Holiday Baking: Chocolate Earth Balls

Guest blogger: Lorelei Wey

Whenever I go home for Christmas, my family always lays out platters of butter tarts, mince tarts, shortbread cookies and chocolates. It's wonderful of course, don't get me wrong. But since I'm desperately trying to shed my pregnancy pounds this year, I decided to make a holiday treat that I can feel somewhat good about eating. And as a bonus, the added protein from the nut butter and seeds will help keep the ol’ blood sugar levels even- which I’m sure my family will greatly appreciate!


These Chocolate Earth balls are tasty as can be and there is no baking required. What could be easier! Feel free to substitute in any other dried fruit, seeds or nuts that you have on hand, just as I did.


Chocolate Earth balls
Source: Whole Foods Market

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter (I used a 3/4 cup peanut butter and 1/4 cup almond butter)
1/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup raisins (I used chopped apricots which worked well)
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions
Mix the nut butter, honey and cocoa powder until well combined. Next, add the raisins, chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of the shredded coconut. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Place the sesame seeds, chopped walnuts and the rest of the coconut into 3 separate bowls. You can now roll the dough into bite-sized balls and roll each ball into one of the three bowls of coatings.

Arrange balls on a plate and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not done enjoying pumpkin yet this season and nor should you. Just because Halloween is behind us is no reason to move on. Besides, what's there to move on to? I've been wanting to make cookies lately and so I rolled up my sleeves and made these delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. Baking is the perfect activity for an Autumn afternoon when all you want to do is bunker down and enjoy the great indoors.


I often use bulk chocolate chips but after reading about Heidi Fink's preference for Ghirardelli chocolate chips, I bought a bag of of them from the Market on Yates to try out. And the moment I sliced open the bag, and started pouring out the chocolate chips into the cookie dough, I noticed a difference. They're larger in size for one, but the smell and quality of the chocolate is a serious step up from what I've been buying from the bulk food section.

I used inspiration from two recipes for this one- Food Network's five star recipe and It Ain't Meat, Babe's vegan chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. I just came across Jennifer's blog It Ain't Meat, Babe the other day and really like it. Her blog has a catchy name just like the song it's named after. It's no wonder I was humming Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me, Babe while making these.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (about three dozen)

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 326 gram bag of Ghirardelli's milk chocolate chips

Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets with butter or line them with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Stir in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree.

In another bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips.

Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges.

Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies onto wire racks and let them cool.