Recipes Below for Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies and Date Nut Treats
Halloween used to scare me. My kids coming home with all that junk food sent shivers through my spine. But with a selection of healthy Halloween treats and snacks, it’s a joy, a chance to play dress-up with the kids, and parade around the neighborhood at night, greeting friends, nibbling on healthy, all natural candies, marveling at carved candle lit pumpkins and houses decorated with creepy masks and hanging skeletons.
Natural food stores are well stocked with natural candies: fruit leather and licorice in many sugar-free flavors: strawberry, raspberry, apple and grape. There are plenty of vitamin C lollypops, peppermints, and fruit juice sweetened sucking candies. You will find little bags of organic pretzels, animal cookies, different flavored potato chips and corn chips, small boxes of raisins, chocolates with scary Halloween caricatures on the wrappers like ugly witches and black cats on a pumpkin.
To add to the fun, you can create your own-bagged delights from the bulk bins with all natural pretzel mixes, malt balls, chocolate covered nuts and raisins. Best of all, you can make your own organic candied apples, chocolate-dipped dried fruits, date nut treats and maple syrup sweetened chocolate chip cookie treats that kids of all ages love.
To make your own candied apples, forget the artificial red dyes and sugary caramel coatings. You can dip your apples in agave nectar or rice syrup and then roll the glazed apples in ground up graham crackers or small chunks of all natural sandwich cookies, granola, chopped up raisins, figs, dates, or calcium rich ground walnuts and almonds.
Dried sliced pineapple, pears, apricots, peaches, and oranges half dipped in chocolate are beautiful and easy to make. Simply melt dairy-free chocolate in top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water. Then, put a piece of dried fruit on a toothpick or dipping fork. Dip it half way into the chocolate. Swirl it around. Lift it out, and let the excess drip back into the pot. Stick the bottom of the toothpick into an apple or pear to catch the chocolate drippings, while the chocolate cools and hardens.
When making your own chocolate chip cookies, take advantage of the large assortment of chocolate and carob chips available at your local health food store: organic dark and organic white chocolate chips, vanilla chips, peanut butter chips, dairy-free espresso chocolate chips, vegan carob chips and guilt-free, sugar-free chocolate chips sweetened with malted barley. Feel free to use any of these in the cookie recipes.
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 12-18 cookies depending on how big you make them
These cookies are quick, easy and fun to make. I love shaping them with my hands, but you could also use a cookie cutter.
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour
1/3 cup melted extra virgin coconut oil or butter
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put all the ingredients except the olive oil into a large bowl. Mix them together briefly with a wooden spoon; then shape them into cookies with your hands.
To use cookie cutters, flatten some batter between your hands and place it on a pastry board. Press in a cookie cutter and shake gently. Pull away the excess. Repeat till you use all the batter.
Lightly oil a cookie sheet with olive oil. Put cookies on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let them cool before eating.
Date Nut Treats
Makes 15 walnut sized balls
Kids love to make and eat these.
1 cup tightly packed pitted dates
4 tablespoons water
Pinch of cardamom (1/4 teaspoon, or to taste)
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons brown rice syrup or honey
1/3 cup almonds, ground
Put the dates in a food processor with the water, cardamom, and cinnamon. Pulse on and off until finely chopped. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more spices, if desired. Transfer to a small mixing bowl.
Grind walnuts in the food processor, or coarsely chop them up. Mix walnuts into the dates and shape into walnut sized balls. Drizzle on and coat with brown rice syrup or honey.
Grind almonds into a meal in the food processor. Pour ground almonds onto a cutting board or plate. Roll date nut balls in almond meal and serve or wrap up to give away.
Tasting mildly like chocolate, teff flour has plenty of natural sweetness and blends well with nuts and chocolate. These cookies, a classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate, are delightful treats.
ingredients
1 1/2 cups teff flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, optional
1 1/8 cups peanut butter
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil or canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the teff flour and salt, if using. Set aside.
3. Place the peanut butter, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla in a food processor, and blend until creamy. Add to the flour along with the chocolate chips, and stir to form a moist dough.
4. Shape the dough into walnut-sized balls, and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet about 3/4-inch apart. Flatten gently with a fork.
5. Bake 15 minutes, or until they lose their shine. Remove from the oven.
6. Cool at least 10 minutes before serving.
For a Change . . .
• To make Hazelnut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies, use hazelnut butter instead of peanut butter. You will also have to increase the teff flour to 2 cups and use 3/4 cup chocolate chips.
• If teff flour is not available, try another whole grain flour.
These dark cacao truffles are delicious, quick, and easy to make.
