Dark Chocolate Bark

 

I've recently been on this chocolate crave. Within the past week, I've adopted at least five different brands of dark chocolate (now that school is over, all I do is eat and sleep) into my home. As I've cut refined sugars out of my life as much as possible, the darkest chocolates have slowly become sweet. Most days, I'll be perfectly content with solely dark cocoa powder in my oatmeal -- no sweeteners.

So let me now introduce you to my new favorite chocolate bark. Spicy mama, meet my lovely reader. When I took my first nibble of the bark, my taste buds were pleasantly surprised. 

Chili and bittersweet chocolate is a relatively new concept in the western world, albeit it is well-known to many South American cultures. To many people, bittersweet and dark chocolate is too...bitter (for lack of a better word). With the delightful heat however, the chocolate becomes somewhat intriguing. 

My favorite part about the bark is that the chili is undetectable while you're indulging and then BAM!  It reveals itself after you go nomnomnom.

 Anyways, enjoy!


Recipe: serves 6
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup pistachios
7 apricots, chopped into 4ths
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Combine pistachios, apricots, chili powder, and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. With a double boiler, melt the chocolate (or melt in the microwave with 30 second increments, stirring between each increment). Stir in the pistachio mixture.
3. Pour the pistachio-chocolate mixture onto the lined baking pan. Use a spatula to even out. Sprinkle with salt and refrigerate until hard, and then break into pieces.
   

Notes:
- My entire batch was about 250g
- Store in an airtight container
- If you are feeling ballsy, up the chili powder to 1/2 tsp cinnamon

With love,
Grace

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Chocolate Jar Cake

OK...don't hate! This was the only photo of the actual cake that I have. Down below I have photos of before the cake was cooked and after the cake was eaten. After the jar cake was ready, I was way too eager to eat it. This pictured bite was right before I remembered I was supposed to take photos before scarfing the cake down. Oops, guess you'll have to make one yourself! After all, it only takes a few minutes :)

This is a perfect pre-mother's day food to show Mommy some extra love, right?

My first time making mug/jar cake was when I was still in middle school. It seems like ages ago. Perhaps it's been seven years? What I remember is browsing on Internet Explorer on the huge monitor that seems obsolete these days. I'm not quite sure how I found it, but boy oh boy, I was beyond excited.

How it ended was with a spongy, rubbery cake overflowing my souvenir mug with a middle school girl sighing in disappointment. Since then, I've been skeptical of every mug cake I've come across.

No fears though! This is very cake like, what I desire in every chocolate cake: moist, chocolatey, fluffy, satisfying... It's perfect for satisfying that sweet tooth. 

Now I know it's not "healthy", but it's healthy for the soul (I've been doing too much yoga these days if there's such a thing). Plus, it's a single serving size, so you can't really over-indulge, right? (Unless you're actually not lazy and make another one.) Anyways, enjoy!

The Raw Brownie

 Sarah from My New Roots said she'd change my life with this brownie, and now it's my turn to change your life.

Reading about raw brownies had me double-taking the title. What could be better than a dark chocolate brownie that's good for you, yet ridiculously simple to make? I am truly grateful that I found this recipe. While a gooey, hot out-of-the-oven brownie is still enjoyable, this one is a life saviour in the sense that it allows for the daily splurge whilst acting as a saving grace for your health and diet. Although the ingredients for this brownie are potentially expensive, I can genuinely say that it has become my go-to recipe. Oh right, you like no-bakes right?

Banana Bread Oatmeal

Oatmeal has been my most recent food obsession. I've eaten some sort of oatmeal related item throughout the day for at least 3 weeks now. Someone call me cray cray.

When I was younger, I was disgusted with the thought of mushy gunk for breakfast. Instead, I was more like, "Yo, seriously, where's my Life Cereal at? Lucky Charms...Poptarts?!" The only type of oatmeal I'd eat was from the little Quaker oatmeal packets. I'm so past that now. I'm actually contemplating starting an oatmeal series... Apple Pie oatmeal, Reese's oatmeal, baked oatmeal pies...oatmeal cookies...oatmeal bread. Okay I'm getting a little too excited.

However, I do love that my new obsession is oatmeal and not something like Ferrero Rocher. Not like that's happened before.

I recently got some steel cut oats so I'm excited to try this recipe with that!

Tip-Top Healthy Chocomuffs

 This doesn't happen often, but these muffins happen to be ones I immediately scarf down straight out of the oven. I only made four in this batch, but they were so good, I made them again. Plus, they're super healthy :) Actually, I believe this are my first healthy chocolate-containing baked good. Score! Motivation to discover and make more mine.

