Carocolate - Carob Bars

Chocolate cravings? In need for some comfort food or some handy sweets on your road trip or something to give your kids for Christmas?
Try carocolate (carob bars). It's yummy, and according to some of my usual testers, it's the best thing I have ever created. It's vegan (of course) and very healthy 100% HiFi food, meaning it doesn't contain any added sugar, flours, or pressed oils and is high in fiber. It's also high in calcium, which is no surprise, since carob, dates, and nuts are all high in calcium. It's also very easy to take with you on trips, or cycling workouts, that's why you can use it as energy bars.

Since it doesn't need cooking or baking, it's done in about 5 min.

You need:
- 2 cups of dried dates
- 1 1/2 cups of nuts (almonds, hazelnuts or cashews)
- 1/2 cup of carob powder
- 1 vanilla bean
- pinch of cinnamon

You do:
If you want the aroma of roasted nuts in your bars, start by roasting the nuts for a couple of minutes in a oil-free pan or in the oven. Process all the ingredients in a food processor (or with a hand-blender) into a sticky coarse dough. The finer the dough, the finer the final product. Shape the dough into bars, by pressing it down and cutting it with a knife. That's it. Enjoy!

Michael

Mousse au la la! - Vegan Carob "Mousse au Chocolat"

I love carob. Carob powder is just the dried (and sometimes roasted) fruit of the carob tree ground into powder. It's very high in fiber (also very high in calcium and potassium), naturally sweet and, unlike cocoa, it doesn't contain any psychoactive substances like caffeine or theobromine.

This recipe is a sweet and creamy (and yummy) mousse without sugar, and also without milk or cream.

You need:
3 table spoons of fine carob powder
1/4 cup of soaked roasted almonds (roast them very lightly in a pan without oil or in the oven and soak them for a couple of hours in water and discard the water)
2 ripe bananas
1 small tea spoon of cinnamon
1 small piece of fresh ginger or 1 pinch of ginger powder
1 vanilla bean (scrape the inside of the bean with the edge of your knife to pull off all of the tiny black seeds that are found inside and use only them)

You do:
Mix all ingredients really well in a food processor! Chill! Enjoy.

Michael

NEW: If you like sugar-free carob recipes, check out my carob cookie recipe.

Carookies - Carob Bean Cookies

This recipe for sugar-free gluten-free bean and date-based carob cookies was inspired by my friend Annika's outstanding work on other bean-based cookies (which you can find here). They are similar to chocolate cookies, but rather healthy with tons of fibre and a good amount of protein. I use them like energy bars, in particular after workouts when no fresh fruit is available. Carob has been shown to protect against colon cancer.

You need:

2 dl of dried adzuki beans, soak over night or for at least 8h
250g of dates (make sure you get the stones out)
5 big tablespoons of carob powder (available in most organic food shops).
mark of 2 vanilla beans

1 dl of almonds
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger (depending on how spicy you like it)
3 oranges (blended)
1 big chunk of orange peel
2 ripe bananas
baking paper

You do:

Cook the adzuki beans for 1h or longer until they start to disintegrate. Cook the beans so that the water is gone when they are done, but make sure you always have enough water in the pot so that the beans don't burn. Put in the dates and the oranges. Cook for about another 5 to 10 minutes until dates also start to disintegrate.

Afterwards, add all other ingredients except the almonds and process until smooth. Add water if necessary, but the dough should be easy to form with your hands and not be too liquid. Add almonds, either ground or chopped, depending on your preference (you can also do a bit of both). Form into cookies on baking paper and bake for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. The recipe is for 2 large trays.

Enjoy.

Michael