1 cup grated raw cacao butter
1 cup raw cacao powder
6 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Optional: ¼teaspoon -1 teaspoon maca powder
Pinch of sea salt
¼ cup goji berries or a combination of goji berries, hemp seeds, cacao nibs, chopped hazelnuts or shredded coconut.
Blend the cacao, cacao powder, maple syrup, vanilla, maca, if using and salt in food processor.
Taste and adjust the seasonings, if desired.
Shape into walnut sized balls.
Put the goji berries, and/or hemp seeds, ground hazelnuts, cacao nibs, or shredded coconut on a large flat plate and roll balls in them.
Eat immediately or store in a jar on the counter.
Makes 12-15 walnut size balls
Optional: for a creamier truffle add ¼ cup extra virgin coconut oil.
I love eating Navitas Naturals Organic and Fair Traded Products: Cacao Butter, Cacao Paste, Cacao Powder, Maca, Cashews, Goji Berries, Hemp Seeds, Mulberries, and much more.
Especially good news for all those wanting to make Leslie Cerier, The Organic Gourmet’s dark chocolate truffles, which are vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.
These cookies are quick, easy and fun to make. I love shaping them with my hands, but you could also use a cookie cutter.
Makes: 12 to 18 cookies depending on how big you make them
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Preheat the oven to 375º F.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix them together briefly with a wooden spoon; then shape them into cookies with your hands.
To use cookie cutters, flatten some batter between your hands and place it on a pastry board. Press in a cookie cutter and shake gently. Pull away the excess. Repeat till you use all the batter.
Arrange the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Let them cool before eating.
Here is coupon savings on delicious foods for health, vitality and pleasure.
I have a coupon code to save 15% off all Navitasnatural.com products, especially good news for all those wanting to make my dark chocolate truffles, which are loaded with navitasnaturals.com superfoods: cacao butter, cacao powder, maca, gogi berries, and more. Here is the recipe from my website that has everyone (nationwide) in my cooking classes smiling: http://lesliecerier.com/blog/category/recipes/cacao-2/
Ground almonds replace the flour and add sweetness to the topping for this fabulous fruit crisp. From Going Wild in the Kitchen.
Serves: 4 to 6
Topping:
3/4 cup almonds
2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup plain or black walnuts, halved
1/4 cup whole cashews
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil
Filling:
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1 1/2 cups sliced pears
1 cup peeled, sliced apples
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup organic canola oil or melted extra coconut oil, or other healthy vegetable oil
1 cup peach juice or other fruit juice
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
To make the topping, place the almonds in a food processor and grind to a meal. Transfer to a large mixing bowl along with the oats, walnuts, cashews, and salt, and mix well. Add the maple syrup and oil, and stir until well blended.
Arrange the raspberries, pears, apples, and blueberries in the bottom of a 2-quart baking dish. Cover with the topping, pour the juice on top, and bake 30 minutes, or until the fruit is hot and bubbly and the topping is crisp. Serve warm, spooned into bowls.
Millet Apple Raisin Cake is easy to make, gluten-free, and also featured on the Whole Grains Council website.
Millet Apple Raisin Cake from Leslie Cerier's Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook, A Seasonal Vegetarian Cookbook
Millet Apple Raisin Cake
Leslie Cerier
Millet is a naturally sweet grain, and after cooking it sets up and is sliceable. My daughter Emily loved this healthful and easy cake as a child and still does 20 years later.
1 cup millet, rinsed
3 cups apple juice
1 cup raisins
pinch of sea salt
1. Combine all ingredients in a medium-size saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes, until all of the juice is absorbed, and the millet is tender. Give it a stir and then taste it; if the millet is still crunchy, add more juice, cover, and simmer for about 3 minutes, then check for tenderness again.
2. Pour the mixture into a standard loaf pan or pie plate and let it cool for about 1 hour until set. Slice and serve. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
Variations:
Use a combination of other fresh or dried fruits, such as pears, apple or apricots. Small fruits are finea s is, but you may want to chop larger fruits.
Try different fruit juices.
Stir in about 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon or vanilla extract before pouring the cooked mix into the cooling pan.
Use whole corn grits in place of some or all of the millet.?
Hope you are thriving and eating local, seasonal treats like this one:
Here is a recipe for Pumpkin Pecan Pie. I also taught this pie with a gluten-free pie crust recently when I taught a gluten-free cooking and baking class at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.
At the end of this post is also another gluten-free pie crust that you can mix and match with this pie filling or any pie filling you like. That is the fun of “Going Wild in the Kitchen” my cookbook and approach to cooking and baking: Creativity!
Now here’s the delicious recipe:
Reprinted from Going Wild in the Kitchen by Leslie Cerier
A cheese pumpkin is a cross between a butternut squash and a pumpkin. It is sweeter than a pumpkin, and almost as sweet as butternut squash. This pie is like 2 pies in one: pecan and pumpkin.
