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Archive for the ‘Desserts and Treats’ category

sugar free scotcheroos 04 24 10 12 Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats   Sugar Free Style

My mom makes the most amazing treat called Scotcheroo’s. I’m not sure how well known this type of dessert it, but its basically a peanut butter rice krispy treat with a chocolate butterscotch topping. They were always my favorite dessert growing up. In fact, my sister and I never wanted cake for our birthdays, we wanted scotcheroo’s! So this was a challenge recipe for me. I needed to bring back those childhood memories while not using things like High Fructose Corn Syrup and ingredients laden in white sugar.

Did I succeed? Yes and no… This doesn’t taste like what I remember. But boy is it good! If you like peanut butter and dark chocolate, this is pretty hard to resist. Everyone that tried it really like it. (Which is good because I would have sat and ate the whole pan if I didn’t share it! They’re pretty addicting.)

* I have to provide a disclaimer on these. Although the post title says peanut butter rice krispies (because they remind me of those), they aren’t actually crispy. They’re more like a blondie or a cookie bar texture.

Peanut Butter Rice Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

Bar:
2 cups organic rice flakes
3/4 cups + 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk (divided)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup date sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon canola oil

Sauce/Topping:
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
1/4 tsp liquid stevia

Instructions:

In a medium mixing bowl, add the organic rice flakes and soak in 3/4 cups of soymilk. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, add the brown rice syrup. Mix in the date sugar and 1/2 cup soymilk. Stir continually until the mixture starts to show signs of boiling. Once the mixture begins to oil, add the peanut butter and canola oil.

Let the mixture boil (a very low boil!) for about 5 minutes. Then remove the pan from the stove and let it cool another 5 minutes. (Or if you have a metal or glass mixing bowl you can probably skip the cooling step. I had a plastic mixing bowl and didn’t want to take chances.) Mix the syrup into the rice flakes; making sure they’re all covered. I mixed for at least 5 minutes, I wanted to make sure I didn’t have any loose flakes.

Spray or grease a small casserole dish and pour the batter in. Its more like ‘plop’ the batter in, but you get the idea :). I used a glass pan that is about 8 by 10″. Then cover the pan and leave it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. This will ensure that the milk and syrup has been completely ‘soaked up’ into the rice flakes.

When you take it out of the fridge, put it right into the oven for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Let the pan completely cool before you cut it into bars. You can add the topping 1 of 2 ways. Either cut the bars first and then pour topping onto each individual bar, or you can pour topping across the whole thing and then cut the bars out. I actually did half and half to see what I liked better. I preferred to add the chocolate to each piece individually, but it was more time consuming.

To make the topping, chop up the 4 oz of chocolate and put in a microwave safe container. I started by doing 30 seconds at a time for the first minute, mixing it up with a fork between, and then putting it in for 15 seconds at a time; all the while mixing it up so no parts of the chocolate got burnt. Once it was all liquefied, I mixed in the liquid stevia. Then use a spoon to spread the chocolate over the bars.

Once they’ve cooled, dig in!

e87e1d72345d2a79d8ca7d2025709c2b Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats   Sugar Free Style

sugar free scotcheroos 04 24 10 6 Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats   Sugar Free Style

This recipe is linked to My Meatless Monday, Just Another Meatless Monday, Monday Mania, Mouthwatering Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tuesday Twister, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Delicious Dishes, Pennywise Platter, Gluten Free Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Vegetarian Foodie Fridays.

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No Bake Sweet Potato Pie

August 7th, 2010

No Bake Sweet Potato Pie 2 No Bake Sweet Potato Pie

It’s not exactly pumpkin pie season, is it? For those of us that have a soft spot for pumpkin pie, that can be a pretty humbling realization. But have no fear, I’m not afraid to cheat on our behalf!

In light of cheating, I’m officially calling it Sweet Potato Pie season. Cause, why not?

Another reason this recipe rocks? (in my humble opinion anyway..) It doesn’t need to be baked; so no oven; no extra heat pumping into our kitchens!

