Healthy Sugar-Free Raspberry Cappuccino Bark

Oh I'm a nut for chocolate and raspberry together. It is a classic combination. I don't like the fruit dipped in chocolate because it tends to weep and get mushy an funky. But, adding freeze-dried raspberries has been a stroke of absolute genius!  Last year for Christmas we made homemade-thin-mint-cookies and raspberry clusters {of divine happiness-swoon-pass-out}.

With the advent of the new year I wanted a healthy alternative and I'm happy to say that I found one after a good chat with a health and fitness coach, Laura Madden. Laura  teaches classes every Thursday at our Local Honeyville Teaching Kitchen and has a great way of making healthy food accessible to everyone! I love her. Have I mentioned that? At any rate, I made this chocolate raspberry bark adapting her chocolate bark recipe and I'm in love. LOVE. Healthy love. 

When you bite into this bark you get the dark luscious silkiness of a chocolate bar mingled with mocha and vanilla notes. It is deep and rich. It is not super-sweet but that is perfectly off-set by the tart-crispy addition of the freeze-dried raspberries. I've added a small amount of freeze-dried yogurt as well, for a little sweetness and alternative crunch (it is obviously optional if you're vegan or totally sugar-free).  One small piece is just right to fill my chocolate craving and it gives me all the benefits of coconut oil, cocoa, and fresh fruit! How amazing is that?!!


Chef Tess' Chocolate Raspberry Cappuccino Bark 
adapted from Laura Madden's Vegan Chocolate bark

1/2 cup   Coconutreat Raw Organic Coconut Oil
2-3 droppers full liquid stevia (I prefer the flavor of Sweetleaf.com)
1/2 tsp Natural Madagascar vanilla bean paste OR double strength vanilla
1/4 tsp LorAnn cappuccino-flavored oil or 1T espresso powder (I don't use coffee)
1/2 cup organic raw baker's cocoa
1 1/2 cup Freeze-dried Raspberries
1/2 cup Freeze-dried Strawberry yogurt bites (optional. contains milk and sugar)

Melt the coconut oil over very low heat just until liquid. Add the stevia, vanila paste, and flavored oil.

Stir in the baker's cocoa until smooth.

Fold in the Freeze-dried Raspberries and yogurt bites (if you use them). Line a 9 inch bread pan with parchment paper or non-stick foil. Pour mixture into the lined pan and transfer to the freezer until set, about 10 minutes.

Remove from pan and chop into chunks. Keep chilled in the fridge, in an airtight container until ready to eat.

There you go. Another great sugar-free option and a great alternative for a healthy snack now and then!

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Vegan, sugar-free, nut-butter cups! Oh. My. Word!

I was visiting with my darling friend Laura Madden who shared with me her remarkable Natural Vegan Chocolate bark and we talked about the amazing possibilities of the bark in other dishes. Peanut butter cups come to mind...only because they're just the bomb. I'm not going to lie, there's a huge part of my rear-end that was caused by those sugar treats. Many of you know that I've been switching over to a healthier lifestyle and when it comes to food, I am certainly a work in progress. That being said, when I find something amazing that can satisfy my cravings now and then, it is a good thing! So, here's the natural, vegan, sugar-free version that I came up with today. It has been a blast...and I'm not going to lie, I'm so very glad to have something to replace my peanut-butter cups with right now. 

Tess' Peanut Butter Cup Filling

 1/2 cup natural nut butter (of your choice but I used Nutzo organic 7 nut and seed butter)
3/4 cup Natural almond flour
3T natural granular erythritol or 30 drops natural stevia
1 tsp Natural Madagascar vanilla bean paste

Basically, combine all the ingredients. I know. It should be more complicated. 

 Now make your coating.

Chocolate bark Coating 
adapted from Laura Madden's Vegan Chocolate bark

3/4 cup organic raw baker's cocoa
3/4 cup   Coconutreat Raw Organic Coconut Oil
2-3 droppers full liquid stevia (I prefer the flavor of Sweetleaf.com)
1/2 tsp Natural Madagascar vanilla bean paste

Melt the coconut oil over very low heat just until liquid.

Stir in the remaining ingredients until smooth. Doesn't the picture of chocolate like that just do the heart good?

 Pour 2T of the liquid into eight baker's cups and put the cups in the fridge until set, about 5 minutes.

While the cocoa sets, divide the peanut mixture into eight balls and flatten them to fit the bottom of a cupcake cup...

 Put the peanut butter disk on top of the cooled chocolate mixture and then top with remaining mixture, about 3T per cup.  Cover the top of the disk-thingy. If you want to use more chocolate mixture you can, but I just needed a thin candy shell over it to get my fix.

