Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate Syrup

1½ cups coconut sugar or maple syrup
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
dash of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Heat all the ingredients together.

You can serve it warm or refrigerate it until cool.

Chocolate Milk

Place about two tablespoons of syrup into an 8oz cup of cold milk.

It is great for topping ice cream or dipping fruit in it as a chocolate fondue.

You could also make hot chocolate. 

Chris' Coconut Peppermint Hot Chocolate

I found a hot chocolate recipe at Elana's Pantry, which inspired us to come up with this recipe. Chris was excited about the coconut milk. We had never thought about using coconut milk in our hot chocolate. It made it rich and creamy. 

Chris’ Peppermint Coconut Hot Chocolate
2 servings

½ cup coconut milk

1 ½ cup whole milk

3 tablespoon cocoa powder

¼ cup coconut sugar

¼ teaspoon peppermint extract

Mix everything together and heat until warm. Serve with left over candy canes to stir with.

Gluten Free Almond Flour Brownies

I was amazed at how well these brownies tasted. The texture was very similar to the glutenous ones. They are so yummy, gooey, and have a strong chocolate flavor.

Almond Flour Brownies

3/4 cup almond flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules (optional)

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the almond flour, salt, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Melt 4 oz or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with the butter. Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and coffee granules together and then add the melted chocolate. Mix well and add it to the dry ingredients, mix again. Pour the mixture into a greased 8 x8 pan. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

In Korea cocoa powder is cheaper than chocolate chips and Korean chocolate chips are sweeter than what we would buy in the states. So we are going to use cocoa powder in the future instead of the half cup of chocolate chips for melting. We will still add the remaining chocolate chips onto the top.

Gluten-Free No Flour Peanut Butter Cookies

Gluten-Free No Flour Peanut Butter Cookies

I found this recipe at Nurturing Naturally. There are so many things I love about this recipe. It only has 5 ingredients. They are mostly equal parts so I only need one measuring cup. It is gluten free but does not use an expensive substitute that I don't have access to in Korea. They only take a few minutes to mix together and bake in the oven. They are very thick and delicious. You will not miss the flour. Chris said he would want me to make these even if we were not on a gluten free diet.

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Measure out the brown sugar first. Rinse the cup slightly. To keep your peanut butter from sticking to the measuring cup you can add a small amount of olive oil to the cup to grease it up and the peanut butter will come right out. Add the egg and baking soda, mix everything together. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Place the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. Press down the cookies with a fork. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. They take 14 minutes in my oven. Let cool and serve with a large glass of milk. They will be really soft when the first come out of the oven but they will harden as they cool.

Chocolate, Banana, Peanut Butter and Honey Smoothie

2 frozen bananas broken into pieces
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup peanut butter
dash of cinnamon
1 cup milk
1 tbsp honey

Place all ingredients in blender, blend until well mixed. If a thicker smoothie-shake is desired, add more frozen banana after blending other ingredients.  Pour into glasses and serve.  Makes two tall glasses of smoothie.

Chocolate Cup Cakes

Chocolate Cup Cakes

1 1/2 cup of sugar
1 3/4 cup of flour
3/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 cup of boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line cup cake pan with liners
3. Combine dry ingredents, add liquid ingredients minus the boiling water; beat on medium speed. Add in the boiling water. The batter will be very thin. Pour into cupcake pans about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 22 - 25 minutes.


They should look like this.

Not Like This:

This is what happens when you forget to add flour to the batter. I calls these my "Gluten Free" Cupcakes.

Gluten-Free Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I am trying to eat healthier. I would like to cut back on sugar and white flour. I am so excited that Elana from www.elanaspantary.com came up with this recipe. While making it I ran out of agave nectar so I used about 3/4 of what it called for and then added honey to make up for it. You can completely replace the agave with honey.


Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies 2 ½ cups almond flour ¼ teaspoon sea salt ¼ teaspoon baking soda 10 tablespoons butter, melted 1 tablespoon vanilla ½ cup agave nector 1 cup dark chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients, then combine the wet ingredients and then mix the two together. Often I just mix them in the same bowl I haven't noticed a difference. Use a spoon to form them into cook shapes on a cookie sheet. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

French Silk Pie

French Silk Pie

6 Servings Prep: 40 min. Cook: 10 min. + chilling

Ingredients

1 precooked pie shell

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon instant coffee

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

4 teaspoons sugar

Whipped cream and chocolate curls, optional

Directions

Prebake your pie shell (Click here for recipe). It should be room temperature when you add the filling.  In a sauce pan mix the sugar and eggs until blended. Cook over low heat and stir constantly until the mixture is 160 degrees or coats the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat. Add the cocoa powder, olive oil, coffee, and vanilla. Mix until smooth then let cool to room temperature (About 90 degrees), stirring occasionally.

In another bowl, cream the butter and add the chocolate mixture. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes. In a blender mix the cream and sugar. Beat on high until the cream is firm. You will hear a difference in the blender when it reaches this consistency.  Fold the cream mixture into the chocolate mixture. Pour into pie shell. Chill for at least 6 hours.

Chocolate Covered Bananas

I was bugging Chris one night  to find us a snack. I usually have only one rule when it comes to snacks: it must always involve chocolate. One night we were almost completely out of chocolate (yes, my world was coming to an end) and Chris came up with this quick and simple snack.

1 banana
2 tablespoons of Nestquick chocolate milk powder

1. Split the banana in half long ways and place it on a plate
2. Sprinkle the banana with the chocolate powder
3. Place the banana in the freezer for 15 minutes until chilled. 

The first time we made this we froze the banana competly and it was to hard to bite into. We have also tried it without putting it in the freezer and came to the conclution that 15 minutes is just enough to chill it.

Enjoy. This is a quick, simple and not too unhealthy snack.

Skillet Brownies

We were given several boxes of brownie mix in one of our first care packages from America. We struggled with how we could cook them since we don't have an oven. At first we tried using our toaster oven. All I can say is that it was a disaster. So Chris came up with the idea of cooking the brownies in a skillet. Yes, at this point we were desperate to eat brownies.

1 box of brownie mix
Eggs (amount the box calls for)
Oil (Also the amount called for on the box)

1. Mix all of the ingredients as listed on the back of the brownie box, except omit the water. 
2. Heat a large skillet on low heat
3. Place spoon fulls of brownie mix in the pan in the shape of cookie.
4. Treat them like pancakes. Cook them for a long time on low heat on the first side. Then when they look done flip them over and cook them for only a few minutes on the other side. 

If you are not able to get brownie mixes from the states don't buy them in Korea. They are about 9,000 won which is equivilant to 8 or 9 American dollars. On the same isle as the brownie mixes you can find almost all the ingredients that you need to make your own mix.

For a gluten-free brownie recipe try Gluten-Free Almond Flour Brownies