2 cups spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup + 1 teaspoon canola oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla or ½ teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Pie filling
1 small cheese pumpkin (about 2 pounds) baked, peeled and seeded (becomes 2 cups)
¾ cup pecans
3 tablespoons maple sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse cheese pumpkin and bake on a baking dish for about an hour, or until tender.
2. Mix all the piecrust ingredients in a bowl except 1-teaspoon oil.
3. Lightly brush 9-inch pie pan with 1 teaspoon oil.
4. Press dough with your fingers into pie plate.
5. Poke holes in dough with a fork.
6. Bake for 10 minutes.
7. Put the pecans in a food processor and grind into a meal.
8. When the cheese pumpkin is ready, peel, seed it, and add 2 cups to the food processor with the pecans. Add maple sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and puree together.
9. Adjust the seasonings, if desired.
10. Pour the sweetened pumpkin filling into the baked pie crust.
11. Bake for 5 minutes. Turn off oven and let pie sit for 10 minutes before removing to blend flavors.
Variations
Replace the cheese pumpkin with 2 cups cooked pumpkin or butternut squash.
Here is a new piecrust recipe from my cookbook, Gluten-free Recipes for the Conscious Cook
1 1/2 cups raw hazelnuts
2 tablespoons hazelnut oil or melted coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
To make the crust, put the hazelnuts in a food processor and blend until finely ground, like flour. Add the oil, maple syrup, and salt, and pulse to form the dough. Press into oiled pie crust and in above pie crust recipe.
Super easy and super good and this one is gluten-free. In the new cookbook, this is the crust for a Chocolate Mousse Pie.
For more recipes, cooking classes and lots more, please go to my website:
Check out the photos in this post for a delicious visual feast!
My infamous Dark Chocolate Truffles and Broccoli and Cashews with Gogi Berries.
The recipe for the Dark Chocolate Truffles with Gogi Berries also known as Cacao Maca Gogi Balls is among the recipes on my recipes page of on www.lesliecerier.com
Stir-Fry Broccoli with Cashews andGogiBerries
Dark Chocolate Truffles are Remarkably Delicious and Easy to Make
Chef’s Best: Cooking from scratch — how the pros turn ideas into actual recipes
by Daily Hampshire Gazette July 10, 2009
Like many home cooks, I often change a recipe a little, substituting one ingredient for another, or adding a new one.
But creating a recipe from scratch? That’s a different challenge altogether, and one which, according to Kimberly Mayone, doesn’t always come easy.
She should know; she does it for a living.
Mayone, who runs her own recipe development company, Wow Delicious, in Maine, notes that sometimes she’ll be working and freezing outside at the grill in December, developing a recipe for August. Or a client will call to request 10 recipes in a week and a half. “They don’t understand why I can’t do that or realize how much work is involved,” she says. “I’m happy if I can successfully do two or three recipes, tested, typed and complete in a week.”
Mayone works out of her house using a standard four-burner cook stove: “When I’m developing recipes that a home cook may use, I like to use the same kind of equipment they probably have in their kitchens.” She only recently got a dishwasher but with three children under 10, she admits it’s a big time saver. “Now I can get the kitchen cleared up while my youngest takes a nap and before the others get home from school!”
A graduate of Cornell University’s Hotel School, Mayone honed her recipe development skills working for four years as chef for the Fresh Samantha Juice Company. “My (unofficial) title was the Juice Wizard and I wore a tall, carrot-top hat because Fresh Samantha started out with carrot juice.” In addition to reformulating a number of the company’s recipes, including their blended juices, Mayone created a new one called Strawberry Desperately Seeking C. But after the company was sold to Odwalla in 2003, she decided to branch out on her own.
Mayone’s clients include both corporate and public relations companies (the Idaho Potato Board is one). She has also worked with the Hannaford Supermarket chain, which has stores ranging from the mid-Atlantic states to Maine. One project was “Cooking Show to Go,” in which she developed recipes using the chain’s line of premeasured, prepackaged products. “All people basically had to do was go home and turn on the stove,” Mayone says.
She has also co-authored two cookbooks with Kitty Broihier, a food and nutrition communications consultant. The two women met at a conference and after discovering they live just three miles apart in South Portland, Maine, Broihier asked Mayone to collaborate on “The Everyday Low-Carb Slow Cooker Cookbook” (2004), and “The Big Book of Low-Carb” (2005). Mayone’s latest venture is co-editing a food blog, www.flavorista.com.
