no bake recipes Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Dark Cocoa Cookie (No-Bake)

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.

Let your color wheel imagination go wild! 🍬

Other ideas: if you like peanut butter tastes, try these healthy peanut butter candy chews or peanut butter cookie that have cocoa vibes.

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.

Dark Cocoa Cookie

This is a no-bake festive dark cocoa cookie you can make in minutes.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 cup dark cocoa
1 Tbsp coconut flour
5 Tbsp oil (coconut or light olive oil)
2 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp coconut flakes
1 Tbsp additional coconut flour for top and bottom

Instructions

Combine ingredients together to make a dough disc.
Refrigerate dough in a closed container or plastic wrap for at least 20 minutes to rest and dry out some.
Add coconut flour to top and bottom of dough to prevent sticking. Flatten dough with palm of hand.
Cut out shapes desired e.g. with cookie cutter.
Plate, serve, and enjoy!

Shortbread Cookie – No-Bake and Gluten-Free

Shortbread cookie is an easy, no-bake sweet way to have berry good raspberry, strawberry, or blueberry jammy tastes. You decide!

And if the cookies were organization tools, these berry shortbread stack nicely.

Shortbread is not bread or short of anything. These edible plate weights are low-sugar and made from healthy ingredients. They take minutes to make and are 4 ingredients (and butter here is not one of them).

…You in? 😊

And if you want to bring this shortbread cookie fruit forward that’s a good pairing, bring in a mix of fruit filling.

Fruit is always a good answer and berries are nice whether it’s holiday or year-round.

You can pick from exotic berries like gooseberry or mulberry that give some balancing tart notes. Or more sweet red notes like strawberry or raspberry. And a dramatic blackberry is always welcomed.

I saw some berries out in the wild that have orange and lemon colors… nature is always coming up with new food ideas. 🧡

And I’m guessing these grape-like ones are sour berries and not edible. Leaving them for wildlife is a good idea.

It’s much easier to forage for frozen or fresh berries at the grocery stores. And blending in pureed frozen berries that are easily available year-round are the perfect find for this shortbread cookies.

And even better and easier, use or make a jam that’s calling you. These days you can find organic jams and more natural options without high fructose corn syrup.

For holiday season, you can also get a bright holiday cranberry red from cranberry cans or lingonberry from a specialty food or farmers market. It’s a rainbow choice of jewel berries that you can smear in your cookie while making or leave as topping options for your guests.

Berries are antioxidant healthy, so you’ll have no regrets. They’re powerful fruit gems. And they add a pop of color and make cookies so tasty you may want to make these berry shortbread cookies more often.

They will last for a week or longer covered in your refrigerator.

And even months longer in your freezer where you can bring them out when you have a hankering for something sweet.

…Or you need a last-minute plate of homemade cookies for the table.

When you bring them back out to room temps, if you like cookie dough tastes, then leave them alone. But if you want the more dry texture that cookies are, then you can sprinkle a dusting of almond flour on the tops.

That’ll make them look fresh… and that’s all the zhugh you need. Why add more to something already nice and simply decadent?

And if you have fresh berries on hand, that could be a nice side add too… 🍓

Shortbread Cookie - Low-Sugar and Gluten-Free No-Bake Recipe

This is a perfect holiday or tea shortbread style cookie for dipping or enjoying with a jammy brunch. And great for gluten-free people.

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/4 cup light olive oil
jam or honey (optional)

Instructions

Combine ingredients and dump on plastic wrap on a cookie tray. Spread out and wrap up the dough tightly.
Refrigerate and let rest for at least an hour.
Open up plastic and roll out dough flat to about 1/2". Cut out cookies with cookie cutter.
Optional: slice shortbread cookie in half. and smear thin layer of raspberry jam to the middle layer.
To give grainy texture, add a sprinkle of loose almond flour to the tops of cookies.
Refrigerate for at least another 10 minutes and then serve.
You can freeze cookies (up to 3 months recommended) and enjoy later.

