Low-Fodmap Chocolate Bites

Over the last few months, I have had terrible problems with my health - stomach cramps, constant nausea, exhausted beyond belief - nothing seems to help, nothing seems to hinder. Needless to say, it's had a huge impact on my life. While I visit doctors, specialists, have scans and tests i've had to limit my time in the office, only working part time while everyone around me tries to figure out just what the heck is going on with my body.

Anyway, part of this journey to discover the root of my health problems lead me to a naturopath - who has put me on a low fodmap diet. There is a concern that the issues may be down to IBS and Chronic Fatigue, so i've had to make some major changes to my diet. Luckily, having previously been following a wholefood diet, I didn't have a lot of packaged crap to cut out - but there have been some challenges. One of which is eating out - fodmap cuts out most gluten, along with lactose, fructans (in things like vegetables, wheat products and sweeteners like agave and honey), galactans (pulses and beans) and polyols (found in most stone fruit, some veges and artificial sweeteners).

It's a lot to look out for, especially when you've got a craving for something sweet. What it means is there is a lot less eating out (and a lot more questions for poor wait staff) and a lot more home experimenting, which I don't actually mind :)

Today was one of those days, I was desperate for something chocolatey and bite sized - so i've come up with these chocolate bites - they're vegan, low fodmap, refined sugar free, dairy free AND they can be made gluten free if you replace the oats with your favourite GF flour.

Enjoy!

Chewy Chocolate Bites

1/3 C desiccated coconut
1/3 C oats
1/4 C cocoa
2 T pure maple syrup
4 T nut or seed butter (I used Tahini)
4 T almond milk
Pinch of salt

In a food processor or magic bullet, wizz the coconut, oats and cocoa into a powder. Add the wet ingredients and mix well.

Shape into balls and pop in the oven at 180°C (375°F) for 9-12 minutes, depending on how crispy you want them.

Should make around a dozen small bites, or in my case 9, because I ate too much of the dough ;)

Kiwi Biscuits

Today I thought i'd share you my favorite recipe. The worlds best Chocolate Chip cookies. I know, big call, but I love them. It was the first recipe I learnt and to this day I still get compliments on them. The best part? They're dead simple.

First, we start with softened butter, sugar and sweetened condensed milk.

Cream the three together with an electric beater until it's light and fluffy. People who cream butter and sugar properly mix it in enough so the sugar is completely dissolved, but i'm lazy and impatient so I just beat it until the mixture is noticeably lighter.

Then the flour and baking powder go into the mix. You'll see the recipe asks for a lot of flour, so don't mix it all in at once - you don't want the dough to be too dry, I usually find around an ounce less flour than the recipe asks for works well.

My favorite part!! Chocolate!! Any dark cooking chocolate will work but i'm very partial to Cadbury Energy chocolate, I couldn't find it when I was living in the states and used almond bark instead, in my opinion it just wasn't as good.

NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

Mix it all together (try not to eat to much of it!!) Roll it up in to balls and flatten them with a fork on a baking tray before popping it in the oven at 375ºF/180ºC for 15 mins. Again, this depends on the oven you're working with, my one at home usually needs 12-13 mins.

The final product! Don't they look good?!

Get. In. My. Belly.

Kiwi Biscuits

6oz butter

3oz sugar

3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

9oz flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

250g dark cooking chocolate, chopped up into big chunks