She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens - Proverbs 31:15

Sweet Treats

Click on the title links for easy navigation to recipes

Gran's Crunchies
Healthy chocolate fudge
Oatmeal Choc-chip cookies
Banana muffins
Delicious light chocolate cake (wheat and gluten free)
Almond Cookies (wheat and gluten free)

Gran's crunchies

250g butter (1 cup or x 2 sticks of butter)

150g (3/4 cup) rapadura

3 - 4 tablespoons of honey

A pinch of salt

500g oats (or x 1 16 oz packet of Bob's Red Mill Organic Old Fashioned Rolled Oats)

8 tablespoons of coconut (you can use a little more)

Melt butter, rapadura, honey and salt together in a pot/saucepan. Take the butter/rapadura mixture off the heat and stir in the oats and coconut.  Press into a baking tray and bake at 350F for 25 - 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then cut into squares. Allow crunchies to set before removing from pan. Store in an air tight container.

 Posted by Michele O'Donovan

Healthy chocolate fudge

My favorite healthy recipe website is 'The Nourishing Gourmet'. Do yourself a favor and take a look at the delicious, nutritious recipes found there! You will be inspired!
(The following recipe is a slightly adapted version of the Nourishing Gourmet recipe by Kimmi Harris)

1 1/4 cup organic cocoa
1 1/4 cup extra virgin cold-pressed coconut oil
1/2 cup ground xylitol (I grind my xylitol in a coffee grinder)
10 drops stevia
1 tsp organic vanilla extract

Place all the ingredients in a glass bowl and stir until well mixed.
Pour into a glass dish lined with wax paper and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Take out and cut into bize size pieces, then return it to the fridge.

ENJOY!

 Posted by Nicki O'Donovan

Oatmeal Choc-chip cookies

1 ½ cups of organic wholewheat flour and ½ cup of rice flour OR 2 cups of organic wholewheat flour

1 cup rolled oats 

3/4 tsp. baking powder 

1/2 tsp. baking soda 

1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

6 T butter, softened 

2 eggs 

1/2 cup honey 

2 T organic rapadura (or 2 T of molasses)

1 tsp. vanilla essence 

2 cups (total) of a mix of dark chocolate chips, sliced almonds and sunflower seeds 

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, eggs, honey, rapadura, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix, using hands if needed.  Roll into balls and place onto a lightly greased baking/cookie sheet, press slightly with a fork and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven, wait 5 minutes, and then remove to wire rack to cool.

Yields: 3-4 dozen

Posted by Michele O'Donovan 

Banana Muffins

125g butter
3/4 cup xylitol
20 drops stevia
2 eggs
2-3 large bananas
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1t organic vanilla essence
2 cups organic spelt flour
3/4t baking soda
1t aluminum free baking powder

Cream butter and xylitol and stevia.  Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add mashed bananas, vanilla essence and fold in dry ingredients. Spoon mixture into cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes at 350°F

Yields 12 muffins

Posted by Nicki O'Donovan

Delicious light chocolate cake (wheat and gluten free)

1/2 cup coconut oil or butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1 cup xylitol
20 drops stevia
3/4 t salt
1 t organic vanilla extract
9 eggs
3/4 cup Coconut flour
3/4 t baking powder 

Mix oil, cocoa and milk in a pot on a low heat on the stove until coconut oil is melted. In a separate bowl beat the eggs, xylitol, stevia, salt and vanilla extract. Add melted cocoa mixture to the egg mixture and stir well. Lastly beat in the coconut flour and baking powder. Pour into 2 round greased pans (lined with parchment paper) and bake at 350°F for 35 minutes. 

Icing:
Ice the cake with frosting or ganache of your choice. Put icing between the two rounds and pour over the top. Sprinkle with roasted hazelnuts. 

The icing I use is:
1 1/2 slabs of dark chocolate
1/3 - 1/2 cup of cream (depending on the consistency of the ganache)
1 T butter 

This makes a delicious rich ganache.

 Posted by Nicki O'Donovan

Almond Cookies (wheat and gluten free)

2/3 cup butter
3/4 cup xylitol
1/2t guar gum or xanthan gum
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1 t vanilla extract
2/3 almond flour

Combine xylitol, guar gum, rice flour, vanilla and almond flour in a mixing bowl.  Add softened butter and mix together with hands until a dough is formed.  Take golf size balls of the mixture and flatten onto a greased pan.  Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F.

For this recipe I used my friend's Pampered Chef cookie press to make gorgeous looking cut outs.  I also baked the cookies on my Pampered Chef Stoneware. Go here to see more Pampered Chef kitchen utensils.  

 Posted by Nicki O'Donovan