 Place in fridge and set, about 10 minutes. I do realize how freakishly hard it will be for them to set, but think of that chocolate coating being able to melt like a truffle-y mess in your mouth. 

Keep chilled until you're ready to enjoy. Coconut oil will start to melt around 80 degrees, so chilling is best.

There you go! A great replacement for an occasional treat!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend  Chef Tess

Healthy Carrot Cake cooked in a Slow Cooker

It's Cooking with Food Storage Monday!

When I was at the radio station on Saturday, I got to try some of my friend Jan D'Atri's Crock-Pot Carrot Cake.

Photo courtesy of Jan D'Atri.com 

It was remarkable and moist and just a really cool way to cook a carrot cake. I especially loved the concept of being able to bake a cake anywhere with a crock pot instead of having to have an oven! This opens up a lot of capabilities for catering and off-site cooking! For more information, read  more about Jan's cake here.

 Jan issued the challenge on the radio show to me to make a healthy variation of the cake, and I'm going to share that with you here today. Anyone who knows of my affection for  carrot cake and carrot cake pancakes will understand my logic in wanting to make this new recipe from Jan into something I can eat without feeling guilty. The weight-loss challenge is ever in my mind and I'm not about to give up. By the way, it isn't just to "look good", obtaining a healthy weight is just a remarkable step toward long-lasting good health. 

To make it a healthier version this is what I did:

• In place of a big portion of the fat with  dehydrated refried bean flakes (this also added fiber and protein to help with blood sugar levels and digestion). Refried Beans glycemic load is a low 13.

•  I replaced  small portion of the oil with organic coconut oil to add succulence.
• I used cholesterol free eggs in the form of powdered egg white for heart health.

• I used organic non-gmo whole grain Kamut ® flour, and because it is whole grain I needed a lot less flour for a rich cake. By adding this, and knowing that it is a higher protein flour I normally use for bread, I did keep the mixing to a minimum. Over-mixing this batter can make it tough. Thus the addition of the coconut oil as well, it will aid in keeping the cake tender. The Wheat flour glycemic load is a low 44! That's great for keeping things regulated!

•  I eliminated the sugar and replaced it with natural granular erythritol, eliminating a big portion of the calories!

Chef Tess' Healthy Carrot Cake in a Slow Cooker
yield 8 servings
1 cup dehydrated refried bean flakes
1 cup hot water water
1/2 cup organic coconut oil
1 cup natural granular erythritol or sugar-free alternative
2T powdered egg white
1 cup Kamut ® flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Cinnamon and Spice blend
2 cups grated carrot ( nutritional facts on carrots)
2 tsp pure natural Madagascar vanilla-bean paste or Princess cake and cookie emulsion

Combine bean flakes with hot water. Hydrate 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and mix well, but being careful not to over-mix. About 50 turns. 

 Place in greased 6 quart crock pot.  I have a Nesco Electric-Programmable pressure cooker  that has a "slow cooker" setting. The good thing about that, is that it replaced my crock-pot, pressure cooker and electric pot.  I use it twice a week or more!  Now...with cake!  Cover and cook on high 2 1/2-3 hours, leaving covered the full time.Take care and watch carefully since every crock-pot has a different temperatures and it can burn around the edges. It is possible to be done in 2 hours instead of 3. 

 Mine was done in 2 hours flat.   Allow the cake to cool 20 minutes in the pan. 

 Remove cake with spatula or invert it onto a serving tray. If you greased you crock correctly, it will come out just fine. I love that my cooker has a metal removable insert so it is actually as close to a cake pan as I could have ever asked to have! Cool completely.

 Serve with fresh whip cream or fruit if desired. 
Nutritional information without cream:
serving size, 1 slice. Serving per recipe, 8. 
per slice: 218 calories, 14 g fat, 19 carbohydrate, 5 g fiber, 5 g protein (14 net carbohydrate)

There you go!
Always My Very Best, 
Your Friend Chef Tess

Coconut Flour Onion Dill Cheese Crackers, Low Carbohydrate, High Fiber and Crazy Delicious!

Something froze over. Seriously.  It isn't every day that I can look out and see snow on the sand-stone. In fact, I can count on 2 fingers the times it has ever snowed here in my Sonoran Desert since I moved her 17 years ago...and yesterday was one of those days. I had, a few weeks ago picked up some more amazing organic coconut flour and it seemed like a perfect day to play with this stuff...seeing all the other white flakes just flicked all over the valley. Yes, this is officially how my giant brain works.  The last time I shared a coconut flour recipe it was for Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cupcakes with white chocolate peppermint mousse.  Here are some things you should know about coconut flour:

Coconut flour can be difficult to work with if you are unfamiliar with it.  

