Chocolate Raspberry Bonbons

Valentine's Day is approaching, which means lots of bad candy and useless merchandise will be sold in the next week or so.  Over here, we're having fun making our own (healthier) candy --especially these Chocolate Raspberry Bonbons.

My boys made an entire batch of these sweet confections last night and had a great time.  They love taking over my candy projects, the little rascals! I like making these too.  Using a small paint brush to spread the melted chocolate into the molds somehow reminds me of painting in kindergarten --where there were no mistakes.

Chocolate Raspberry Bonbonsprint friendly recipe
¾ cup dark chocolate 73%
¼ cup raspberry jam

1. Melt chocolate in a small pan over very low heat; you can use a double boiler if you wish and temper the chocolate
2. Using a small paint brush, coat the bottom and sides of a candy mold
3. Place mold in freezer for 10 minutes to allow chocolate to harden
4. Remove mold from freezer
5. Spoon a scant teaspoon of raspberry jam into each chocolate lined candy mold cup
6. Paint chocolate over raspberry jam to cover and make final layer
7. Place in freezer for 10 minutes to harden
8. Remove from freezer, turn mold upside down and pop candies out of mold
9. Serve

makes 11 bonbons (depending on your mold)

These bonbons use the same mold found in my Chocolate Covered Cherries recipe.  If you are looking for a candy recipe that does not use a mold, check out my Nut Butter Balls.

Today is World Nutella Day. The website featured a roundup of everything Nutella, including my own Homemade Nutella Recipe. Have a great weekend and happy Nutella day!

Nut Butter Cups

When I posted the recipe for Vanilla Almond Butter I had planned on sharing my Nut Butter Cup recipe with you shortly thereafter.  My children however, hijacked the Nut Butter Cups the night I tried to make them (with exact measurements for you all, of course).  They hacked my project, dumping loads of chocolate chips into the pot (for melting) and eating many of the results.  Because of this I lost all measurements and had to start over (not really a problem since everyone in my family is digging the cups).

Today I had a bit of time to repeat this project with better measuring success.  So here it is for all of you, gluten free, high protein vanilla almond butter cups.

Nut Butter Cupsprint friendly recipe
⅓ - ½ cup Vanilla Almond Butter (chilled for 24 hours)
1 tablespoon golden flax meal
1 cup dark chocolate 73%

1. Stir flax meal into vanilla almond butter
2. Melt chocolate in a small pan over very low heat; you can use a double boiler if you wish and temper the chocolate
3. Using a small paint brush, coat the bottom and sides of a nut butter cup mold with chocolate 
4. Place mold in freezer for 10 minutes to allow chocolate to harden
5. Remove mold from freezer
6. Scoop a scant teaspoon of vanilla almond butter into each chocolate lined nut butter cup (i use a mini ice cream scoop)
7. Paint chocolate over the nut butter to cover and make final layer
8. Place in freezer for 10 minutes to harden
9. Remove from freezer, turn mold upside down and pop nut butter cups out of mold
10. Serve (if any left)

Yields 11 cups (depending on your mold)

If you don't have a mold or just don't want the cups there is an alternative. Nut Butter Balls.

I was honored to be featured in the class notes section of my alumni magazine Columbia College Today.  If you are a Columbia University alum, leave a comment below to say hello.

Gluten Free Pancakes… Revisited

The feedback pertaining to the Pancake and Flapjack recipes on my website has been interesting to watch.

Many people have loved and had great success with these recipes and many have had trouble with them as well.  Since these 2 recipes seemed to be more troublesome then most, I decided to re-work them in this post.

There are several factors to keep in mind:

Here's a comment from a helpful reader:

I had problems, like other comments have mentioned, that the flapjacks weren't firm enough to flip.  I used the almond flour at room temperature (I had been storing it in the refrigerator but after reading that you don't I tried that).  I also had to cook them a lot longer than a normal pancake is cooked. It took about 3-4 minutes for the first side and 2-3 for the second side, but it is well worth the wait! Hopefully this will help others who are having problems with this!
-Sherron

Some of you have asked for a lower GI alternative to maple syrup --my boys are really enjoying Ohgave's agave based "maple" syrup, which I have found to be quite tasty as well.

I am thrilled to let you all know that as I was reading the New York Times Book Review last weekend, I saw that the Pioneer Woman's cookbook is #10 on their best seller list.  Way to go Ree!

In media news I had the pleasure yesterday of being interviewed by Dr. Faith of the Faith Middleton show on Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network.  We talked for an hour, yes a full hour about my book and many of the recipes in it.  Dr. Faith is an almond flour evangelist and it was wonderful to be on air with her. Listen to the show

Last but not least, the winner of last weeks Friday Freebie retweet giveaway for a jar of Naturally Nutty Sunflower Butter is Ricki Heller. Congratulations!

Radicchio Salad with Frisee and Apples

The other night I had the privilege of eating this amazing gluten free salad at Frasca, a fabulous restaurant in downtown Boulder. Their salad however, had salami, while mine, for a little hit of protein, contains walnuts.

I served this salad with dinner Sunday night while my 3 boys (2 children and husband) watched the NFL playoffs.  Dinner (and this salad) were a hit (even though the Jets lost).

Valentine's Day is coming up and I will be teaching a Valentine's Day gluten free, dairy free cooking class at Bauman College on Wednesday, February 10th in Boulder --hope to see you there!

I want to give a special thanks to those participating in the forums and a special shout out to forums member Lisa Stafford, who actively answers the questions of so many other community members.  She is the winner of the Forums Activist of the Month Giveaway --and will receive a signed copy of my gluten free cookbook, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.  Congrats and thank you Lisa!

Vanilla Almond Butter

The creation of this delicious, homemade vanilla almond butter is hardly my own.  One of my favorite readers, Courtney, over at benefityourlife.com, gave me several amazing presents during the holidays and one was a bottle of super tasty vanilla almond butter from the lovely Katie Kearney over at naturallynutty.com.  Yum!

This is a great product, and when I finished Courtney's gift and was too impatient to wait for my own order to arrive, I came up with the little treat below.  Katie's is way better though and I suggest you get the real thing!

If you are in Boulder this weekend I'll be over at the Whole Foods on Pearl st. this Saturday from 12-3pm doing a book signing and participating in their gluten free taste fair. Visit their store calendar page for more information.

Audio is now available from my recent radio interviews with Gina Snow over at Epicurean Corner and Zorba Paster and Tom Clark on the Zorba Paster on your Health program. To listen to the audio just click on the play button next to the link. In addition you can find my Southwestern Salmon Burgers recipe from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook on their recipes page.

The winner of last weeks Friday Freebie, a box of Cashew Cookie Larabars from iHerb, is Diane. Congratulations!

For this weeks Friday Freebie I'm giving away a jar of Naturally Nutty Sunflower Butter (with flax seed and hemp). To be entered all you need to do is retweet this post using the green button below.

UPDATE: this giveaway has ended, the winner was RickiHeller