Mayone begins creating a recipe by jotting down ideas on what might or might not work given the ingredients she must work with. At this point, she avoids looking at already published recipes. But if she finds that after considerable time and effort something simply isn’t working, she researches how others have prepared similar items, using cookbooks and the Internet.
The next step is to shop for ingredients. Then Mayone starts cooking, making notes on her computer as she goes along. “I love it when a recipe comes together and works the first time and you know you’ve got a winner,” she says. Most of the time, however, after testing a recipe once, Mayone tests it again. The third time, she calls in her “taste panel,” a group of 10 friends, family members and food experts she relies on for feedback.
Local Chef, author and cooking teacher Leslie Cerier, who develops recipes for organic and natural foods companies and for people with food allergies, takes a slightly different approach, sometimes getting a basic starter idea from a recipe she has seen but then changing ingredients to make the dish her own. Since she is a photographer as well, Cerier also envisions how the finished dish will look.
For example, there’s the recipe she developed based on Lotus Foods’ Jade Pearl Rice. Cerier combined the rice, which is green, with a red vegetable and white tofu to create a vegetarian meal with visual appeal. Like Mayone, Cerier prepares and taste tests a recipe several times before seeking feedback from friends and family.
Cerier, who lives in Amherst, is the author of 5 cookbooks and is at work on a fourth. She also runs a gourmet organic catering business, works as a personal chef and teaches cooking classes.
Mayone and Cerier advise people who want to try adapting or changing recipes to start small. Use a different herb or spice or choose something that looks similar and that will cook in the same amount of time, like swapping chicken for pork, or kale or spinach for Swiss chard.
Some of Mayone’s and Cerier’s recipes follow. Prepare them the way they are written the first time, then try your own variations.
Stuffed Cabbage Soup Serves 6
Mayone based this soup on her paternal grandmother’s stuffed cabbage recipe. “It’s all the ingredients and flavors of stuffed cabbage without the work. My grandmother would have approved!”
1 tablespoon olive oil?1½ pounds lean ground beef?1 medium onion, finely chopped?1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes?2 cubes beef bouillon?1/3 cup barley, rinsed and picked over?2 teaspoons Splenda Granular sweetener?1 tablespoon minced garlic?1 teaspoon black pepper?¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce (about 2 shakes)?½ head cabbage (about 1½ pounds), chopped?3 14.5-ounce cans beef broth
In a medium stockpot, over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the beef and onions and cook until the onions are soft and the meat is browned, about 8 minutes. Drain the fat and add the tomatoes, bouillon cubes, barley, Splenda, garlic, pepper and Tabasco to the beef; mix well and set aside.
Place the chopped cabbage in a slow-cooker crock. Top with the reserved beef mixture; do not stir. Cover and cook on low for 9 hours; stir the soup well, then re-cover and continue to cook 1 hour more.
½ cup chopped fresh dill?1 tablespoon grated lemon zest?1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt?½ teaspoon kosher salt?½ teaspoon ground black pepper?¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce?1 tablespoon vegetable oil?1½ pounds salmon fillet, skin removed, cut into 4 equal portions
To make the marinade, in a medium bowl whisk together all the ingredients except the salmon until combined and smooth. Place the salmon in a gallon-sized zip-top plastic bag. Pour the marinade over the salmon, making sure all surfaces are coated. Seal the bag and refrigerate for 24 hours.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a medium baking pan with cooking spray, and set aside. Remove the salmon pieces from the bag (discard the marinade) and arrange them in the prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 22 minutes, or until the fish is opaque throughout (test by cutting into one piece with a sharp knife). Serve immediately.
Cerier says you can substitute 2 cups whole wheat flour for the combined 2½ cups of spelt and teff flours if you prefer.
2 cups spelt flour, ½ cup teff flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon sea salt, 1 cup white, milk or dark chocolate chips (or a blend), 3 ripe bananas, cut into 3-inch pieces (about 3 cups), 1 cup apple juice, 1/3 cup applesauce, 1/3 cup maple syrup?¼ cup canola oil, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9-inch cake or loaf pan and set aside.
Combine the spelt flour, teff flour, baking powder, salt, and ¾ cup of the chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Place the bananas, apple juice, applesauce, maple syrup, oil and vanilla in a blender and puree. Add to the flour mixture and stir to form a smooth batter. Pour the batter into the cake pan, then sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool 30 minutes before removing from the pan. Slice and serve.
Place the rice in a bowl, cover with the water, and soak at least 45 minutes.
Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil, ginger, garlic and onions and stir-fry 5 minutes or until the onions begin to soften. Add the mirin, then toss in the carrots and stir-fry 3 minutes or until they turn bright orange. Stir in the celery, tamari, rice and soaking water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, then simmer, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes or until the water is absorbed. Let stand 5 minutes, stir and serve.
