As busy as I am right now, I still need some recreational kitchen time. Thanks to those coconut mounds that also got a post to themselves...
Did you know this about chocolate? Apparently, when you consume theobromine and caffeine together (as in coffee and chocolate, a mocha, tirami su), the two of them synergize so that the stimulant effect is greater than the sum of its parts. Worth knowing...
Well, I had a bowl of homemade carob chocolate leftover from this post, and I'd made nut milk again for a special occasion recipe (coming up), so I decided to rework one of my favorite chocolate mint truffles with the carob chocolate. It's super-simple and very low in sugar, and it turned out to have an especially delightful texture-twist.
8 oz homemade carob chocolate (basically cacao butter, carob, mesquite and a little sweetener and vanilla) Edit from the future: my next post after this one provides a trouble-shot carob recipe.
1/2 cup homemade nut milk of choice (this happened to be almond-hazelnut; my favorite is coconut; any would be lovely!)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
Simply melt the chocolate, add the nut milk and peppermint extract, and stir together. Let sit in the fridge (or at room temperature if you live where I do) to firm up a bit, then roll into balls. For me, about 30 balls.
As for the texture, that is just something else! I don't know how it came out this way, but it's a little more crumbly than a traditional truffle and so airy and light inside, it's like one of those aerated chocolate bars! I wonder whether it came out like that because I had the nut milk cold, rather than room temp, when I added it to the carob chocolate.
Any ideas?
Seriously, I think I like these better than the coconut mounds, and yet they're not addictive! With the coconut mounds, I'd eat one, and of course I'd eat just one because I'm that stubborn, but I'd really really want to eat more than one! With these, I can eat half of one and be blissed out.
Go and make some!
http://wholenewmom.com/traditional-tuesday/traditional-tuesdays-nutritious-and-delicious-january-17-2011/
That's so cool about the way your light returns so quickly and in such a pronounced way. Seems it would make it much easier to stay aware of the environment around you with such obvious change going on. I do wonder if I would get a bit of vertigo up there, as there is such a huge difference in day length from your shortest to your longest day, and the changes are occurring pretty rapidly throughout the year. Where I am, way down south, the shortest day is about 10 hours and the longest about 14, so the changes are much more gradual. Of course, in your case you have also lived in Hawaii, not only a hugely different climate, but I imagine there is virtually no difference in day length between the seasons. I did learn an interesting tidbit on Science Friday this past week. They were discussing winter, and it was brought up that scientists believe the tilt in our axis, which results in our having seasons, was the result of a collision with some other celestial object back in the mists of time. Not all planets, not even all planets in our own Solar System, are tilted the way ours is. So the point was that the seasons we take for granted aren't a requirement, just an accident. Interesting to think about, huh?
ReplyDeleteThose carob mint confections sound great, and I actually have all the ingredients. Can you give me some proportions for the ingredients in the carob chocolate? I wasn't able to discern from the link you provided as those recipes involved additional ingredients, and I'm pretty new to chocolate making. Thanks, Ela!
Thanks, Mindy--wow, that is so fascinating about the planetary tilt causing seasons and not being a 'normal' configuration. Thanks for sharing that. I definitely feel like in certain ways I had a much easier time when I lived in HI and CA and didn't have these extreme seasons--but when I lived there, other people often said they "missed' the season (which I could never relate to).
ReplyDeleteI will post my best recollection of the carob chocolate recipe tomorrow, as what I was going to post tomorrow got canceled! I have to stay focused on work today. But it was basically one part cacao butter to two and a half parts carob/mesquite, of which I did mostly carob and a little mesquite--plus some sweetener, vanilla, pinch of salt.
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Ela
Ela you had me at the title! mint and carob yes please!!! two of our favorites lately!
ReplyDeleteYes, mint and carob are made for each other! And the carob chocolate is pretty awesome too.
Deletelove
Ela
Great idea to add carob with cacao butter to get a less intense chocolate. I will have to try that. I like the idea of a milk chocolate raw vegan chocolate, I've had a few commercial ones and they are really good.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried the commercial ones, but cacao butter and carob go well together... It's interesting how I love white and 'milk' raw vegan chocolates _WAY_ better than regular white/milk choc (yuck to both). I guess same with raw vegan cheese=yum and I loathe regular cheese...
Deletelove
Ela
Those look tasty, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shannonmarie!
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