Cookies are my sweet tooth weakness. Maybe yours too? If you like healthier cookies, you may also like to try a low-sugar (yes!) lemon cookie (cute as buttons), Christmas ricotta cookie, sugar cookie or vanilla cookie. Or if you’re wanting a store-bought “healthiest” cookie, this is the nutrient low-down I found. 😋

Chocolate Donut (No-Bake and Gluten-Free)

Chocolate donut is one you may be familiar with. That you may remember from childhood. Or maybe just saw some at a grocery store. They’re still around and you can make them yourself.

With a tempering process that gives chocolate a smooth, shiny coating. And you can make homemade chocolate frosted donut with no baking at all. The filling is a no-bake healthy cake recipe, called “a rainbow cookie.”

And in a chocolate donut you get donut, cake, and a cookie, all-in-one (explained below). Plus you learn the tempering dark chocolate easy process below.

These are all the steps… here we go!

For starters, you’ll grab the ingredients. And I mean grab from the pantry. You don’t need to remember to bring butter out to room temps. Because there is no butt-ah!

The ingredients are room temp pantry items: almond flour, olive oil, dark chocolate morsels, and almond extract.

How’s that for ease?

And for a healthy and happy donut (that’s the only kind I like to make).

The frosted donut filling is an all almond cookie/cake. It’s one-bowl and hand mixing easy. No fuss, no muss.

Chocolate frosted donut no-bake cake batter. — Almond cookie no bake Cookie: and 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/8 cup light EVOO and 1 tsp almond extract

It’s the same one I used in a gluten-free rainbow cookie. 🌈

Over the rainbow, it’s good for everyone and you decide if the cake filling is more of a vanilla-almond or pure almond tasting one.

And since the cake (or cookie) is simple and easy, you can make and set aside. Then work on the fun tempering chocolate part.

I recommend dark chocolate, 70% or higher, that’s anti-inflammatory good.

And for practicality, different chocolates have a different melting and tempering point. So the recipe below is for dark chocolate.

And you can bring out the nostalgic frosted donut taste and look with a contrasting dark tempering chocolate shell.

And it’s worth the small extra effort, as you get this nice shiny finish no matter what shape your donuts are.

A healthy dark chocolate makes a reminiscent fun frosted donut.

And tempering chocolate is fun…

You can do this process with dark chocolate morsels or baking squares.

They will turn into another shape…

Which btw, you can find chocolate molds( to shape your frosted donut) that have a top and a bottom, so you can fill the middle with cake filling.

And how I found you best do it consistently without burning chocolate is in the double boiler method on the stove.

To get the right heat, you make a double boiler setup on the stove with a heat-proof bowl that can fit ontop of and fully cover a cooking pot rim. This way you help keep the chocolate away from the steam (by blocking the steam).

I actually setup up a triple boiler (to be triple proofed 😊). I put a bowl inside of a bowl that sat ontop of the pot rim.

It didn’t take (much) longer because the water in the larger bowl heated up the smaller bowl quickly (instead of just steamed water).

And that worked great as the chocolate got heated but was shielded from the elements of burning (🔥) and steam (💧). Neither of which are good earthly touching elements for chocolate.

…Maybe chocolate is heavenly?

And if you can keep the chocolate to intense summer body tan heat and room air only elements, chocolate rewards you by giving a shine at the end.

…Like shined leather shoes that gets looks for all the right reasons. 👞

It’s chocolate magic since you needed no buffing tools/appliances, or additional ingredients. With just the right temps, you have tempered chocolate ready for your frosted donut.

And in the end, you gain an acquired tempering chocolate whisperer skill.

You in?

Frosted Chocolate Donut - No-Bake, Vegan, and Gluten-Free

Tempering chocolate is an easy way to get a shiny look and make a frosted donut. This Is for 2-mini donuts or 1 larger donut catering to the size of your molds.

