Fruit and Nut Chocolates for Diabetics and Gluten-Intolerant People
No Artifcial Sweeteners, Gluten Free and Low Carb
Stevia and chocolate candy! My dream has come true.
I'm diabetic and control my blood sugar with diet and exercise, so I'm always looking for how to make my own sweet treats. I also am gluten intolerant and avoid wheat and other grains, so I look for gluten-free foods I can make.
In the middle of 2012, I was watching Dr. Oz, and he had a recipe for carob chips. It sounded really good and easy to make, but I really don't find carob as satisfying as chocolate. So, I started to experiment and came up with the perfect recipe for the chocoholic in me...and you, if you are also one.
Here are just a few yummy candies I made today.
There is a chocolate covered strawberry on top surrounded by some other variations. I made some chocolate-cover bing cherries, also, but they disappeared before the camera got to them. Oops!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 Tbs cocunut flour (more if you want it thicker)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- sweeten to taste. I use less than 1/8 tsp of pure stevia powder)
- Fruits, optional
- Nuts, optional
- Nut Butters, optional
- Shredded Coconut, optional
- 1 Tbs Unmodified Potato Starch, See explanation below
Instructions
- Mix them all together in a glass container.
- Put about 1 Tbs into each mini muffin space.
- Add variations of fruits, nuts and nut butters to each one with the chocolate.
- Place the muffin pan into the refrigerator to harden.
- Store hardened candies in the refrigerator or freezer.
- I like to use silicone bakeware which is like the red muffin pan seen here. If you don't have any, though, parchment paper works just as well.
- Sometimes I use an 9 x 9 inch silicone pan and cover the bottom with a nut and fruit mixture and drizzle the chocolate sauce evenly over it to make a fruit and nut bark.
Silicone Muffin Bakeware
Perfect for individual candies. The twelve cups are just the right amount for a single recipe of the diabetic chocolate candy.
The cups are flexible so you can get the candy disks out easily.
I actually use a whole variety of silicone baking products that make preparation and cleanup so much easier. I cut a flat sheet into a round piece to fit my pizza pan. I use that not only for pizza, but as a cookie sheet also. Once you try any of the silicone baking items, you'll wonde why you ever baked without them.
Unmodified Potato Starch
I've been following recommendations from Dr .William Davis in his latest book, "Wheat Belly Total Health," regarding getting more fiber into you diet without raising your blood sugar.
He has identified unmodified potato starch as a great source of insoluble fiber that your body cannot digest, but the good bacteria in your bowel can and thrive on it.
He also suggests that it might help kick-start your weigh loss if you have plateaued.
The key, though, is you must eat it uncooked. When you cook it, it turns into a carbohydrates that then raises you blood sugar.
I've been using it in shakes, but decided to try it as a thickener in this recipe. It is a powder that dissolve easily and has minimal taste. I used 1 Tbs. for this chocolate candy recipe and it came out perfect. It also tended to help reduce the strong taste of the cocoa which bothers some people.
If you buy some, make sure that it is the "unmodified" potato starch.
Chocolate-Covered Nuts
Chocolate-covered Favorites
When I put a tablespoon of the chocolate mix into a muffin cup, I add all sorts of good things.
Some of my favorites include:
a banana slice
crushed pecans or other nuts
sugar free-natural peanut butter
fresh blueberries, or raisins
unsweetened shredded coconut,
fresh pineapple chunks
My other options are to dip things into the mixture. My favorites this way are:
whole Brazil nuts,
fresh strawberries
fresh blueberries,
fresh bing cherries with stems and pits (careful, though when you eat them)
Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is. Who can resist any of these great taste combinations
Diabetic Chocolate Sauce Only
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1/12th | |
| Calories | 70 |
| Calories from Fat | 63 |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Fat 7 g | 11% |
| Saturated fat 6 g | 30% |
| Carbohydrates 3 g | 1% |
| Fiber 2 g | 8% |
| Protein 1 g | 2% |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
Pancake Syrup
Chocolate Drizzle or Glaze
While the mixture is warm, it makes a great drizzle over pancakes.
You can see the recipe for my delicious sugar-free-gluten-free-pancakes right here on HubPages. They are made with almond flour, a little ground flax seed and naturally sweetened with powdered stevia.
They are delicious hot, but there are too many for me to eat at one time. I refrigerate the leftovers and eat them as a snack at another time. Adding the flax seed makes them firmer, so I can spread one with my homemade blueberry jam which I also make with stevia, and eat it with my fingers.
Did you ever have a black and white cookie when you were a kid?
When I spread some of the room-temperature chocolate sauce on the pancakes and put them back in the refrigerator briefly, a glaze forms on them. Bite into one, and it tastes just like I remember from my childhood. It has the same cake-like texture and sweetness that was so good.
Quinoa Chocolate Nuggets
I decided to try something different with the chocolate sauce. I don't eat wheat, but I do eat quinoa occasionally. I had seen some quinoa nuggets at the co-op the other day, but they were full of refined sugar. I decided to make some myself since I had quite a bit of sauce made.
I cooked the quinoa in water for 15 minutes (1/2 cup quinoa to 1 cup of water.)
Next, I put a little olive oil in a frying pan and spread half the quinoa out flat so it could brown lightly. I did the same with the other half.
Then, I mixed the quinoa into the chocolate sauce gradually until it came to a consistency where I could form the nuggets. I used a teaspoon to help shape them since the heat of my hand tended to melt the sauce.
I placed them on the 9 x 9 silicone pan and put them into the refrigerator to harden.
The results was some tasty, crunchy nuggets.
Some people may find the cocoa a little too strong, so I have been trying a few other modifications to help make the sauce more like milk chocolate.
I've tried adding some yogurt, and also ricotta cheese and both helped. I just haven't decide yet how much to use and which one is better. I'll have to work on that more and let you know.
What's Your Opinion?
Would you try these instead of sugary chocolate candies?
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