coconut and repeat for the rest of the mix

5. Place all the balls in the fridge for an hour or two

6. Serve

Low sugar luxurious chocolate mousse

This is one of my favourite desserts and it perks me up after a bad day. It is an occasional treat but careful it is addictive. For those avoiding caffeine you could make this with carob but for this recipe I have used dark chocolate.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
150g dark chocolate (I usually use chocolate that is over 70% as it has a lower sugar content but this is at your discretion)

Directions:

1. Place dark chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Make sure the water doesn't touch the bowl
2. Separate the eggs, with one bowl holding egg whites only and the other the yolks
3. Use an electric blender to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. You know they are done when you can place the bowl over your head and nothing falls on you :P
4. Turn the heat off the pot of boiling water once the chocolate is melted 
5. Place the egg yolks into the chocolate and mix quickly
6. Remove the bowl from the pot and grab 2 tablespoons of the egg white mixture and fold into the chocolate gently
7. Once this is done fold the rest of the egg white mixture into the chocolate but be sure not to overwork as you still want it to be light and airy
8. Place the mixture into little cups and place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight
9. You can serve with shavings of chocolate or any red berry

Healthy sugar free "Nutella"

So I don't touch Nutella any more. After reading the ingredients in it I was seriously put off by the amount of sugar in it and the fact they use modified palm oil. I decided to make my own version as essentially it's cocoa and hazelnuts, however I try to avoid caffeine so I made mine with carob. Carob tastes like chocolate but you can tell the difference, so if you're not avoiding caffeine then stick with raw cacao, which has been touted as better than cocoa.

 

 

Ingredients:

1 x cup of shelled and skinned hazelnuts (taking the skin off is a pain otherwise)

2 Tbsp carob powder (or raw cacao)
1 x vanilla pod
1 Tbsp of xylitol (or 1/2 Tbsp liquid stevia)

Directions:

1. Roast hazelnuts in the oven for 5-10 mins or until they get a nice colour on them. Make sure to watch them because if they burn your spread is ruined
2. Let cool for 5 mins and then place hazelnuts in food processor
3. Scrape out beans from vanilla pod and place in food processor along with the xylitol 
4. Scrape down hazelnut mix in food processor and keep it on for 10 mins until it starts to become like a spread consistency
5. Add the carob powder into the hazelnuts and allow to mix
6. Once the mixture is the same consistency as regular Nutella it's ready

Flourless chocolate brownies - gluten free and no sugar

Tonight was my first attempt at a flourless chocolate brownie. Was delicious and I tweaked it from a recipe I got from allrecipes.co.uk for a flourless chocolate cake.

Ingredients:

100g 85% Lindt dark chocolate
150g organic unsalted butter
80g Greens and Black Organic Cocoa
2 x vanilla pods
3 x eggs
150g Xylitol (this is a sugar alcohol that I used to replace sugar)
100g strawberries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C (gas mark 2). Grease an 20cm round cake tin, and dust with cocoa powder.
2. Separate the eggs and set aside the yolks for later
3. Whisk the egg whites until they are soft peaks
4. In a bowl over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter
5. Scrap vanilla beans out of pods
6. Once melted remove chocolate and butter from the heat and let cool for about a minute
7. Stir in egg yolks, xylitol, cocoa and vanilla
8. Gently fold in a heaped tablespoon of the beaten egg whites into the mix
9. Put mix into bowl of remaining egg whites and fold gently until egg whites can no longer be seen
10. Pour into the prepared cake tin.
11. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely
12. Serve with slices of strawberry, you could also serve with melted dark chocolate or raspberries