Although I haven't I don't particularly have a sweet tooth these day, I still crave chocolate. So so so, these were perfect; my Tip-top Healthy Chocomuffs (always making up words) are bittersweet and moist, but when you bite into a chocolate chip...mmm you see fireworks. Of course, these fireworks are better than the ones that have been blasting all week here in Shanghai. 

When I saw these on Dashing Dish's blog, I knew I had to have them. To make them more moist, I added applesauce, upped the amount of Greek yoghurt, and sweetened them slightly with Agave nectar.

The best part of these muffins are delish sans flour, oil, and sugar! What?! Totes my fave recipe now.

What I didn't understand was the muffin top. First of all, why is it darker? Second, why am I so lucky?! It frosted itself :) Kind of?

I'm thinking it's because I took them out of the oven to sprinkle chocolate chips on, and then the cool air did something to them. I actually don't know...I'm just making things up.

Wait wait, look at the name of these. I thought I was so clever when I named them. (;

I don't want to bore you with my family all the time, but they're the ones who give me really great feedback. I guess once school starts up again (ugh...Monday), my lovely food-loving friends can start giving me feedback.

Buuut, teens will eat any free food right?

Later in the day, I saw the last chocomuff in the fridge, so I cut the muffin top off. My mom scowled at me, probably because she wanted it.

Okay, I'm going off on a tangent, but I've been obsessed with Greek Yoghurt these days. I eat it with granola, apples, plain, with honey; put it in dressings, muffins, sushi; sub in for mayo...someone please help me before I over-indulge. Jokes, don't stop me. I laaav it! Back to these beauties... 

If you have the time, which you should, these are quick and rewarding to make. You basically dump everything into a blender and voila, a Tip-top chocomuff :)

No, but they're actually super rewarding. I'll break it down for you:

Applesauce: This is high in fiber and vitamin C.

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: high in fiber and protein, stabilizes blood sugar, gives good cholesterol and gets rid of bad cholesterol, gluten-free, and contains antioxidants beneficial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Greek Yoghurt: high high high in protein!, contains probiotics great for aiding digestion, is a good source of calcium :)

Agave Nectar: low glycemic index, meaning it doesn't give an unhealthy blood sugar spike 

Chocolate:  increases endorphins that can decrease stress levels and fight depression, boosts energy levels, and the list goes on. Find more on chocolate at this site.

The Fluff of Rocky Roads

Look at this goodness. This fluffy, yet chocolatey goodness.

I got up and remembered that it was the last day of classes before exams. I pulled my curtains open and this is what I saw. Soo much smog!

Anyways...last night, I had made rocky road candies and ohhh my goodness...the smell...it was like inhaling winter coziness.

I left these babies in the fridge last night

 ...and this is what I got when I woke up.

You should actually make these though. No regrets! They're basically a better version of peanut butter cups, and I love those things. if these photos aren't convincing enough, then I'm not sure what is.

 Look at this perfection. If you like peanut butter cups, then you will love these. An accent of fluffy goodness in each bite. Go, go go!

Here is the recipe. It's really simple. Add or take away any amounts based on your taste.

• 1 & 3/4 cups of chocolate chips
• 3 & 3/4 cups of mini marshmallows
• 1 cup of peanut butter (chunky if you'd like)

     So how's here we do it: Makes an 8x8 pan, takes about 25 minutes, plus 2 hours in the fridge.

1. Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler. Another option would be microwaving the chips.
2. Stir in the peanut butter.
3. You now have two options (or however many your creative mind makes up)
1. You can pour half the chocolate into a greased 8x8 pan and spread the marshmallows out evenly; then pour the rest of the mixture over the marshmallows. This is what I did.
2.  Or, you can stir the marshmallows into the chocolate peanut butter mixture and then pour it into the greased pan. Either way, both will taste amazing.
4. Now, let these sit in the fridge for 2 hours. Take them out and then try not to indulge all that much...pass them around and share the joy! (Update: my friends ask me to make these whenever I tell them I'm making food. They were that good.)

Really though, everyone who got a piece at school loved them. Personally, they're a bit sweet for my taste, so feel free to alter these in any way! They're honestly such a fail-free recipe. I've seen some variations of Rocky Roads with a graham cracker dust crust, while others add bits of cereal for a crunch. 

To make these super pretty, you could double the amount of chocolate and not mix in the peanut butter for this: 

• Layer 1: chocolate
• Layer 2: graham cracker crust
• Layer 3: melted peanut butter
• Layer 4: marshmallows
• Layer 5: chocolate
• Layer 6: chopped peanuts 

Get your booty to the kitchen now! I need to go study for my exams now. Happy holidays!

Cheers!

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