Pear strawberry pair for a delicious and healthy smoothie. And I’m always looking for a new smoothie taste… you too?
This pear-straw amuse bouche is a great easy way to kick off healthy, brightening intentions for a blessed new year… after a holiday partridge in a pear tree.
Strawberry or strawberry lemonade is a great summer drink, but in the cool months, I found a strawberry pear-pair is a great sweet one.
The tastes seasonally complement. And you don’t need to add any more sweetness.
Because the juicy pear does the trick. 🍐 Not a prickly pear (cactus) but a regular sweet pear like a Bartlett pear. Anjou and Bosc are also common pears.
…And there’s just a ‘lil prep work that’s worth waiting for.
Like a few weeks after you buy (or pick) your pears.
As the pears ripen to a softness at room temps, you can squeeze the pear juice out. You can speed things up by putting pears near other ripe fruit (like a banana or apple), and even better put in a closed brown paper bag.
A soft pear looks the same on the outside, but inside it’s so soft that you don’t need a knife to pierce in.
You can push into the pear flesh and make pear sauce (like applesauce) if you wanted to.
And it’ll look like (and have the consistency) of juicy mashed potatoes.
That’s when it’s ripely good for a pear strawberry smoothie.🧉
Where you decide to add frozen (or fresh) strawberries.
Strawberry is the new banana in this smoothie.
Like the one here zhughed with shredded coconut… oui?
For the smoothie consistency, if you don’t have bananas around, are tired of them, or just never liked the taste of bananas, then the soft textures from frozen strawberries brought to room temps will do the trick.
Pull them out a day or two beforehand, so they can cold thaw in the fridge into useable mushy smoothie strawberries.
Then fire up your Magic Bullet, blending up your smoothie nice and smooth… and bottoms up!
So refreshing and sweet.
Spices also can enhance the pear tastes, and help remind you and I of the season we’re in… like winter, and if you’re feeling Kapha, ginger anti-inflammatory spice add a punchy but mild flavor.
And pinches of cinnamon for any Vata anxiety.
As someone who lives anti-inflammatory year-round, pears are full of fiber and are a low glycemic index food.
And strawberry is a superfood that has more Vitamin C than oranges!
So you’re doing a world of good by having a pear strawberry smoothie in your day.
Fruit, as in seeing what yields, is what keeps us going and growing and a smoothie can be the metaphor.
With a new year, we can use juicy winter fruit as a healthy symbol for what’s ahead.
I like seeing fruit in trees as a visual.
Bright berries are especially inspiring because you can find them out in nature even in the winter. Nature is not all dormant.
And fruit is abundant… and seasonal.
Fruit is a good metaphor for abundance. And what we all want is not just enough, or enough in the new year.
We want more than enough.
Because in overflow, we can give more to the world.
And by leaning into nature’s fruits, we can bring a little abundance into our daily smoothie drink.
For dominant Vatas (who love variety), seasons pose a garden backdrop of sweet fruits that help define what’s available and fresh to eat.
They show up in your kitchen and smoothie up!
And when you’re out and about…
Instead of reaching for a beverage, you can use a juicy apple (or in-season pears) to quench your thirst.
Apples and carrots are winter in-season healthy foods, and with the abundance, you can amp up in a apple-carrot smoothie with coconut tastes.
Or eat them raw if you don’t want to stop for restroom breaks.
Fruit also act as a mouth-teeth cleaner.So bringing a fruit snack with you in your travels make healthy sense all around.
And if you’re a hiker like me, they weigh little on the back.
Sheep’s cheesecake can be made into a protein-filled dessert that tastes like your favorite cheesecake desserts. I know because that’s what’s in this recipe. And the sheep’s cheese cake is lower fat and sugar, for a healthier cheesecake. It’s easy to find in stores (see below tips).
This sheep’s cheese cake plate has cranberries that are also mixed into the cake batter. Cranberries are high in Vitamin C and are good for an anti-inflammatory diet during the holidays (and year-round).
Cranberries are uniquely good for preventing UTIs and seasonally they add a red pop of festive color – that ranges from the bright fire engine red to burgundy shades.🚒 ♥️
You can buy whole cranberries and freeze them for when you want to use them. So the shiny and red fruit berry jewels are hard to turn down.
As is this protein cheese cake.
What makes this cheese cake protein-rich are the ingredients that include sheep’s cheese.
