400th Post (For Real!)

Hey everyone! Today is my real 400th post! Sorry for the confusion last time :X This is for real this time, I promise! It seems like the post was published before but it was just a draft. Very weird. This is the real post, a little early. This is your Wednesday post this week... onAnyway, I wanted to make this post fun so I have a recipe to share with you! It was supposed to be a dehydrator recipe but I wasn't 100% happy with that aspect of it so it has transformed into something different. It is still delicious though!

Curious? This experiment was inspired by this post by Gabby. Check out those delicious looking flavored almonds she has! I went to the company website and saw that they had a Mexican Chocolate flavored almond and knew I had to try and make my own!

Check out this yummy, decadent treat! They are rich and chocolatey, but still not too terrible for you! Definitely a great way to cure a chocolate craving :) These are mostly raw because I used cocoa powder but you can always use raw cacao powder if you want to make them completely raw.

I tried to make them in the dehydrator because I thought they would crystalize kind of like the raw buckwheat cereal. It didn't really crystalize or even harden like I thought they would.

Basically what I did was make the syrup (recipe to follow) and used it to coat 1 1/4 cup of soaked almonds. Then I dehydrated the almonds at 104 degrees for 16 hours. They were still a little sticky after 16 hours so I turned the dehydrator off and waited to see what happened. They hardened up a bit and then I popped them in the fridge to store. 

These things are amazing! Like I said, they have a rich chocolate flavor with a kick of cinnamon. You can't taste the cayenne at all but you can feel the heat just a little in the back of your throat. It is so good! 

I figured that since the syrup is so versatile, I'd give you the recipe for that! I bet you can all dream up some yummy ways to use it :)

Mexican Chocolate Syrup

Ingredients:

1 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp raw agave (it is a bit sweet, you can use 1 tbsp if you like it less sweet)

2 tbsp cocoa powder or raw cacao powder

3/4 - 1 tsp cinnamon

pinch cayenne (optional)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together into a thick syrup. 

Suggested Uses:

1. Drizzle over banana soft serve for a sweet and spicy treat!

2. Mix with your favorite plant milk for Mexican Chocolate Milk.

3. Use instead of melted chocolate in your Mess Free Banana Splits!

4. Coat your favorite raw nuts with it ;) Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate until it sets!

I plan on experimenting with different flavors of those nuts as well :) If they come out good I'll definitely share with all of you.

Hope you all have a great day! I'm looking forward to the next 400 posts :)