•  You cannot use 100% coconut flour in recipes that are designed for wheat flour.
•  Coconut flour lacks gluten, and thus won't hold air or make a texture like that found in gluten breads. 
• Adding egg or Xanthan gum has been a great way to replace the wheat protein in my gluten-free baking and still give the texture I want in my crackers, muffins and cookies. 
•  As a general rule, if you are adding say, 1/4 cup of coconut flour to a recipe, you'll need to increase the liquid by the same amount. 
•  It absorbs it's volume in water.
•  I use a minimal amount of liquid in my coconut flour baking  because adding too much liquid will also cause the final product to be very moist, sometimes overly moist and mushy.  
• The extra fiber will keep you full longer and help promote a healthy colon and weight loss.
• Because it is low in carbohydrate, it is an excellent replacement for regular flour in recipes. I personally suggest reading Cooking With Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife. It is a great read and has helped me immensely with my baking skills using this remarkable flour. That being said, I've also found some of my own favorite tricks for using the flour.
•  Coconut flour, unlike most other flours, is very high in fiber. It does in fact have 4 grams of fiber in 2 Tablespoons of the flour. It has a light coconut flavor, and that can be either played with and used for a coconut undertone to your dishes or just covered with herbs and spices.

Chef Tess Onion Dill Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup freeze-dried Colby Cheese
1/2 cup organic coconut flour
1T Chef Tess Big Dill Seasoning (or 1 1/2 tsp dill, 1/2 tsp garlic, 1/2 tsp onion, 1/2 tsp pepper)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients. Allow dough to sit 10 minutes. The flour will absorb the liquid and the cheese will hydrate slightly. In all honesty, the freeze dried cheese is my secret ingredient. It stays slightly crunchy and gives the crackers the perfect crunch. The xantham gum will help the crackers hold together and lend a very nice texture to the finished crackers. 

 Roll out thin on a lightly oiled baking stone ( I use a 18 inch pizza stone), lightly oiling the top of the dough if needed to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin, until 1/8th inch thick. I roll a little sprinkle of salt on top of the crackers. Cut into 1 inch squares. 

 Bake 400 degrees 20-25 minutes until crisp. Open oven. Turn off heat and let crackers sit in the oven 10 minutes (200 degrees or so until very dry and crunchy).

Yield 4 servings, 137 calories a serving. 8 g fat, 8 g protein, 4 g fiber, 8 carb (4 net).

There you go my darlings, make some great coconut flour crackers!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Gourmet Gluten Free Low Carb Almond Flour Cracker Tutorial

Paleo diet friendly, diabetic friendly crackers that are gluten free, sugar free, natural and delicious are few and far between. Am I right? If one does find such a beast...they are usually ridiculously expensive and will make anyone omit crackers from their diet forever, rather than try to buy them. Most of the ones I've ever tried that fit those guidelines have been very flat...in flavor and appeal. They were great for Chinese throwing-stars though...(now there's a visual). Have you ever seen me in my ninja mode? You know, complete with baguette-nunchucks, poison dart-shooting pastry bags, and sharpened spatula daggers?  No? That's right. You never will. I'm too amazing of a ninja for anyone to ever actually see me in full ninja-garb. Be afraid.

 I was completely blown away when I attended an almond flour cracker class with fitness coach and wellness instructor  Laura Madden and saw the 4 ingredient simple recipe for almond flour crackers! It was from the The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam and I fell instantly in love with the crackers. By the way, the book is a must-have read if you're wanting some practical and delicious options for baking low-glycemic gluten free foods. I've been impressed with all the recipes in her books that I've tried! Visit Amazon's Elana Amsterdam Page for more information on her books. I'm a big fan.

 Have you ever met my favorite Almond Flour? On this one I'm brand specific for a reason. This is the finest milled almond flour I can find and it has remarkable texture in baked good. I didn't want almond meal. I wanted a flour that would bake remarkably well. Thank you Honeyville! 

Basic Nutritional Information and General Facts:

•  Almond flour is a great alternative for those who are going gluten free and still wanting to watch their carbohydrate intake.
•  It is a source of “good fat” as detailed by the American Heart Association, and is an ideal recovery food for athletes.
• It keeps you full longer and helps maintain weight loss as well as assist in weight loss.
•  It is proven to help maintain good blood sugar levels.
•  In 2003 the Journal of Obesity said, “Adding a daily ration of almonds to a low-calorie diet enhances weight loss as well as significantly improves the risk factors associated with heart disease.”
• 100% pure skinless almonds, no additional ingredients added.
• Blanched Almond Flour is simply skinless almonds that are milled into fine flour.
• The only process that occurs, other than pasteurizing and milling, is a hot water bath to remove the skins from the almonds.
• Store in the refrigerator after opening and keep in a cool dry place.
• Use your flour within a year at the most.

