Brownies You Don't Have to Share

Let's face it.  Going without refined sugar can feel lonely and oppressive when you live in a world where almost everything contains high-fructose corn syrup or white sugar.  I often find myself drooling over carrot cakes in the displays at coffee shops, or dejectedly turning down chocolate chip cookies from coworkers.  

I just need to remind myself that since going refined-sugar-free, I've discovered some wonderfully decadent desserts that also are quite nutritious.  Tasty treats I can feel good about.  

What's great about this kind of decadence is that people who eat a lot of sugar don't think my delicious desserts taste as good as their sugary, buttery options, so it gives me an excuse to not even try to share!  

And, strangely, sometimes these things are so rich and nutritious that I'm full before I can pig out on them the way I want.

Here's an example.  I found this recipe for "Raw Fudgy Brownies," and decided to make a couple of changes to suit the contents of my cupboards.  I didn't have macadamia nuts, and I didn't have time to soak the cashews for 2 hours.  So I tweaked things a little.  Because coconut oil can be pricey, I only used it in the ganache and left it out of the brownie.  

Raw Brownies

2 cup mixture of cashews and almonds, soaked for an hour or more (try other nuts if you like!)

3 dates, chopped

1 cup almond flour (I just ground almonds in the food processor until they were as fine as they'd get without becoming almond butter)

2 Tbsp chopped walnuts

1/2 cup cocoa powder (or more if you want stronger chocolate flavor)

2 Tbsp maple syrup

Ganache

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup melted coconut oil

 

Soak almonds and cashews for an hour or more.  A few minutes before draining, add the dates to the water.  Strain and place in food processor, pulse until crumbly.

Add almond flour, cocoa powder and maple syrup and pulse until well mixed.  It will eventually become a little doughy, but will still be crumbly.  (Add melted coconut oil ~2 Tbsp or so ~ if you want it to be wetter.)

Dump the mixture into an 8x8 pan lined with wax / parchment paper and press down with back of spoon or with fingers.  

Blend the ganache ingredients in bowl until smooth.  Pour and spread over the brownies.  Chill in refrigerator for 10 to 30 minutes.  

Lift brownies out of pan using wax paper and place on a cutting board.  Cut with a large knife (to avoid sawing).  

Eat as many as you can, and don't worry about sharing with your sugar addict friends!

Cashew Frosting

Since cutting refined sugars out of my diet, I have been on an inspiring adventure which has involved discovering some of the wonderful things there are to eat that are healthy AND delicious.

Case in point:  Cupcakes with Frosting; made with almond flour and no sugar.

I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, however.  The recipes I've been using have all come from the blogs of folks around the country who struggle with major food allergies and other health problems that require them to change their diets.  Here's an inspiring website you can look at if you're interested in beautiful photos of attractive and delicious food.

And that's where I got the recipe for these tasty cupcakes.  I used this recipe for Strawberry Cake, but left out the strawberries because I didn't have any.  And I used mini-muffin tins instead of an 8" pan.  Then I followed this recipe for Vanilla Cream Frosting.  This is what astounds me:  The frosting is made of cashews, and it tastes great.  I had a brain fart, though, and neglected to add the vanilla.  I also didn't have any apple juice, so I used orange juice.  Even though I barely followed the recipe at all, I found this stuff to be really decadent and tasty. 

Festive Smoothie

Back in the day, when I ate anything and everything, eggnog was one of those things that did me in this time of year.  I'm not a big fan of most Christmas traditions, but eggnog I could drink all year if you made me.

This isn't eggnog, but it's tasty and festive enough to pass in my book.  I found the recipe on one of my favorite sources for healthy, refined-sugar free recipes.  I only tweaked it a little bit, because I wanted to use kefir, and I didn't have all the spices on hand.  Here's what I got:

Gingerbread Smoothie

1 banana (frozen or not)
1 cup homemade kefir* (I bet homemade yogurt or any kind of milk would do, too)
1 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Throw it all in food processor or blender and blend til smooth.  

I actually found this to be a little sweeter than I wanted.  Maybe next time I'll cut down on the banana or molasses. 

*One of these days I will find time to post about the wondrous world of kefir. 

Mint Chocolate Covered Patties

Today was a super painful day.  I had a bad night after my chiropractor appointment yesterday; kept waking up with a stiff / numb / sore arm and neck.  Then I overslept - which was so nice.  But oversleeping can destroy my back.  I usually live to regret that extra hour or so.  Today I slept in a full three hours!  So nice and cozy, but so dangerously bad for my day.

Before lunch I wrestled my snow tires (complete with rims) out of the basement of my landlord's barn and packed them into my car.  Later I scrubbed the bathroom floor and everything else.  The pain was really distracting and terrible, even as I sat and wrote a leisurely letter to a friend in Europe.  This idyllic snowy December day was kind of a nightmare.  

What's the solution to a nightmare day? 

Chocolate.  Dark chocolate.  

These tasty treats contain no refined sugars!  In fact, check out the short list of healthy ingredients: 

     The patties consist of: Dates, walnuts, cocoa powder, and coconut oil.
     The chocolate contains: Bakers Chocolate, coconut oil, maple syrup, and peppermint extract.

Yes, making these tiny nuggets of joy ruined my back even more.  But at least I was able to rest a couple of times, and at least my food processor made short work of some of the steps.  Find the recipe here.  (Her photography is much better than mine.)

So so yummy.

Celebration

I don’t think there are many of you out there who actually read this blog, so maybe it’s silly to apologize for such a long silence.  I’ve been a little busy with work and Thanksgiving, and I’ve been feeling pretty blah about things as I’ve continued to live with a pain problem that seems to have no real solution. 