Woot :)

No Bake Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients:

Filling:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
1 can full fat coconut milk
1/2 cup water and 2 packets of unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup + 2 tbs maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch ground ginger
Pinch allspice

Crust:
1 cup pecan meal
1/2 cup flax meal
5 tbs olive oil
3 tbs maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

No Bake Sweet Potato Pie 3 No Bake Sweet Potato Pie (here is the pie before the filling has ‘set’)

Instructions:

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. You may cook them anyway you choose. My method (because I was in a bit of a hurry) was to cut up the sweet potato into cubes, place them in a large glass bowl, and cover them with water. Put on high in the microwave for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the water and mashed the sweet potatoes into a puree.

While the potatoes are cooking, work on the crust. In a medium mixing bowl, add the pecan and flax meal. Add the oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract next. It’ll be somewhat crumbly, but that’s okay. Press the batter into a glass pan, covering the bottom and sides evenly. Set aside.

In the 1/2 cup of water, dissolve the 2 packets of gelatin. In a small saucepan, heat the can of coconut until it all becomes a liquid. Add the water and gelatin. Leave on medium heat for about ten minutes, or until it slowly begins to boil. Remove from the heat.

In a large heat safe bowl, combine the coconut milk mix and the sweet potato puree. Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, salt, and spices. Mix well.

Pour batter into the prepared crust and pan. Add pecans (or other fun adornments!) to the top of the batter. Cover the pie with saran wrap and put into the fridge. It should take about 2 hours before its completely ‘set’.

Once the pie is set, try and keep it refrigerated up until serving. It’s texture is best when its cooler.

This pie is a reason for Thanksgiving! Er, giving thanks :)

e87e1d72345d2a79d8ca7d2025709c2b No Bake Sweet Potato Pie

No Bake Sweet Potato Pie 1 No Bake Sweet Potato Pie

This recipe is linked to My Meatless Mondays, Just Another Meatless Monday, Tuesday at the Table, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Delicious Dishes, Tasty Tuesday, Gluten Free Wednesday, Foodie Friday, Wholesome Whole Foods, Friday Favorites, Food on Friday, Vegetarian Fridays, and Fight Back Friday.

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Date Muffins 03 25 10 Cupcakes the Natural and Sugar Free way!

I’m calling these cupcakes instead of muffins because in truth; they tasted too sweet to be a muffin! But at the same time, the only sweet ingredients in these muffins are dates and stevia. So I suppose it would be the taster’s call. This is my opinion though: in regards to health they’re muffins, in regards to taste they’re cupcakes :) No frosting required! Although I think that some honey whipped cream from Shirley over at GFE would be just divine on these! (I need to try that pronto :))

For some reason the ‘mini muffins’ were lighter in color than the large muffins. They both tasted great though!

Sugar Free Date Muffins

Ingredients:
3/4 cup finely chopped dates
1 1/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup corn oil
1/2 cup date sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 drops liquid stevia

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a heat safe container, place your chopped dates. Bring 1 1/4 cup water to a boil. Into that container, also add the baking soda. There will be a small reaction, so make sure you have a large enough container to manage any bubbling. Pour that mix onto the chopped dates. Cover (I used a kitchen towel) and set aside.

In a small bowl, sift all your flours, cornstarch, and baking powder so they are well combined. Set aside.

In yet another bowl (this should be a larger one), lightly beat the egg. Add the corn oil while beating and mix in well. Whisk in the date sugar, vanilla, and liquid stevia. Once that is mixed well, add the flour mix. While mixing these too together it will be rather resistant. Keep mixing!

Finally, add the water, baking soda, and date mix. Combine well.

Spray your muffin pans (or if you use muffin papers like I did). It’ll rise almost double, so fill accordingly. You can use either regular size or a mini muffin tray. I actually did both and they both turned out great! I will note though, I found it slightly strange that the smaller mini muffins were a lot lighter than the larger muffins. They both tasted great though, so I’m not sure what all that was about.

Bake larger muffins for approximately 20 minutes. If you use a mini muffin tray, they should be done just shy of 15 minutes.

These truly are for dessert, but they don’t come along with all the unnatural sweeteners, just dates and stevia!

e87e1d72345d2a79d8ca7d2025709c2b Cupcakes the Natural and Sugar Free way!

This recipe is linked to Food on Friday, Foodie Friday, Friday Favorites, Wholesome Whole Foods, Friday Food, Fight Back Friday, I’m Lovin It Friday, Vegetarian Foodie Friday, Family Food Fridays, and the Grocery Cart Recipe Swap.