You can expect to easily find 5 grams of protein per sheep’s cheese ounce. At many stores, you can find packaged grocery sheep’s cheese logs, that come in smaller 4 oz size packaging these days. And that will make this regular size 8″ shareable cheesecake.
Or you can use 2 ounces per individual 4″ cheesecake. Doing the math, that’s 10 grams of protein for an individual cake (or 20 grams per 8″ cake).
If you compare the protein in regular cream cheese (commonly used in cheesecake recipes), sheep’s cheese is more than double the protein.
Regular cream cheese has about 1.7 grams per ounce. That’s about 1/3 of the protein as ordinary sheep’s cheese in national grocery store chains.
I found pre-packaged sheep’s cheese in the cheese section at national grocery store chains like Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s.
So that’s a good start (in case you didn’t think it was easy to source).
…And of course, sheep’s cheese comes in all shapes, sizes, pasteurization types, etc.
We’re not talking Blue Zones’ (100 years) healthy living sheep cheese here… which is where this all began for me when I studied up, researched, and wrote about the superfood cheese.
Since then, the idea has wildly grown in popularity and you can find all kinds with the label. Sheep’s cheese is easy to find like pre-packaged Brie or buffalo mozzarella cheeses in stores.
Because otherwise you’d have to pay a pretty penny (or accepted currency) to source sheep’s milk cheese, and/or fly to rural areas like the Sardinian regions to find high-quality, grass-fed sheep’s pecorino cheese.
But the kind you bring home, you can pair with Greek yogurt to get probiotics added back. And even more protein added.
The healthy idea that works in a sheep’s cheese cheesecake like this, is to find a thicker Greek yogurt that has no additional sugar. You can also find a lower fat content yogurt.
And then when you bake the sheep’s milk cheese and yogurt into your desserts like this holiday cheesecake, this helps support a happy and healthy lifestyle.
In an hour, you can have a nice Greek yogurt healthier cake ready.
Since this cheesecake has no crust (like a graham crust on a New York-style cheesecake) and has no flour baked in, you can get baked Basque-style sides that are more decadently burnished-brown without using high baking temps.
This happens when you use a metal spring form cake pan where you can release the sides after the baked cheesecake is cooled.
If you cover the sides entirely with parchment paper (that you may have learned to do with Basque cheesecakes), the cake will be more easy to pull out, but it won’t be connected directly to the cake pan heat. So you compromise the end result bake.
The better way I suggest is to brush neutral/light olive oil (or butter) on the sides. And after baked, don’t release the cake from the spring form until it’s completely cooled when the cake is more stable, and will more easily stay together in one piece, as it firms up.
For interest (I have a catering background), I also added softened ripe pears to the bottom of the cake pan for additional sweet flavors and textures. It helped release the cake and gave a burnished look to the bottom (similar to poached pears 🍐). But that part is optional, as you’ll get the Basque-inspired cheesecake style either way.
But surprisingly by using regular 350°F/180°C temperatures and not the higher Basque cheesecake temperatures, to save energy (but also low and slow is easier to not burn in the oven).
But if you leave it in these lower oven temps for 55 minutes, I think you’ll be happy with your bake’s doneness.
Your cheesecake will have an Old World charm look.
And when you bite into the sweet and tart cheesecake (made even tart-er with cranberries), it’ll be a delight. With a rustic crumbly feel on the tongue as a satisfying texture that’s distinctly baked (no half-bake here 😊).
But if you prefer a more creamy cheesecake with less small cheese-yogurt chunks, then add more milk (liquid) to your batter, or use a less thick sheep’s cheese and/or yogurt.
You have so many options to make your (maybe?) NEW favorite cheesecake 😋
But no matter what you choose as actual ingredients and final texture intent for your high-protein cheesecake, this is a daily cheesecake you’ll have no regrets making. Ready to try?
Basque-Style (No Crust) Cheesecake - High Protein and Low-Sugar
This is an individual-size 4" protein cheesecake made with healthier cheese and lower fat. To make a shareable 8" cake, double the ingredient amounts.
Course Dessert
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Equipment
spring form cake pan
Ingredients
2ozsheep's cheese
2ozGreek yogurt (no-fat and no-sugar added)
1Tbspmilk of choice
1Tbspraw honey
1/4 cupseasonal fruit (or jam) of choice or cranberries
cranberry sauce or fruit jam as spread on top (optional)
Instructions
Brush neutral olive oil or baking spray on bottom and sides of (spring form) cake pan.
