Chocolate Oatmeal Bars - no added sugar

Once upon a time, Myopeman said: "It's like a mix of granola bar and chocolate bars. It feels "healthy" eating this kind of junk."

Long story short, I had a huge bag of oatmeal at home, but most of all, I didn't want to do something too complicated. There was also cranberry and sunflower seeds at home. Gotta use those stuff once you buy them!

As simple as it is, there is no baking step, it saves up electricity and time! 

Alright, less talk. 

Timeline:
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Ready time: 4 hours and 15 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk
1 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup dried cranberry
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1. In a bain-marie, melt the chocolate chips with milk. Stir until it becomes smooth.
2. Add all the ingredients and mix well.
3. Take parchment paper and place it in a pan. Pour the chocolate mix in the pan, gently pressing on them and let it cool in the fridge for 2 hours, take it out to cut or break it.
4. Put it back in the fridge for another 2 hours and the bars are ready to serve.

Good luck and enjoy! 

Chocolate cupcake

I just wanted to share something simple and clean.

If you want to make it fancy, you can add some frosting like I previously did. This cake is not sweet, great for people who enjoys the taste of cocoa or people who like the combination of frosting. My recommendation is to have it with a dark espresso -- no milk and sugar.

Alright, less talk.

Timeline: 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ready time: about an hour

Ingredients: approx. 12 servings

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup cocoa powder

a pinch of salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1/2 cup half and half cream

1. Preheat the oven at 350°F. 

2. In a mixer, blend the vegetable oil with sugar.

3. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder, and mix with the all-purpose flour, salt and baking powder. 

4. Add the eggs to the vegetable oil and sugar mix. When it all looks smooth, add milk, cream and vanilla extract. 

5. Incorporate the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients at once. When the batter looks smooth, transfer it in a cupcake pan. 

6. Bake it for 20-25 minutes. It is ready when you stick a skewer or toothpick in the cake and it comes out clean. Make sure to tap the bottom of the pan so that the hot air can escape from the cakes, which would prevent them from flattening and shrinking.

7. Let it sit for about half an hour. It is now ready to serve. 

If you want to add frosting, it would be ideal to wait for an hour, so that the cake is completely cooled. 

I decorated it in celebration of Spring, simply click on the image to learn how to do it! 

Good luck and enjoy! 

Spring cupcakes decorations (improvisation)

At last, we can see the green green grass! It is too bad that buds have not bloom yet, but I can already imagine butterflies flapping their wings to the sound of fresh breezes.

I've made cupcakes and I wanted to find a way to use the cream cheese, confetti candies and chocolate chip that I had at home. After thinking through and looking around, I came up with the idea of using them as decorations, in addition to using whatever I have at home. I usually don't enjoy frosting much due to the rich buttery texture, but this time, I find that it is pleasurable to the taste buds and palate. I have simply replaced butter with something lighter and healthier!

You will find below two recipes, one for the chocolate decoration and the other one is for the cream cheese frosting. They are both improvised recipes, meaning that I roughly measured everything.

Alright, less talk.

Chocolate butterflies
Timeline:
Preparation time: 2-5 minutes
Cooking time: 3-5 minutes
Ready time: 1 hours

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tbsp milk
Confetti candies (optional and to your taste)

1. Draw a butterfly on a piece of paper and prepare parchment paper to imprint your decorations.
2. In a bain-marie, melt the chocolate with milk. If you want to get it done quicker, you can melt the chocolate in the microwave. To my experience, bain-marie has a better outcome.
3. Mix and when the chocolate and milk are well blended, transfer the mixture in a plastic sandwich bag. Cut a corner of the bag. Depending on how precise you want to draw, you can adjust the size of the hole.
4. While it is still very warm, draw your butterfly. Put the drawing underneath the parchment paper and squeeze the chocolate on the parchment paper. In order to reduce mistakes, it is better to draw the edges and fill the inside. This process would need some quick hands, as the chocolate becomes less malleable once slightly cooled down. I simply drew the wings and the antennae.
5. Sprinkle some confetti candies while it is still soft. You may press gently to have the confetti engraved in the decorations.
6. Let it sit in the freezer for 45 minutes and it should be ready to decorate.

Cream cheese frosting
Timeline:
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Ready time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
4 tbsp cream cheese
2 tbsp greek yogurt
2 tbsp sugar
tiny splash of vanilla extract

1. In a mixer, blend the cream cheese with greek yogurt.
2. When the dairy products are blended into one another, add the sugar and vanilla extract. Whip until everything looks smooth. It is now ready to serve.

