Mini Chocolate Cupcake Bombs

Chocolate cupcakes, covered with walnuts and encased with a rich chocolate shell; decadence in its purest form. People, you need to make these! Right now! Don’t you want them? I sure do, just writing this!

I made these little treats for a get-together last weekend, and they were a huge hit. No one could believe that they were made of cashew butter, and contained no grains or dairy!

One tip: Before announcing to your whole family that the cupcake bombs are done, make sure to eat a few in secret! (I was not very smart the first time I made these.)

Makes 12 mini cupcake bombs.

Ingredients:

1-2 Tbs coconut oil, melted (for greasing)

½ cup creamy salted cashew butter, unsweetened (if your cashew butter is unsalted, add another pinch of salt to the recipe)

1 large egg

1/3 cup raw honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup cacao powder

1 Tbs coconut flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

3 Tbs walnuts, coarsely chopped

¾ cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1.     Preheat your oven to 350° and heavily grease a mini muffin tin with the melted coconut oil.

2.      In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix together the cashew butter, egg, honey and vanilla until smooth.

3.     Blend in the cacao powder, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt.

4.     Scoop the batter into the greased mini muffin tin using a cookie scoop (or just a spoon). Fill them up almost all the way. The batter should fill the 12 cups in the tin evenly.

5.     Place a few pieces of walnut on top of each muffin, then put the tin in the oven.

6.     Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

7.     While the muffins are baking, melt the chocolate in a double boiler over high heat, or a small saucepan over medium/low heat.

8.     Let the muffins cool in their tin for 5 minutes, then gently remove from the tin, and onto 2 plates lined with parchment paper.

9.     Pour a spoonful of melted chocolate on top of each muffin, then place them in the freezer. Cover them with aluminum foil.

10. Keep the muffins in the freezer until the chocolate on top hardens, then serve!

To Store: Keep the muffins in the freezer until 30 minutes before you want to serve them. For those last 30 minutes, put them in in the fridge.

Leprechaun Pancakes (Grain-free, Dairy-Free)

Oh, the sunflower seed butter and baking soda reaction! I remember the moment so vividly…

It was about a year ago. I was concocting a recipe for oatmeal cookies, made with sunflower seed butter. When the delicious cookies came out of the oven, they seemed to look a bit yellow. The longer they cooled for, the greener, and greener they got. When I bit into one, they tasted perfectly normal, but the inside was a deep green! How strange!

Recently, I was browsing recipes online, when I found a recipe for green oatmeal cookies! It was then I learned that when you combine baking soda and sunflower seed butter, it turns green. Amazing! And perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

These pancakes are deeeeelish, and can be made in a jiffy!

Just don’t let the leprechauns eat them! You know how greedy they get with paleo pancakes.

Makes about 16 pancakes.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened sunflower seed butter

2 Tbs maple syrup or honey

3 large eggs

½ cup almond milk (or coconut milk for nut-free)

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

scant ¼ tsp sea salt

1-2 Tbs coconut oil, for greasing

Directions:

1.     Place a large cast iron skillet on your stove, and turn the heat up to medium.

2.     In a high speed blender, blend the sunbutter, maple syrup, eggs, and almond milk until smooth.

3.     Blend in the baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

4.     Spread a bit of coconut oil all over the preheated griddle, and then spoon the batter onto it. I use about 2 Tbs of batter per pancake. Then, spread out the top of the pancake with the back of a spoon, to make it thinner.

5.     Let each side of the pancake cook for about 2 minutes, or until the edges start to curl slightly under, before flipping.

6.     Serve the pancakes! NOTE: The greenness may start to form a few minutes after the pancakes have been cooked, because it takes a little while for the baking soda to activate.