Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart

I love peanut butter and chocolate together so when I found this recipe on Elana's pantry I knew I had to try it. I altered the recipe and used carob instead of chocolate and agave instead of yacon syrup, which is what the recipe calls for. It was so good. My alterations are in parentheses.

Ingredients for crust:

1 ½ cups peanuts, roasted
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons yacon syrup (I used agave)

Directions:

Grind the peanuts in a food processor to a fine meal (make a crunchy meal for a crunchier crust). Pulse in the salt and baking soda. Pulse in the grapeseed oil and yacon syrup and continue pulsing until the dough is formed. Remove dough from food processor and press into a 9 inch tart pan. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes, until fragrant and golden brown. Cool, then fill shell with chocolate pudding.

Ingredients for pudding:

1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk, not lite

1 pinch celtic sea salt
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon agave nectar
3 tablespoons yacon syrup (I just used a total of 4 tablespoons of agave nectar)
5 drops stevia (I used chocolate flavored)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate 73% (I used one cup of carob chips)

shredded coconut for topping

Directions:

In a saucepan, heat coconut milk and salt over medium heat. Raise heat and sift the arrowroot powder into the pot, then whisk vigorously by hand or with a hand blender until thick. Whisk in agave, carob, stevia and vanilla. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes; add chocolate, stirring vigorously until melted. Chill for 10 minutes, then pour into cooled pie crust. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until firm, top with shredded coconut.

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

I was really intrigued by this coconut frosting recipe from Elana's Pantry, so I wanted to try it for Easter. I was a little nervous since some of the reviewers had trouble getting the frosting fluffy, but I didn't have any problems. It was pretty tasty. Next time I would reduce the agave, it was just a little too sweet. Here is the frosting recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup agave nectar
pinch celtic sea salt
5 teaspoons arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon water
1¼ cup coconut oil

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk, agave and salt, simmer for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine arrowroot and water to form a smooth paste. Pour arrowroot mixture into saucepan. Mix contents of saucepan with a hand blender and bring to a boil, briefly. Remove pot from heat and very gradually blend in coconut oil. Place pot in freezer for 20-30 30-40 minutes, until frosting solidifies and turns white. Remove from freezer and blend again, until fluffy. Spread over cake or cupcakes.

{via elanas pantry}

For the cupcakes, I altered an existing recipe I found. They came out really good. The flavor was nutty because I used oatmeal as my flour and someone said they were similar in taste to carrot cake.

Ingredients:

½ cup almond milk

¾ cup palm sugar

¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon coconut extract

1¼ cup oat flour (I didn't have oat flour so I used regular slow cook oatmeal, that I put in the food processor and made into a powder)

1½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup coconut oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with liners. Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and mix, put all the wet ingredients in another bowl and mix. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Spoon batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes, or until tops of cupcakes are firm. Let cool. I only got about 9 cupcakes out of this so if you need more you should double the recipe.