Combine ingredients in one bowl. Reserve some fruit for the top, so they don't all fall to the bottom of the cake pan. Option: add softened pears to the bottom of the pan.
Bake at 350°F/180°C for about 55 minutes. This will give a Basque-cheesecake feel as the sides turn a darkened brown (pleasantly burnt-ish) color.
Chili made with plant-based food ingredients is a good way to add more fiber and vitamin nutrients in your diet. And it’s filled with anti-inflammatory spices that add to longevity healthy points, if that’s one of your intentional desires.
Plus it’s super easy to blend a bowl of chili together using your Magic Bullet or blender. And in this case, for cabbage wraps.
Tofu is the plant-based protein behind these chili cabbage wraps.
I grew up eating tofu regularly so I’m used to the unique texture and odd taste, but some people are not.
…And if that’s you (or who you’re preparing meals or Game Day for), a chili dish is a good way to mask tofu. Kinda like hiding veggies in kids’ dinner plates.
And chili is a great way to add in veggies like nutritious cabbage.
Besides light and good for weight loss, green cabbage is a very economical add to meals.
There are many cabbage kinds (over 400 around the world), and green cabbage is a common one, that’s easy to find in grocery stores.
It’s often confused with Iceberg lettuce that’s lighter (in weight and color). You’ll notice the difference as green cabbage gets thicker as you peel back the layers and get closer to the middle core. The ribs are more pronounced.
Also, lettuce’s season is spring and summer. Cabbage takes over in fall and winter. So you can make wraps year-round.
Both veggies are healthy, but green cabbage has more Vitamin C and fiber. It also has special antioxidants (sulforaphane). It’s in the same food family as broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
And wrapped around as a hearty veggie, a chili cabbage wrap makes for good comfort food during cooler months. Lett-uce celebrate that!
Next time you’re out shopping for tortilla, you might reconsider. With cabbage, you also save grocery money making wraps as a head of cabbage can be under $2, and chili cans (or pinto beans) are pennies per ounce.
Yeah cabbage! 🥬 And tofu that’s easy to find can be pennies per ounce. It’s usually found in the refrigerated food sections near deli meat or dairy, or where you would find fresh hummus (that’s another great easy Game Day or Magic Bullet recipe you can make).
You can make this an entire meal for two (or a small family) for under $5!
So to make this plant-based chili wrap, cut up the tofu with a non-sharp or silicone spatula, or wooden kitchen tools. Whether you get the softer, firm, or extra firm tofu, it will be easy to break up even with your hands.
It will look like a little like white scrambled eggs. Drain and cook the tofu scramble. Usually around 15 minutes on medium stove heat. Tofu in the common containers has a watery substance (that actually can be whipped into dessert meringues like aquafaba in garbanzo bean cans).
So the tofu will be wet, and you won’t need to add much liquid in your cooking skillet if any. And no (olive) oil needed to prevent skillet sticking, unless you want to add for taste.
After the tofu is cooked, add and heat up the tomato sauce.
Add some of the tofu mixture to your blender with all the spices, other wet, and dry ingredients.
Then add the chili or beans. This is where a quick blender comes in handy. Blend in chili beans (pinto beans).
Pulse the blender a few times or just enough for the beans to blend. The tofu mixture will look grainy.
To save time: you can prepare your cabbage leaves while the tofu is cooking, and you can cook the cabbage leaves when you’re blending the tofu and chili.
For spicy flavors: you can add hot spices like cayenne or your favorite hot sauce. But if you want to keep it mild and then let the heat preference be per wrap, then add sweet or mild pimento peppers. They’re bright red and easy to find (on market shelves).
The best chili has all the tastes: spicy heat (cayenne, chili, onions, garlic, or other peppers), savory (cumin), sweet (cinnamon, tomato sauce), salty (salt), umami (soy), bitter (cocoa), astringent (turmeric), and sour tastes (vinegar, tamarind).
You can add or omit any ingredient, and if you go with a spice blend make sure it has cumin and peppers are a must if you want chili tastes.
I used cayenne pepper (hot), red chili flakes (mild) , and pimento peppers (sweet) to give a balanced heat. But even black pepper will work (and help activate the healthy turmeric and cinnamon if added).
Chili is so versatile to your preferences and what you have on hand.. so you do you! You can’t go wrong.
This is a protein-rich plant-based meal. You can make at least 3 cups or 6 full wraps with this recipe.
