Hot Chocolate

There is nothing better than a creamy, thick hot chocolate on a cold, winter night sitting next to the warm fireplace. 

It's not easy to make it without dairy and starch; not easy, but possible :)

Ingredients per cup
1 tbsp 100% cashew spread
1 tsp Duch cocoa powder,
1-2 tsp sweetener of your liking (eg. honey, stevea, Natvia, agave...)
approx. 1 cup hot water


Place the cashew spread, cocoa powder, sweetener and a few teaspoon of hot water into a sauce pan and mix them well. 
Pour the rest of the water while continuously stirring. Heat on medium-high temperature until it's creamy and thick. Pour more water if necessary. 


Enjoy :)


Variations
With vanilla: add 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste or vanilla essence at the beginning. 
With cinnamon: add 1 tsp of cinnamon at the beginning.
With mint: add a few drops of mint essence to the mixture at the end. 
With chilli: add a little chilli powder to the mixture at the beginning. Be careful not to overdose it.

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is.

Coconut & Apricot Balls

The easiest treat ever! It's also gluten free, dairy free, nut free, sugar free, vegan and paleo. And yummy :)

Ingredients
300g dried apricot
desiccated coconut + some extra for rolling in
2 tbsp water or rose water


Place apricots in a food processor for a few minutes until chopped finely. Add water or rose water, then add coconut. Once combined well, scoop out a small portion using a tea spoon and roll into a small ball. Finally, roll in coconut. 
Alternatively, you can roll out and slice it to little squares. 
Store in fridge.


Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is.

Chocolate Covered Marzipan Balls

Do you think it is hard to make marzipan? Not at all. It needs almond meal, water, rose water - and sugar.
Well, we don't eat sugar but there is a healthier solution.

Ingredients
150g blanched almond meal
100g xylitol
1 tbsp rose water
1 tbsp almond essence
100g 85% dark chocolate (eg. Lindt)


For the coating you will need toothpicks, aluminium foil and flat polystyrene. 


With a blender or a coffee grinder grind xylitol into a fine powder, the same consistency as icing sugar.
In a big bowl, mix almond meal and icing xylitol with rose water and almond essence and make a dough.
Take a teaspoon full of the dough and between your palms form a ball. Repeat it until all the dough is gone. Keep the balls in the freezer while you melt the chocolate but no longer.


Chop the chocolate roughly. On low temperature melt half of the chocolate. Remove from the heat then stir the rest of the chocolate in it. Leave it to melt.
Cover a flat polystyrene with aluminium foil. Stick a toothpick into a marzipan ball and swirl it around in the chocolate so that it's totally covered. Shake it a bit before you stick it into the polystyrene, so you won't waste too much chocolate. If the balls are cold enough, the chocolate will be hard very quickly. 
Once done, repeat till all your marzipan balls are covered with chocolate.

You should see something like this

If it's needed, place the balls into the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
When the chocolate coating is hard, you can cover the balls in coloured aluminium foil. 


Alternatively, you can roll the marzipan balls in Dutch (or raw) cocoa powder instead of the chocolate.  


Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: make sure to use dairy free chocolate.
Gluten intolerance: make sure to use gluten free chocolate.
Paleo: make sure to use dairy, gluten and soy free chocolate with high cocoa mass content.