But in the interest of attempting to be positive in these shortening days, with the approach of winter and the continuation of chronic pain issues, let me just fill you in on some of the big accomplishments of the last few weeks that are worthy of celebration.

I changed my timing belt.

That’s right.  On my car.  A friend from work helped me do it.  It took us 8 ½ hours, and then another hour or so the next day to fix a slight oil leak resulting from mis-aligning a gasket on the valve cover. 

I was in a ton of pain through the whole process, but I learned a lot and managed to save a few hundred dollars by doing the labor myself.   This was a big confidence builder.

I’m perfecting a bread baking routine.

My sister gave me a really simple, no-knead bread recipe.  It’s so easy that I’ve baked a loaf of bread every few days since I got over the initial inertia.  And the bread tastes great, toasts well, and keeps long enough that even as a single lady I can eat it all before it gets moldy.   It’s also simple and easy enough that I don’t mind sharing it!  I’ll share the recipe here eventually. 

Baking your own bread is another one of those things in life that builds confidence and makes you feel connected to reality in some way.  People have been baking bread in their homes for thousands of years, and it feels good to join the ranks.  It feels even better for it to be a simple, relatively painless process for someone like me who struggles with low-energy and high-pain. 

I bought a really nice food processor.

That’s right.  I splurged.  The old food processor that my sister gave me just wasn’t cutting it.  It couldn’t handle certain heavy jobs like pureeing dates.  If I’m to continue to avoid refined sugar, dates are going to be a big part of my dessert life.  So I bought a beast of a machine – from the Cuisinart Elite collection.  This thing can do anything. 

I contributed to Thanksgiving dessert over-indulgence.

Using my new food processor, I added to the glut of pies and desserts at Thanksgiving this year.  I made a Vegan and Refined-Sugar-Free Chocolate Cream Pie, some No-Bake PumpkinCookie Balls (with butternut puree instead of pumpkin), and some Almond-DateTruffles.  All turned out even more delicious than I’d originally fantasized. 

It’s a big deal for me to contribute to Thanksgiving feasts.  I normally leave all the work up to my much more capable brother and mother.  This year I knew I’d need to bring my own sugar free desserts if I was going to get anything sweet.  And it turned out to be another little victory in my battle against pain and lethargy.  Yeah, it hurt to do all the work, but some things are worthwhile.

I’m getting kefir grains!!!

I’m so excited about this.  I caught my new chiropractor (more on him later, maybe) showing off some kefir grains to the receptionist, and he ended up offering to give me some of the grains when I go to see him next.  I’m so excited to try to make my own kefir.  Once I figure it out, I’ll fill you in on how it goes. 

Banana – Sweet Potato – Chocolate Pudding

Ever have one of those days when you arrive home after a painful and exhausting day at work with little energy to fix a meal and only a random assortment of foods in the fridge?  Well, it happens to me all the time.  But for once, I resisted the temptation to find take-out on the way home, and I improvised with the contents of my fridge.

For dinner I had boiled eggs.  I figured it would be easier to clean up afterwards if I cooked them in their shells. 

“Dessert” was really part of the meal.  It was sweet, for sure, but you can’t shake your head disapprovingly at these nutrient rich ingredients.  I had a baked sweet potato, some bananas, and a cupboard full of baking necessities.  Here’s what I did:

Banana – Sweet Potato – Chocolate Pudding:

1 baked sweet potato – peeled and diced.

1 (or more) banana

a tiny bit of milk

4 Tbs cocoa powder

I whipped everything together in the food processor, added the cocoa powder toward the end, and waited till it gave me a nice pudding-like consistency. 

Who says you can’t have dessert for supper?

Tasty Earthy-Crunchy-Healthy-Hippie Molasses Cookies

I’ve been refined-sugar-free for about a month, and yes I’ve had dreams wherein I have devoured cannolis the size of burritos.  So far, I’ve satisfied my sweet tooth mainly with dried fruit, nuts, honey teas and banana bread.  But it’s time to pig out on cookies.  So here we go. 

I found this recipe on the interweb.  I made some alterations to make it suit my hippie wannabe desires. These things turned out to have a very pleasantly strong molasses / gingery flavor.  I think they will go wonderfully with my 10 a.m. breaktime coffee at work.  And with the exception of the shortening, they are super healthy!  (Even vegan!)

Molasses Cookies:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup wheat germ*

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup molasses

2 – 3 tsp blackstrap molasses (optional**)

1/2 cup shortening

* I was surprised to find that the wheat germ in the hippie / health food section of the supermarket was much cheaper than its counterpart in the main store.  I bought some Bob's Red Mill wheat germ at $2.79 per pound.  The stuff over in the cereal section was like $7.50 per pound. 

** I accidentally bought some blackstrap molasses a few weeks ago, thinking “blackstrap” was merely a brand name.  I decided to throw a couple of teaspoons of it into this recipe just to begin to use it up.  

Directions:

Assemble the dry ingredients together and set aside. 

In saucepan, slowly bring molasses to a boil over low heat.   

Remove from heat and add shortening, whisking until melted.  Add heated wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir well. 

Let cool for at least an hour or so.  (It will rise a little during this time.)

Roll into balls and press down on ungreased cookie sheet with either a fork or the bottom of a drinking glass.  Bake at 350° for 8 minutes or so, depending on the size of the cookies.  (Mine needed 10 or 12 minutes, but I think I made them rather large; next time I'll try smaller ones.) 

Prepare yourself for a wonderful aroma as these bake.  Enjoy with coffee or tea, and a healthy dose of self-righteousness.