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Maple Almond CC Cookies small 768x1024 Maple Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies (sugar, dairy, and gluten free)

A while back, I hosted the Blogger Secret Ingredient, which is a weekly blog roundup that filters through many foodie blogs. I chose the ingredient cashews; because who doesn’t love them? (I suppose that’s rhetorical; especially because many of my family members are allergic! ;)) Anyway, Alisa from Go Dairy Free and One Frugal Foodie submitted some very tantalizing cookies make with cashews. I’ve had it on my list since then and never stopped thinking about them! All I can say it, it was worth the wait.

Unfortunately, by the time I got around to making these, I didn’t have any cashews! So I made a few substitutions such as using almonds instead, but regardless these turned out fantastic!

(and sorry about the photos… I only had my small camera and I made these at night…)

Maple Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
½ cup almond meal
1 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ cup tapioca flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup coconut oil, softened
6 tbsp real maple syrup
3 tbsp palm sugar
2 tsp warm water
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate bars

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond meal, flours, baking powder, xanthum gum, and salt together. I used a whisk. I typically like to sift my flour mixes, but the almond meal is too coarse to do that with. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, add the softened coconut oil (a few seconds in the microwave usually does it for me), maple syrup, palm sugar and warm water. Mix together well. Set aside.

Using a cutting board, chop the baking chocolate into small pieces according to what you like. Try and cut them as small as possible because it distributes  the flavor better. I simply used a knife and basically shaved at the blocks of chocolate. It doesn’t take as long as it sounds, I promise! :) Add the pieces to the dry mix and combine well.

Beat the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until the batter is evenly mixed. Spray a large cookie sheet with non-stick spray. When you’re figuring how much batter to use keep in mind that the cookie that you put on the tray will not spread very much at all. So shape the batter into what you want the cookie to look like! I actually used a cookie scoop that my mom had (I made these when I was at home in NY) and I would say it was just over a tablespoon in volume. The cookies that I made were about an inch and a half in diameter.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes. I did mine for 20 minutes, but I would recommend keeping a close eye after the 15 minute mark.

I’m in love with these cookies. I’ve been trying really hard since making them to not make them again (a whole batch of cookies for one tempted foodie is not a good idea! :))

e87e1d72345d2a79d8ca7d2025709c2b Maple Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies (sugar, dairy, and gluten free)

Maple Almond CC Cookies 9 small 1024x768 Maple Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies (sugar, dairy, and gluten free)

This recipe is linked to Meatless Monday, Mouthwatering Monday, Just Another Meatless Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Delicious Dishes, Two for Tuesday, and Gluten Free Wednesday.

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Maple Walnut Icecream 03 27 10 Vegan Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Oh summer, how close you are! (At least, you must be close… with all this 90 degree weather!)

Although, ironically, even after weeks of sweltering heat, today is cold! (It’s a high of 70 today only!!! Whoa yea!)

So I have a weakness of ice cream, I suppose by now that’s pretty apparent. And this recipe isn’t too different from the other ice cream recipes I’ve posted here. (Chocolate, German Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip) I think that’s mainly because I’m a firm believe of ‘Don’t Mess with a Good Thing’. And in this case its definitely true, this is good!

Vegan Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 can full fat coconut milk (mostly solid)
1 can light coconut milk (mostly liquid)
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (you can’t see them very well in the photo, but they’re there!)

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the 2 cans of coconut milk, leaving about 1/4 cup of the lite in a small side container. With the 1/4 cup coconut, mix in the arrowroot powder. Then mix into the whole bowl. Add the maple syrup and vanilla. Mix well.

There are three ways to do this (that I’ve had success with anyway). You can put the mix in the fridge overnight, you can put the mix into the freezer for about 45 minutes to an hour, OR you can keep the cans of coconut and the maple syrup in the fridge. I personally like, and now use, the last option. It means I can put the mix right into the ice cream maker. I suppose it all depends on when you want to make it verses when you want to eat it.

Add the mix to your ice cream machine. Chop your walnuts fine and add them only in the last couple minutes of mixing.

And if you’re like me and feel guilty about the sweets you eat, definitely try what I do. Put them into small serving size containers so you don’t over eat… ’cause a little sweets are good now and then, you know ;)

e87e1d72345d2a79d8ca7d2025709c2b Vegan Maple Walnut Ice Cream

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This recipe is linked to Meatless Mondays, Just Another Meatless Monday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesday, and Tuesday at the Table.

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