CHOCcreative, Raw Chocolate Recipes, May 2010

At the end of April, having seen myself of telly (Heston’s Feast!), I decided it was high time to try out the amazing appetite suppressant qualities of raw cacao and see if I could lose 14lbs in time for our summer holiday in July. I have embarked on a CHOC Shot diet and with the help of Diet Freedom and Sam from Miss Fit in Brighton; I’m getting a lot of inspiration on healthy eating and ways to increase my overall fitness. Follow my progress on my CHOC Chat blog and fingers crossed I will manage to drop a dress size enjoying the foods I love, drinking lots of healthy CHOC Shots and exercising a bit more.

Guilt Free & Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

We are constantly looking for alternatives to high fat, high sugar and processed foods and our friends at Diet Freedom are brilliant at creating utterly divine recipes that are gluten free, lower GI/GL and simply more nutritious.

This cupcake recipe is a CHOCalicously guilt free alternative. The Sweet Freedom, a natural syrup made 100% from fruit, replaces sugar, ground almonds replace highly processed white flour, olive or cold pressed rapeseed oil replaces butter (rapeseed oil has half the saturated fat of olive oil) and our CHOC Chick raw cacao powder is not only rich and delicious but it’s dairy free, sugar free and CHOCfull of antioxidant flavanols.

Makes approximately 12 CHOCtastic Cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 25g CHOC Chick raw cacao powder
• 100g ground almonds
• 50g olive oil or cold pressed rapeseed oil
• 100g Sweet Freedom Natural Syrup
• 3 medium free range eggs

For the icing (optional)

• 125g low fat cream cheese
• 1 tbsp CHOC Chick raw cacao powder
• 1 tbsp Sweet Freedom Natural Syrup (Rich)
• Fresh fruit to decorate such as raspberries or strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas mark 3.  Place 12 medium sized paper cases into a bun tin.
2. Sift the baking powder and raw cacao into a large bowl.
3. Add the almonds and mix well.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, Sweet Freedom and eggs.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir together until completely combined.
6. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, about halfway up each one.
7. Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack and leave to cool.
8. In a small bowl, beat together the icing ingredients then spoon a little onto each cake.
9. Decorate with fresh fruit.

*This recipe is courtesy of Joy Skipper, Masterchef semi finalist and food stylist.

Visit our friends at www.sweetfreedom.co.uk for more decadently healthy recipes.

Dairy Free CHOC Lucuma Caramels

We couldn’t resist adding another CHOCtastic recipe this month. CHOC Chick Brenda has once again come up with a glorious dairy free and gluten free recipe to share.  Her CHOC Caramels are absolutely scrumptious and a super easy recipe to make with children (my daughters really loved making and devouring them!). 

Ingredients

Follow Simple Raw CHOC Recipe raw chocolate mix:

• 6 tbps CHOC Chick Raw Cacao Powder
• 70-100g CHOC Chick Raw Cacao Butter
• 1-2 tbsp Sweet Freedom or  Agave (to taste)

For the caramel topping

• 30g Butter
• 1-2 tbsp Sweet Freedom or  Agave
• 5g / 1 well rounded tsp Lucuma Powder
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla Bean Extract

Makes approximately 20-24 CHOC Caramels.

Directions

• Make the Simple Raw CHOC Recipe - place a teaspoon into 20-24 mini baking cases and leave to set in the freezer for around 10 minutes or half an hour in the fridge.

• Melt all the caramel ingredients gently over a bain marie and stir well with a metal balloon whisk.

•  Once melted, take off the heat and spoon over the chocolate bases.  Put in the freezer to set for around half an hour or 2-3 hours in the fridge. 

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