How to decorate? 
1. Make sure that the cupcake is cooled to room temperature. With a spatula, spread the frosting on top of your cupcake.
2. Take the butterfly wings and position them as desired. Add the antenna.
3. Let them sit in the fridge for an hour so that the decorations can settle. They are now ready to serve.

There are many ways of drawing your butterfly wings, here is an alternative of method!

Want to know how to make a bitter-sweet cupcake? Simply click on the image below!

Good luck and enjoy! 

Wake-You-Up Coffee Rum Balls - No Added Sugar

There was chocolate chip and a LOT of broken cookies at home. I didn't want to make chocolate cookies or anything that looked too... "Normal." So I took the initiative to integrate ingredients with stronger tastes and interesting flavours. So this is how I came up with a rum ball recipe that is adaptable to many people's palate.

There is no sugar added to the ingredients. The sweetness comes from the semi-sweet chocolate, the cookies and the rum. So this is how I would describe the taste: chocolatey, not too sweet, not too rum-y, very coffee-y and most of all... coconut-y!

FYI, I recently got a new camera, and somehow, suddenly, pictures don't look the same as in the past. It just saves me from Photoshop editing time!

Alright, less talk.

Ingredients:

350g semi-sweet chocolate chips
75g (5 tbsp) heavy cream
25g (2 1/2 tbsp) rum
10g (2 tbsp) coffee beans
25 g (2 1/2 tbsp) coconut powder
8 to 10 graham, social tea or any kind of cookies you have at home
1 tbsp cocoa powder

1. In a bain-marie, melt the chocolate with milk
2. Mash the coffee beans with the cookies. If you don't like it rustic, you can always grind the coffee.

3. Add in some coconut powder. If you don't have powder, you can add shredded dry coconut as a replacement, but not that the taste and texture will be more coconut-y at the end.
4. When the chocolate is well melted and mixed to the heavy cream, add in the rum and mix well.
5. When the rum is well incorporated in the chocolate, add in the dry ingredient mix. Stir well.

6. Remove the ingredients from the bain-marie and start shaping into balls.
7. When the balls are shaped, place them in the fridge for 1 hour so that they solidify and preserve its form.
8. In a bowl, place 1 tbsp of cocoa powder. Place the cooled rum balls in the bowl and shake to distribute the cocoa powder evenly.

9. Let it sit overnight for the rum to settle. And at last, it is ready to serve.

Good luck and enjoy!

Aphrodisiac Chocolate Truffle - No Added Sugar

That was a while ago when the idea of making something more mature to the taste. Many strongly associate chocolate and wine with romanticism, and so is this recipe inspired on. Simple and rich.

I do not have much to say this week. Well, maybe... I hope that these truffles will bring in some peace in your palate!

Alright, less talk.

Ingredients:
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup 10% cream
2 tbsp red wine

(for decoration)
social tea cookies
coffee beans
almond or any kind of nuts

1. In a bain-marie, pour heavy cream, milk and cream. Then add the chocolate chip to melt.
2. Whisk until the chocolate and milk is well incorporated and smooth.
3. In a mortar, crush the social cookies and the coffee beans altogether.
4. Spread a thin layer of crushed cookies and coffee beans in ramekins. Leave some for decoration use.
5. Add in some red wine to the chocolate and mix until everything look smooth. You will start smelling the wine's fragrance.
6. When the chocolate and wine are well combined, it is ready. Pour in ramekins.
7. Decorate the truffle with nuts and the crumble.
8. Cool it in the fridge overnight so that the alcohol can settle.

Good luck and enjoy!

Chocolate Cookie Bites

Chunky, buttery and overly sweet chocolate chip cookies are not really my thing. I was trying to find a way to finish the bag of chocolate chips I had at home. Then suddenly, as I was flipping through my compilation of recipes, I found a pilot recipe I used for cookies and then decided to make some changes and came up with that one. Since we are in the Nutcracker season, I realized that adding some nuts would enhance the chocolatey and the bitter taste of the cocoa powder. A great marriage between fragrance and bitterness! 

Ingredients:

170g All-purpose flour

80g chocolate chips

50g butter

2 tsp cocoa powder

30g sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

Hazelnut (or almond)

1.  Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until it becomes fluffy.

2. Then add in the egg and the vanilla extract.

3. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Then pour the melted chocolate in the mixture of butter, sugar and egg.

4. Once everything is incorporated, add in the dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Mix well.

5. Preheat the oven at 325°F and shape the cookie dough into drops of 1 inch. Then add a whole hazelnut, pistachio or almond on top of it.

6. Bake for 15 minutes. 

7. Cool down and then it is ready to serve.

Good luck and enjoy!