Carob
Looking for a healthy alternative to tasty chocolate snacks? Try carob! It is a delicious (not to mention healthy) replacement of chocolate. You can get it at Bulkbarn, Superstore and several other supermarkets and health food centres. Try to get malt-sweetened or unsweetened carob as apposed to sugar sweetened. The sugar makes carob less healthy but does make it taste more like chocolate. However, carob is naturally sweet so I see the addition of sugar as unnecessary. Here is one simple,cookie-like recipe you can make using carob.
Carob Clusters
Preparation time: 30 minutes Makes: 10 large clusters
2 cups of carob chips
1/4 cup of lumpy peanut butter
1 cup of chopped nuts, coconut shavings or oats (We usually mix all three together to make up the cup)
-First, Melt carob chips over low heat in a pot. Stir only when the chips on the sides and bottom of the pot have turned a dark brown and melted. If you put it on high heat, the won't melt very well.
-Now, add the peanut butter to the pot and stir in (if your carob didn't melt properly, the peanut butter will let it melt).
-Add the chopped nuts, coconut shavings or oats (or all three) and stir in. Mixture should be lumpy.
-Spoon onto a pan or tray. Leave the cookies to harden. They will probably stick to the pan so you should use a metal spatula to carefully scrape them off.
Here are my large clusters, fresh from the pot.
Here they are hardened about thirty minutes to an hour later.
For more information on carob visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carob