Servings 3cups
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
1Tbspsoy sauce
1Tbspwater
1Tbspvinegar (white or apple cider)
1tspred chili flakes
1tspturmeric
1tspgarlic flakes
1tsppimento peppers
1tspcumin
1tsptamarind (optional)
1tspcocoa powder
1/2tspcinnamon
1/2tspsalt (for chili)
1tspchopped red onions
14oztofu container
15.5ozcan of chili or pinto beans
8oztomato sauce
1green cabbage head
1/2tspsalt (for cooking cabbage)
Instructions
On stove, cook chopped up (scrambled) tofu in a skillet (medium heat for about 15 minutes). Add water, if needed.
While tofu is cooking, prepare cabbage wraps. Pull apart cabbage and wash.
When tofu is about cooked ready, add/heat up tomato sauce and spices, and bring to a light boil. Take the tofu skillet off the stove and let cool.
On stove, cook cabbage wraps in a separate pot (or pour tofu mixture in a big bowl and rinse out skillet to add cabbage wraps). Cook cabbage in water and about 1 tsp of salt until soft. Place cover or lid over skillet or pot. Tip: You can use the entire or part of the cabbage core to weigh down the cabbage leaves in a cooking pot as they tend to float up. After cooked, to dry the cabbage, place them on paper towels that you can re-use.
In the blender, add about half-full warm tofu mixture and the remaining spices, wet, and dry ingredients. Add all the chili beans/can or until the blender is full.
Quick-pulse blend a few times. Add a little more of the tofu (chili) and shake the blender by hand or pulse blend a few times on the base, depending on the final tofu texture you want. If you shake by hand, you'll get a more crumbly tofu vs. pureed tofu from machine action.
Add blended tofu chili to individual cabbage leaves to make wraps. You can add the remaining tofu and any remaining chili to the blender. This should make 3+ cups of tofu chili that can fill at least 6 full cabbage wraps. You can save the additional cabbage for a soup or freeze for another time.
Fruit cake is a special dessert. It makes for a great Christmas, year-round, and holiday cake (…when done right that is). It’s a fruity, sweet cake. And this one is all healthy, and low-sugar without added sugar. Recipe below.
…And ok, I know what you may be thinking off the bat… is this fruit cake more on the healthy tasting side (like inedible cardboard where you’d rather eat an oatmeal bowl)?
Oh and btw, is it enjoyable like a chocolate cake? ..because that’s what you’re after!
And I agree.
My thinking, what’s the point of making a sweet treat if it doesn’t taste good?
That weighs on my conscience.
Because I’m a food lover who wore a 10-year food belt planning hundreds of parties in nice hotels and restaurants before I started baking regularly at home.
And my childhood sweet food dreams are daily reminders. 💭
But a fruit cake isn’t one of those dreams that’s usually on my mind (but today is its lucky day).
…Because from what I remember, the durable (fruit cake) ones don’t have the best passed-down reputation (from holiday gifts of the past I think)… I never got one as a house gift but I saw them on store shelves wrapped tightly in the thick plastic wrap 🥮.
…Those are from Christmas past (and maybe still sitting in the back shelves 😀).
…Instead, bring in and out the fresh, new millennial fruit cake, pleeaaase! That’s a happy one to match its naturally sweet celebrational cake name.
And this particular homemade fruit cake is cocoa and cherry pairing, crumbly-soft-texture-cake divine.
If a tasty pairing is like a harmonious modern singing duo or two complementary colors on a wall, then this cake fits right in. 🩷🩵
…But don’t take my word for it, make it yourself and try it… I dare you! 😊
It’s coconut flour and cacao (or unsweetened cocoa) healthy. Another delicious pairing, btw.
And if you’ve not worked with coconut or gluten-free flours much with cake, I’ve got you… some quickie lesson tips below to take out the guesswork.
Gluten-free coconut flour is a smart one to add in, and that you can learn to use for healthy and tasty reasons!
And it’s in this fruit cake, that’s 5-minute prep and 3 one-bowl main ingredients EASY.
You can even mix the cake batter by hand.
…That’s what I did.
Or use your Magic Bullet blender to blend the egg yolk and dry ingredients.
Let the oven do the heavy lifting and magical baking work.
So to begin… pull out all your ingredients.
Nature’s fruit and cocoa is the main sweet needed.
You can also choose your favorite fruits, dried or fresh (if eaten within the week).
