Tagalongs

Chocolate Covered Katie

Ingredients

• 2 cups raw whole almonds and grind in food processor (Or make your own by grinding slivered almonds in a vitamix, blender, or coffee grinder until very finely ground) (200g)
• just over 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda (I accidentally used 1 t instead, but turned out fine)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup or honey
• 1/2 cup peanut butter OR allergy-friendly sub, thinned out with milk of choice until spreadable
• 1/2 cup carob powder. choco chips work too (80g) melted with 1 tsp oil, OR use healthy chocolate sauce (recipe below)

Total Time: 20m

Yield: 12-16 bars

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment, and set aside. In a measuring bowl, stir together the almond meal, salt, baking soda, vanilla, and sweetener (and water, if using) to form a dough. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan, and use a second sheet of parchment to smush the dough out evenly, pressing down again and again until it covers the bottom of the pan. Bake 12 minutes on the center rack, then let cool at least 20 minutes before either frosting right in the pan or removing from the pan and then frosting with the peanut butter. Spread the chocolate on top, then chill to set the chocolate layer.

Healthy Chocolate Sauce or Hot Chocolate Butter

• 4 tablespoons (60g) virgin coconut oil
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (52g) carob/cocoa powder. (For a sauce, decrease to 1/4 cup)
• 2-4T honey

Melt the coconut oil and honey  in the microwave. My honey was old and granulized, but the micro smoothed it out. Add the cocoa. Stir stir stir! Stir until it gets thick like Artisana Cacao Bliss.

For Magic Shell or Healthy Chocolate Sauce:

Decrease cocoa powder to 1/4 cup and keep all other measurements the same. Also, if you re-heat it for a few seconds, it’ll get thinner. And if you freeze it, you can make incredible chocolate bars… or even chocolate chips! Just break up the chocolate bars into little pieces.

Frozen Banana, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip shake/Dairy free- ice cream

From The Kitchn

Use a food processor or blender,

Makes 1 large shake or 2 small shakes

2 medium FROZEN bananas, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
1/4c peanut butter
1/4c  cup skim or 2% milk, or coconut milk, or almond milk
1/4 cup chocolate chips (could use cacao or cocoa powder)

Freeze the bananas in a covered container for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

Put everything except the chocolate chips in the machine. Mix/Chop till smooth, then add choco chips, I like to have a little more chunks, so don't puree long.

More banana ice cream recipes- Quick ice cream

Carob VS. Chocolate (cocoa) VS. Cacao

Amy's thoughts on Comparison:  
    Personally for me I want to feel a little more self control when it comes to chocolate. So I've reached out to try carob powder instead of chocolate.  They appear they both have their pros and cons to both sides.  The cacao powder seems to have significantly more vitamins and nutrients but still has the caffeine impact.  Maybe a balance of all of them.  But cacao is a more pure form of chocolate (cocoa).  It is just what you prefer. (amy)


    1.  Chocolate (cocoa) has stimulants called- caffeine or theobromine, can give migranes if your prone to it,  iron, magnesium, copper, and manganese.  (Found from Quick and Dirty)
    2.  carob powder is lower in fat but significantly higher in carbohydrates and sugar, significant amount of calcium (Found from Quick and Dirty)
     3. Cacao powder contains the minerals calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc, contains flavanoids which are beneficial for cardiovascular health



What is carob?
Carob comes from the pod of a tree that grows along the Mediterranean Sea called the carob tree. Once dried and roasted, the pulp is ground into a powder called carob flour,  This website also has recipes for- carob cake, granola bars, and no-cook energy balls...  carob should be consumed with plenty of water
From Whole Foods



How are cacao and cocoa different?
cacao and cocoa are both made from pods of the theobroma cacao plant.
      Cacao however avoids the roasting processes and is just grinded into powder.  Cacao powder has a stronger, more bitter flavour, and is packed full of nutrients and antioxidants.  
      The cocoa powder is roasted, grinded, usually (dutching) potassium carbonate, is added to the powder making the cocoa less acidic. Studies show however that heavy dutching destroys as much as 90% of the antioxidants.
      Carob doesn’t contain the theobromine that chocolate contains. Generally speaking carob chocolate has lower calories and less fat than chocolate made with cocoa, although it does have a different flavour.  It’s also a good source of vitamin A, B vitamins and some minerals.
From First be healthy