Almond Flour Crackers

adapted from the recipe by Elana Amsterdam

yield 30 crackers

1  3/4 cup blanched almond flour

1 egg

1 1/2 Tablespoon flavor infused Lucero Olive Oil

1 T  Chef Tess Romantic Italian or All Purpose Seasoning

Directions:  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients until a thick dough is made. Place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a baker's mat. 

Cover the dough with non-stick parchment paper.

Roll thin between the sheets using a small rolling pin or pressing with your hands. I have a rolling pin that I love and it works great for crackers. 

Remove the parchment. Lightly cut crackers into 1 inch squares. If you use a baker's mat you can use a simple pastry roller that won't cut the mat.  Roll to 1/16th of an inch thin. 

Bake 350 degrees 12-15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the crackers).

Store in an airtight container...if they survive that long. I'm not using them as ninja-stars. They're making snack-fest status for sure!

There you go! Make some Almond flour crackers!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Simple Cake Mix 6 Grain Jam Crumble Snack Bars

You know what I love about summer? Nothing in Arizona. Well... not the life-sucking death-heat of the Sonora desert or the way my albino  (remember the Albino on Princess Bride?) skin  that turns bright pink the second I walk out of my house. I can tell you that there are days when I think I will burst into flame the second I walk pass the portal of my front door. Yes...I'm violently sucked into a brilliant vortex of white light and space aliens. "Take me to your leader Albino-Scum!"... I'm pretty sure I've watched too much of the Twilight Zone...and X-Files.  I also randomly imagine hairy long-nailed monsters on the wings of my airplane when I travel. Just for the record. I don't like window seats. I do however love those tiny bags of peanuts. They're so cute.

There is a perk to living in the surface of the sun valley of the sun. Phoenix is perfect for summer solar cooking. I love it! See. I DO love something about the heat. I pop my bad-boy Solar Oven on it's cart and wheel it into the yard, pointed the direction of the sun. Here it works likes a crock-pot and I can basically forget about dinner until it is time for dinner. Huge perk for me working full time now. Today however, I decided at 4 AM that it was cool enough in the house to bake some snack bars for the boys. They are home on summer vacation and I wanted them to have little fun goodies to wake up to. Yes...I do wake up that early almost every day. Yes. I know I'm crazy. That is what works for me to be home with the kids and still use the test kitchen. Ironically...I used to do that before I had kids but at a bakery. Somehow it seems more fun when I can still be in my PJ's and bake. Go figure. I haven't yet had any of my fuzzy-neon-pink cupcake-jammie material end up in the cookies. Now...that's funny because today I made jam bars. Not to be confused with jammie bars. Those are fuzzy. These are delicious.

I use my homemade cake mix and the evil-delicious blueberry confection known affectionately by me as Spiced Blueberry Amaretto Jam. You don't have to make your own homemade cake mix or jam. I'm not checking your cupboards. You make what works for you. One box of regular cake mix will work. I also use all natural granular erythritol instead of sugar in most of my baking. It is zero calorie and no carb. It's great for diabetics and for those watching their sugar.

Chef Tess 6 Grain Jam Crumble Bars
4 c  homemade cake mix (or 1 box store bought)
1 c granulated sugar (or all natural granular erythritol )
2 c  6 grain rolled cereal
¼ c  whole flax seed
 ½ c brown sugar
1 egg
1 c melted butter (no substitutions on flavor)
2 c unsweetened jam (I used Spiced Blueberry Amaretto Jam)

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Yes. These can be baked in a solar oven. Pre-heat it to 350. That will take about 15 minutes.  In a large bowl combine all ingredients except the jam. The mixture will be thick. Reserve 1 ½ cup for the topping.     Using fingertips press the remaining mixture into the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch pan so it reaches all sides. 

  Spread the jam over the crust mixture in a thin layer.

  Pinch off pieces of the reserved mixture and scatter over the jam.

Bake until light brown and bubbling, 35-40 minutes. It will take 45-55 minutes in a solar oven. Allow to cool 30 minutes before cutting.

If you don't wait for them to cool before you cut them, they will just fall apart in mounds of hot buttery delicate grain-confection laced with jam. It's really hard to resist at that point but...ya know. Do what you want. I'm not checking your closets either. 

Yield 24 bars. Let's be honest. It makes 6 bars for a teenage boy.  There you go.

Always My Very Best,

 Your Friend Chef Tess