You can sub in dried cherries. And tart-tasting acerola cherries (not common) are known for their superfood anti-inflammatory properties.
But here I splurged with Maraschino (dessert) cherries because the amount is so little for such high tasting Christmas celebration holiday time impact, that I made this for.
The sweet cherries are also easy to find year-round at most grocery stores, so you can store in your fridge pantry.
And the glace shiny kind is easy to find and always a sweet crowd pleaser. They’re the classic cherry red on top that looks like an ornament. 🍒
One glace cherry has about 1.9 grams of sugar or about 6 cherries per tablespoon of sugar (12 cherries recipe total), and you can cut this down in your bake to less for lower sugar if you choose.
Whatever you decide, cherries are divine in and on top (as the cherry saying goes)… and definitely better after baked in.
Along with cocoa… or cacao used.
The difference is pure (💯) cacao is minimally processed and unsweetened cocoa that’s anti-inflammatory healthy.
You can use other cocoa powders, but they will likely have additives and sugar.
So there you have your two star flavors (cherry-chocolat-y 😋)for this fruit cake. And you’ll want to add more fruity forward vibes!
Fruit Cake Flavoring:
Getting the flavors to your liking will matter for this fruit cake as coconut flour can be overpowering in taste that is the dominant ingredient and only flour used.
…Unless you’re making a coconut cake where you want coconut to stand out, you’ll want to mask the coconut flour flavor somewhat. 🥥
Like in this cacao-cocoa fruit cake with coconut flour.
That’s easy to do when you follow the recipe and some taste pairing guidelines.
Like when you add almond extract and stronger baking extracts such as orange extract (or even orange zest), you will not taste the coco-nutty flavors.
It won’t be like the busy summer beach air that blows permeating coconut suntan lotion scents your way. 😀
Also when you use complementary flavors on the food wheel, to support the star ingredients and bring them forward, the coconut flavors will step back.
But avoid flavors that won’t work with this fruit cake. Like lemon… or peppermint (that’s not even in the fruit category). Let’s not get too crazy 🤪
You can also use coconut milk that will help support the subtle coconut flour come through a little like a budding flower, but not overpower.
The dried fruits you add also will be supporting.
I used dried apricots and even dried rose (not a fruit). But you can add any dried fruits (pineapple, more cherries, raisins, dates, coconut, etc.) that fancy you at prep time. And even add in chopped nuts and seeds if you want
So then now you’ve got the flavors, and can combine with the flour.
Two Coconut Flour lessons to keep in mind:
In my experience, gluten-free flour like coconut flour will not rise with common leaveners like baking powder and baking soda. So they are not used. And since no gluten-flours are added to this fruit cake, I expect little rise.
And I use a frothy egg white that will be the small leavening lift (like from a ballet flat shoe to flats) in this fruit cake. It won’t be a high-heel like with gluten flours. 👠
And since there’s no table sugar, brown sugar, or any white sugar added, the egg white will not be meringue lifting whites.
That sounds deflating…
But the trick is to use a tall sided baking pan vessel. That way, the cake will be about as tall as you fill it, before it enters the oven. 😉
And, the second lesson is that coconut flour is dry in its properties. Like very dry!
So you will need about 3 cups of liquid to about 1 cup of coconut flour.
These days, you can find coconut flour any and everywhere. For pennies per ounces.
But since it’s a more advanced cake flour to work with (if you’ve never worked with), it’s good to know that it will take lots of liquid like a thirsty camel. 🐫
And that by adding more liquid, you’re not doing anything wrong.
And as you add in more liquid in the beginning, the coconut flour becomes drier (almost like a pasta dough).
It will come together on the other side of the batter.
For the batter, look for a mashed potato consistency with a little bit of lumpiness and grittiness that will be as close to the smooth cake batter as you can get.
And use grit to stick it out until it gets there.
You can measure out the liquid but your best bet is to eyeball it out as daily prep temperature, ovens, and conditions change.
And then you’ll now know what to look for, the next time you use coconut flour.
Soft and wet, the batter will be slowly pourable. And that will help make a fluffy-inside cake (and not a dense cake).
Last step for coconut flour fruit cake:
And then after you’ve got your cake batter and your flavor tastes in your mixing bowl (or easy blender)… 🎉
The last step is to gently fold in the egg whites to your batter (egg yolk, flour, and flavors) with a baking spatula or spoon.
And so… what will this fruit cake batter look like (you ask)?
