Xylitol, Part 3

With my last wee bit of Xylitol left over from the 16 ounce bag Xylitol USA sent me, I made some chocolate and coconut... things. I wanted to call them cups, because I had visions of molding them in little paper candy cups, but that turned out to be a messy disaster. They still tasted good, though.

I planned to re-melt everything and try again, but I keep eating the broken up pieces, so I don't think that's going to happen. Instead, I'll just go ahead and post the recipe. A friend of mine actually told me how to make these, only her quantities just made a small amount. That's good in a way, because you can only eat what you have. Recipes yielding only a few servings can help prevent overindulgence. Still, I wanted to make these into bite-sized candies, so I made TWELVE TIMES the recipe. It's a good thing I did, too. In the process of trying to pour the melted chocolate into the candy cups, I spilled it everywhere, losing almost a third of it.

Anyway, the original recipe is: 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 teasppon Xylitol and 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut. Here's where I have to fess up and let you know that I used Angel Flake coconut because that's what I had on hand. Since it's sweetened, the chocolates I made aren't technically sugar free, but you can easily use whatever variety of coconut you want.

I'd also like to point out that I followed the same friend's advice and processed my Xylitol in a coffee grinder so that the grains would be finer. It worked, as you can see the difference below. I wish I had thought to do this when I made the meringues and peanut butter cookies, as that may have helped, but that's something to try later.

   

Chocolate Coconut Cups (as I made them)

24 Tbsp (1 1/2 cups) coconut oil, melted
24 Tbsp (1 1/2 cups) cocoa powder
12 tsp (1/4 cup) Xylitol
12 Tbsp (3/4 cup) shredded coconut

Melt the coconut oil, and then mix everything together. I poured the mixture into a gallon-sized ziploc bag, thinking it would be easiest to pipe the chocolate into the cups. Wrong. As soon as I cut the corner off the bag, the chocolate gushed out everywhere. Oops.

Here is a photo of my mini muffin pan all prepped with candy cup wrappers to mold the chocolate. Luckily, I have no pictures of the debacle that resulted from me trying to fill these things.

I did get a few chocolates that looked okay. There's major blooming and discoloration going on, and I'm not quite sure what's up with that. I didn't do any sort of tempering, so that may be it. If you have any ideas, let me know because it looks dreadful. Luckily, that doesn't affect the taste.

By the way, I also used the coffee grinder to chop the coconut into smaller pieces, but a food processor would work just as well for that. Here you can see what they look like inside. Yum!

Oh, and don't forget about the coupon code for Xylitol. Save 10% off your first order at www.emeraldforestxylitol.com with coupon code FIRST.

Mini Lemon Tarts

I found another recipe I wanted to try courtesy of my Epicurious iPhone app. This one is vegan, gluten-free, and raw. I usually really like raw desserts, so when I saw Lemon Pudding Filled Coconut Cupcakes with Shaved Coconut Topping I was practically drooling just reading over it.

I made mine in a mini-muffin tin and didn't have enough coconut left to top them, so they are more like tarts than cupcakes, but they're still super yummy. I also didn't have any agave nectar on hand, so I used maple syrup instead. Apologies for not having any pictures of the beginning steps for this recipe, as I only took photos of the assembly, but these are really easy to make in a food processor.

Lemon Pudding filling

1/3 cup cashews
1 1/2 bananas
1/4 cup lemon juice (from 1 to 2 lemons)
2 tablespoons agave nectar (I subbed pure maple syrup)

Grind cashews into a powder in food processor. Add the bananas, lemon juice, and maple syrup and process until smooth. Let chill in the refrigerator.

Cupcakes/tart shells

2 1/2 cups dry pecans

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup firmly packed pitted dates

3 tablespoons alcohol-free vanilla extract 

One thing about raw recipes, don't ignore the "alcohol-free" detail when it comes to using vanilla extract. Trust me on this one. As it happened, I didn't have any alcohol-free vanilla extract, so I used 2 tsp of my pure vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons plus a teaspoon of water.

Combine the pecans, coconut, and salt in the food processor and process into evenly sized small pieces, taking care not to overprocess into a butter. Scoop the mixture into another bowl. Combine the dates and vanilla in the food processor and process into small pieces. Return the pecan mixture to the food processor and pulse to mix. It should have a crumbly but sticky texture.

 

I put mine in the refrigerator overnight, and then it was nice and cold when I was ready to use it. The recipe says to use a cupcake pan, but I wasn't sure how rich these would be so I decided to use a mini-muffin tin to make them more bite-sized. I don't think removal would be an issue either way, but I lined mine with some festive mini-muffin baking cups.

 

I used my measuring spoon to put a teaspoon of the cupcake/tart shell mixture in each, then used the back of it to press it into the cavity.

  

I then added another teaspoon to the top and used the flat top of my spurtleto press the mixture deeper into the bottom of the cup and up the sides. I had to use my fingers to tidy the tops and make sure the sides were evenly distributed.

 

I used a clear plastic disposable piping bagto add the lemon filling. 

  

Then the mini tarts got to sit in the fridge for a few hours to chill and firm up. 

 

I think the filling was supposed to set up more than it did. For some reason, my filling stayed pretty runny even after it chilled in the refrigerator overnight, so I maybe added too much lemon juice or something, but I'll figure that out on the next round.

The recipe was supposed to only make 6 standard-size muffins, but I got nearly 18 mini tarts. You're also supposed to top them with more coconut, but I didn't do that. Apparently the filling keeps for a few days in the refrigerator when stored separately, and the cupcakes/tart mixture will keep for several weeks. Keep the assembled tarts in the fridge and use within a few days. If they last that long. Making these bite-sized seemed like a good idea at the time for portion control, but I find myself snacking on them.