Chocolatey Banana Bread

Banana bread is a very convenient way to use up blackened bananas.  This recipe for banana bread contains a high amount of whole grains, with chocolatey undertones and chopped nuts for complexity.  It is a good bread for breakfast, with a dough that is not too moist or too dense, thanks to the combined efforts of the baking soda and sour cream.

Ingredients:

♕1 cup / 120g whole wheat flour
♕.5 cup / 50g rye flour
♕.5 cup / 65g white flour
♕2 t / 9g baking soda
♕2 T / 11g cacao powder
♕3 T / 25g dark chocolate, chopped and/or shaved
♕1 cup / 200g turbinado sugar
♕.75 cup / 180mL milk
♕1 tsp / 5mL vanilla extract
♕.25 cup / 55g coconut oil
♕3 very ripe bananas
♕2 eggs
♕4T / 58g sour cream
♕10 hazelnuts

Procedure:

♕Preheat oven to 375˚F /
♕Sift together flours, cacao powder, shaved chocolate, and baking soda.  Add sugar and stir.
♕Mash bananas into a paste in a separate bowl.
♕Melt coconut oil and stir into bananas.
♕To banana mixture, incorporate milk, vanilla extract, eggs, and sour cream.  Stir until
homogeneous.
♕Chop hazelnuts roughly.
note: a mortar and pestle is ideal for this.  Shoot for chunks the size of pebbles.
♕Once the oven is ready, quickly divide mixture into two standard (8' by 3' / 21cm by 8cm) pans.
♕Top with hazelnuts, and bake for 45 minutes.

Healthy Chocolate Covered Fruit

In Russia, it is rather common to serve tea with small candies.  A popular sort of small candy is chocolate-covered dried fruit, stuffed with a nut.  This recipe recreates these candies, but while it is very tasty, it is also very ugly.  Do not let the appearance discourage you!
This procedure can be used as a guide for lots of different fruit and nut combinations.  My very favorite is prunes with toasted almonds.
The chocolate sauce can of course be substituted with simple melted chocolate.  The charm of the coconut-oil based coating is that it smells very strongly of coconut, and you control the amount and type of sugar as well as cacao powder.  If you do choose to use melted chocolate instead, know that the layer of chocolate on each fruit will be much thicker.
In such a simple recipe, quality must be high.  Use good chocolate, aromatic coconut oil, soft dry fruit, and toasted nuts for candies worth serving with tea.

Ingredients:

♕18 dried apricots, whole
♕18 walnut halves
♕3T / 50g extra virgin coconut oil
♕3T / 25g cacao powder
♕2T / 25g sugar

Procedure:

♕Melt the oil and sugar.  Stir in the cacao powder, making sure to avoid clumps.
♕In each apricot, make a long slice, so that the apricot becomes a pocket.
♕Place one nut in each apricot.
♕Dip apricots in to the chocolate mixture, and place on a piece of parchment paper.
♕Move to a cold place.
♕At this point, the chocolate coating will be rather thin on the fruit.  If you wish to make it thicker, allow coating to dry and quickly redip the candies.
♕Allow the coating to harden completely, and serve.

Healthier 15 Minute Sundaes

 

I realize that most sundaes take approximately three minutes to assemble, so this recipe's main selling point is that it will clog ones' arteries slightly less than a sundae made with all store-bought components: The fats are healthy saturated type, the sugar can be modified (white granulated, honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, or even stevia can all be easily accepted by the recipe).   Most importantly, the flavors compliment each other very well.  I was very happy after eating this.

Ingredients:

♕1.5 cup / 355mL whipping cream
♕3T / 45mL brewed coffee no sugar
♕1.5T / 25mL vanilla
♕5T / 70g coconut oil, solid
♕5.5T / 30g cacao powder
♕1/3 cup+ 3T / 90g+40g sugar (separated)
♕2-5 bananas
♕Optional: pineapple, berries, raisins, nuts, or even more bananas for topping

Procedure:

♕Put a large metal bowl and the beaters to an electric mixer into your freezer.
♕Brew some coffee, make it strong.

♕Microwave coconut oil to melt it.
♕Mix in cacao powder and 1/3 cup / 90g sugar, and stir until homogeneous.  Set aside, it should be more or less fluid.
♕Once the coffee and chocolate sauce is done, remove the metal bowl and beaters from the freezer.
♕Allow 3T/ 45mL coffee to cool while you pour the cream into the bowl.
♕Whip the cream, starting at a low speed and ending fast.  Near the end of the whipping process, add vanilla, coffee, and sugar.
♕Slice your bananas.
♕Into three or four large serving glasses, layer banana, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.  Top with other things, if you so wish.  The chocolate should become solid soon after being poured.


♕Serve immediately or after refrigerating, with coffee or strong tea.

Dark Chocolate Strawberry Truffles

These truffles were surprisingly successful.  They have an interesting fruity aroma that can be attributed to the walnuts and strawberries working in tandem.  They are completely raw, vegan, and have about 20 minutes of hands-on time.

Ingredients:

♕ 1 cup/150g walnuts
♕ 4 strawberries
♕ 5T/45g cacao powder note: I used cacao powder without any sugar, but with vanillin added.  If you do want to add a vanilla aroma to your truffles, either use vanilla enriched cacao powder (if you have it), or add powdered vanillin.  the recipe will be too wet to accept liquid vanilla extract.
♕ 2t/6g molasses
♕ 2 T/20g agave
♕ 3T/45mL coconut oil

♕ pinch salt
♕ splash strong, unsweetened coffee
♕ 1 cup/100g cacao nibs or unsweetened coconut flakes note: with the cacao nibs these truffles become less sweet than if you just ate the batter.  If you are fond of a higher sweet:bitter ratio in chocolate treats, you can either add more sweetener or roll the truffles in both cane sugar and cacao nibs.



Procedure:

♕ Soak the walnuts overnight.
♕ In a food processor, combine all ingredients save for the cacao nibs or coconut flakes.  Process into a smooth paste.
♕ Scoop out teaspoon-sized balls of your paste and roll in the cacao nibs or coconut flakes.
♕ Refrigerate for at least two hours, or freeze for at least 10 minutes.
♕ Serve with coffee.