Nutella-esque

Well hi there people, babies, dogs and unicorns alike!  Today, a friend and I took on the challenge of duplicating Nutella into a recipe she can eat (read: no sugar or gluten) and we were successful!  We followed a recipe found here but agreed we would make a few changes next time..  If you are Celiac or Vegan or sugar-free, THIS is a great cocoa-nut spread you can use like Nutella!  And for the rest of us without dietary restriction, this is just healthier. 

Let me state right now: THIS IS NOT IDENTICAL TO NUTELLA!!!!  So get over it.  I know it's not the same.  It's different, and that's okay.  This is a nod to Nutella and it's super yum.  Junk food is junk for a reason.....

Here are my recommendations and planned changes for next time:

• Double the cocoa powder.  At least.   And maybe triple it.
• Use dark cocoa powder, or mix regular and dark... much more flavor.
• This recipe wasn't quite sweet enough... we ended up using WAY more stevia... like 5 or 6 packets instead of 1.  Next time I'm planning on trying honey, but the person with whom I was making sharing this recipe, isn't much of a honey fan.  Try honey instead of Agave, or mix agave, honey and stevia to your desired tastes.
• Cut the nuts a bit.. this recipe calls for 2 cups but it was overwhelmingly nutty... I'd say next time I'll use 1-1/2 cups instead of a full 2.
• Don't.Burn.The.Hazelnuts.  When roasting, turn the oven down to 400 if you need, but don't burn them.  We burnt ours just a tad and you could taste it in the finished product

Also, this recipe isn't smooth like Nutella, it has some texture to it.  I am a huge fan of chunky peanut butter so when we were finished with our Nutella-esque, I thought you could make this chunky too by processing the nuts in two batches...  Put 1/2 the nuts you plan to use in the food processor first, blend, add other ingredients, blend, then add the other 1/2 of the nuts - chunky Nutella!! 

We ate this on bananas and apples and it was delicious!  I can't wait to try this on pancakes, frozen bananas or on toast... YUMMY!  If you give this one a whirl and have tips/tricks/ideas/changes, be sure to post them!

Enjoy!

KDH.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies...Redone!

Evening, Friends!  I've recently (yes, behind the times, I know...) discovered the marvelous marvel of coconut oil.  I've heard the hype and read some of the info on it, but it wasn't until I bought some that I became curious about cooking prospects.  Admittedly, I've only used this weekend, but stumbled upon a recipe redo that I just HAD to share.....

First let me give you some back story... I sent my husband to the store for unsweetened coconut and quick oats for a DIFFERENT cookie recipe.  We don't usually keep quick oats around because we like the real stuff.  I needed two cups for this other recipe and of course, the hubs brought home a whole 2lb container, and I'm thinking 'what the heck am I going to do with all of these quick oats?!'  So I make the other recipe, which you can find here (delicious) and began to put things away...I moved to the pantry to put our new huge container of quick oats away and discovered... SURPRISE!!!... I already HAD a 2lb container of quick oats!!!!  huh. weird.  


Needless to say, we'll be eating a lot of instant oatmeal breakfasts around here.  However on this night, I was craving oatmeal chocolate chip cookies... MMMMMMmmmm oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my favorite kind of cookies.........  I was looking up my go-to recipe, groaning and ughing at the calories and bad fat and thinking of how many hours I'd have to spend on the treadmill if I wanted to burn them off when it occurred to me... WHY NOT MAKE THEM HEALTHIER?  duh.  Why didn't I think of this sooner?????  And ohmygoodness, friends, they are AMAZING.  Probably some of the best oatmeal chocolate cookies I've ever had.. I was WAY impressed and they were WAY more delicioso than I expected.  So here it is folks, my revamped, slightly healthier recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!!!!!

Ingredients:
1/2 c. Coconut oil
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/2 c. honey - buy local!  buy raw!!!
2 eggs
1 tsp. real vanilla
1-1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3-1/4 cups quick oats
1 to 1-1/2 c. DARK chocolate chips (the darker the better... at least 60% cocoa solids!)


What to do:
1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
2.  Mix coconut oil, honey and brown sugar in a bowl until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes
3.  Add eggs and vanilla to wet ingredients and mix well (Ali - be sure to crack the eggs in a SEPARATE bowl and pick out any shell pieces before adding to cookie dough...!)
4.  Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix well until mixture shows beater lines as your beating..about 3 minutes.  It should be smooth and fluffy and completely mixed...
5.  Stir in oats and chocolate chips (don't use your mixer)
6.  Drop cookies onto a baking sheet leaving about 1" between each.  (these don't spread so cram 'em in!)
7.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Remove to wire rack or wax paper to cool


Friends, by following this recipe, you lose 3/4 cups of processed sugar not to mention there is NO butter, lard, vegetable oil, or shortening, only healthy coconut oil.  You also ditch a ton of flour and add more heart-healthy fiber from the oats.... I hope you love these as much as I do!!!


Enjoy!
KDH.