Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Cocoa Butter Recipes


Here are three recipes I've seen posted on the SCD list serve. I've tried the cocoa butter brownies, and they're really delicious!! Whomever's recipes these are - the credit goes to you...
Cocoa Butter Brownies
4 Tbls. melted butter or coconut oil (or 2 Tbls. each)
¼ cup melted cocoa butter (caveat: I don’t measure this, I just cut a hunk and throw in the bowl to melt! It looks to be about ¼ cup when it is liquid)
4 eggs
1 cup honey
16 oz. nut butter (I like cashew butter)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbls. vanilla extract
Optional: 1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 340*F
Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners (about 18-20) or grease 2) 8”x8” pans
In a large bowl, melt together the butter, coconut oil & cocoa butter. Add the remaining ingredients and, using an electric mixer, or food processor, mix well until batter is smooth & shiny. If using chopped nuts, mix in by hand. Fill muffin pans 2/3 full, or pour batter into the 2 8x8” pans.
Bake 18 – 20 minutes for muffins or 20 – 25 minutes for the 8x8” pans. Do not over bake or they will be dry.
The muffins rise nicely when baking, but fall once cooled. And remember, the chocolately taste is subtle, but there.

Cocoa Butter Cupcakes
4 Tbls cocoa butter
6 large eggs
2 Tbls cashew butter
3/4 cup honey
4 tspn Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp lemon juice
2 1/2 cups nut flour (I like a combination of two flours)

Preheat the oven to 340F fill a muffin tray with 12 muffin liners.
Melt the cocoa butter in a dessert bowl over a small pan of simmering water. As soon as it is melted, take it off the heat and set aside.
Break the eggs into a mixing bowl with your chosen nut butter, honey, vanilla extract and baking soda. Beat with an electric mixer until light and frothy.
Pour the melted cocoa butter in a thin stream into the eggs with the beaters still going, until it is all incorporated. Beat for an extra minute to get as much air as possible into the mixture.
Sprinkle in the lemon juice and beat again to distribute.
Add the almond flour to the bowl and fold in thoroughly with a metal spoon. Pour into lined muffin pan.
Bake for 17-20 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch.

Cocoa Butter Frosting
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup of cocoa butter (4 ounces) - melted
2 teaspoons of vanilla or more if you like it
honey to taste - starting with 1 heaping TB - and possibly going up a lot more
pinch of salt

optional spritz of lemon - can't decide if I like it or if it is weird. But apparently it
also helps the recipe emulsify.

Beat yolks, preferably in a standing mixer for ease, until they are light yellow, doubled
in volume and thick. Add honey and vanilla and salt (and optional lemon) and keep
beating until everything is well incorporated and the consistency is still thick.
Then transfer the bowl to become the top of a double boiler and with the heat on a middle
low (not ridiculously low), keep whisking the eggs (don't leave them alone for too long
or the yolks will begin to cook and then turn lumpy - this can happen in seconds at the
wrong time so be careful). As the eggs slowly get warmer - begin to add
the cocoa butter to the yolks. Keep whisking.
(I've melted the cocoa butter first and also left it solid and added that way, but it
seems to be quicker if it is added in melted. But either way works - just use small pieces if you drop in solid bits.)
Keep adding the cocoa butter and then taste to make sure you have enough honey added.
After a while, as you continue to whisk the yolk mixture, the consistency will begin to change noticeably and will no longer have the appearance of raw yolks. Keep on a bit longer, and then take off the heat.
Then, take the bowl and set it into a bigger bowl of ice water so that the mixture will begin to chill. You cannot put it on the cake when it is warm, because it is too runny. Just let it chill for a while, You can then put the mixture in the refrigerator to continue chilling. But keep the warm water from the bottom of the double boiler handy unless you over chill it and cannot easily spread it on the cake. (In which case, you simply need to let the mixture relax a bit over the warm water - like a sauna, for icing!)
The chilling part takes a while, so go off and do something else and stop eating it straight from the bowl. You'll figure out when it is done - when you can use a rubber spatula to spread it easily. Or, if you are more fancy, you can use an icing bag.
Refrigerate it and let it chill.
The cake actually tastes best on the second day - not that I can resist eating it right away,
but for some reason the flavors marry really well by then and are best from that point on.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks to SCD diet I hardly think of any digestive issues. Your muffins and snacks are great.

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  2. I just found your blog & am so glad i did! My husband is on this diet, & I'm thrilled to have found your recipes. I really want to try this cocoa butter brownie recipe.I will check back here often. Thank you for sharing =)

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  3. I just made the cocoa butter brownies (in muffin tins) and they are wonderful! A perfect nut butter treat for a new SCDer. Thank you for sharing.

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  4. is cocoa butter legal for SCD?

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