When you add the cocoa and egg white, it will look like Rocky Road soft serve ice cream. The egg white especially helps smooth the batter some.
Grease cake pans, so the cake doesn’t stick to the pans. Some options: you can use coconut oil, a Silpat, and/or baking sprayed parchment.
Then bake your cake(s) at 350°F/180°C for about 55-60 minutes. You can insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. It’s better to over bake this cake a little vs. under bake (where it can fall apart).
And as a summary to using all coconut flour for this fruit cake (and most cake bakes), this is a common question asked…
Question: how will healthier, gluten-free coconut flour impact the cake?
Answer: You won’t get a regular cake rise.
Tip: use a tall sided baking vessel that you can fill with cake batter if you want a taller cake, or add an additional cake pan to compromise (e.g. 2-tiered cake).
With coconut flour, you also won’t end up with the same moist cake crumb that’s in a regular cake made with gluten flours, like all-purpose, cake, or whole wheat flour.
After baked, you can see the inside crumb looks a bit dry and wet. That’s the unique characteristic of coconut flour when nicely incorporated. And it’s perfect for a fruit cake! 🥮
Line a cake pan with aluminum foil (or parchment paper) to easily pull out. Tip: Smear a little coconut oil (or brush a drop of neutral oil to the foil) on both foil sides so it doesn't stick to the pan and the cake bottom.
Mix all the other ingredients to make cake batter, except the egg whites and fruit in a bowl. This is the step where you can pulse your Magic Bullet blender (instead of using a bowl).
Whip up egg whites separately. (If you add table or granulated sugar, you will get more of an egg white rise, but none of those sugars are used in this recipe).
Add fruit to batter. Gently add/fold in egg whites.
Bake at 180°F/165°C for about 55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Dark cocoa cookie is festive fun when they are decked out bon bon or made into twist candy bow shapes like these just in time for holidays. And festive candy wrappers. 🍬
They remind me of the sweet treat colors in a Swiss Colony catalog.
The good news is there’s no planning needed! Work I dug my heels in for many years where I holiday planned other people’s parties in private venues.
…I know what it’s like to be on my feet for hours in heels, hiking miles in a room. That was good enough exercise where I had no additional trekking outdoors need on the weekend. 😊
And if that’s how you feel no matter what you do all week… while kicking your feet up, holiday bakers can take a break. And make a guilt-free treat.
An enjoyable plate of no-bake Christmas cookies can be the pre or post-Advent fix (along with Advent chocolates).
How does that sound?
If good, holiday party celebration festive cocoa candy bows and balls are quick and no-bake easy.
You decide what shape you make ’em.
Your delightful no-bake cookies can be a joyful respite when you’re tired of standing or doing hours of prep holiday cooking.
Good for people who work all day in kitchens too.
And then the day of the event, the enjoyment flies by. Everyone is happy. You with your prepped plate making something creatively homemade and TASTY.
Because if it’s healthy only, it’s NOT happy. 😊
No one need know that it took minutes to make.
You get to be Mary with the guests.
The reward part is spending time with people, laughing and having a good time, and not having to do any cooking work.
And these dark cocoa cookies are like a delightful break you give yourself where you don’t cook or bake.
Dark cocoa in case it doesn’t ring a bell, are the tastes from the cookie sandwiches that start with “O” and end with “O.” The cocoa tastes different than traditional hot cocoa’s cocoa.
And you can make these with the same ingredient or use regular cocoa (or healthy cacao).
Either cocoa way, the best part is they’re sweet energy snacks in disguise.
They won’t last on a plate long.
Making them is as simple as rolling out the dough…
Then refrigerating for a few minutes to let the dough rest (and dry out a little).
And finally, cutting out your shapes.
Or you can roll the dark cocoa cookie into fun balls… probably blindfolded without refrigerating.
Add your decorations while the dough is still sticky. You can zhugh with powdered gold ginger dust or more (dark) cocoa decadence.
Or use elegant uniform sprinkles and coconut flakes for confetti. 🎉
You can dye the confetti with healthy natural powders like blue spirulina, green matcha, and beet that I’m suggesting here.
With a little magical water ingredient, they will make colors like pastel watercolors.
And if you want the colors to be more vibrant colors, you can use natural liquid gels like Pandan gel that will give a deep green.
You can pair your sweets with a festive pistachio layered cacao beverage that you freeze and bring to room temps to watch the naturally sand art unfold.