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

pot
heat-proof bowl that can sit not the rim of the pot
kitchen-use temperature gauge
chocolate or silicone molds

Ingredients

1 cup dark chocolate morsels
4 Tbsp cake filling (gluten-free recipe below)

Instructions

Set 1/3 "seeding" chocolate aside and put 2/3 chocolate into heating bowl. You can start with one cup for easy measuring.
Heat the chocolate: Using your stove top, heat chocolate using a double boiler method, so you don't burn the chocolate. Set chocolate inside the heating bowl that is best to sit ontop of the rim top of a pot filled with water 1/4 to 1/2 way up in the pot. Be sure to prevent the chocolate from getting wet or steam coming in contact, or the chocolate could seize up (turn grainy and the opposite of shiny). Heat chocolate to ideally 118°F/47°C
Cool the chocolate: Finish tempering the chocolate by adding "seeding" chocolate and letting it cool to ideally 86°F/30°C or slightly lower (but not lower than 80°F/26°C).
Use the chocolate immediately. Pour into top and bottom molds. Leave enough unused tempered chocolate for piping or "glue-ing" the two halves together after the filling is added.
Refrigerate molded chocolate for at least 30 minutes.
Make the cake filling In a bowl. Combine 1/2 cup gluten-free almond flour, 1/8 tsp almond extract, and 2 Tbsp neutral oil or light olive oil.
Pull out chocolates out of molds and add cake filling in both halves.
Glue the two chocolate halves with a piping bag with the tempered chocolate or smear with a decorating spatula.
Refrigerate again until chocolate halves are sealed and dry.
Enjoy right away or refrigerate for up to 2-3 days.

Notes

For the frosted donut cake filling, see the instructions and/or recipe for the rainbow cookie.

If you like this, try these fun, low-sugar hi-hat cupcakes or cinnamon donut.

Rocky Road Energy Snack Bar (No-Bake)

Rocky road is a good name for a lumpy and bumpy chocolate, marshmallow, and nut blend. This one has crystallized ginger and a few hidden bears that can make a challenging road over-bearing (!) and even more slippery.

Imagine driving over this rocky road.

And gratefully this is the edible kind… so the rockier and more challenging the better! 😊 One that you can make today.

An easy way to make your rocky road snack is with a setup where you have an easy Silpat (silicone sheet) set in a deeper baking pan that you can easily pull out. You don’t need baking paper or baking spray. This way ensures no sticking and no messy oils. It’s the easy road (if that pleases you).

In mine, I added some of my favorite plain salty satiating snacks like almonds and pretzels. And this one can be more healthy than a nutritional bar because there’s less sugar.

And you can sub or add in popcorn that’s fiber-rich as a whole grain. And that helps offset the happy food like marshmallows or anything with sugar.

But you can keep it low-sugar like I did… where most the sugar added is the healthy kind… dark chocolate and coconut. Sure, there are a few hidden gummy bears, but those surprises are worth the add!

And trail mix blending this all up in a tasty rocky road bar may just be the energy that’s needed to get you through to your next meal or dinner… and especially good for growing people with lotsa burning energy. 😊

In any event, a rocky road bar is a fun afternoon snack. And can be a colorful one that mimics colors and styles that can be found in nature.

Like rarely do you see straight lines in nature. Not even trees. Everything has some bends and swerves because they weren’t created with a straight edge.

A seemingly messy look is natural, as are beautiful curves.

And even man-made roads and steps aren’t straight as they’re built over nature’s bumps and curves.

And that’s okay!… nature is comfort and provides us with the natural (healthy) foods we can use to make a mimicking rocky road or tiffin bar.

They both are “kitchen sink” snacks as you can throw everything in the kitchen in them.

The one here is oozing with ingredients from nature:

Chocolate melted is like pitter patter rain in the mud tracks.

Cacao tree that produces the bean that cocoa is from. And then cocoa (paste) butter is used to make chocolate that looks a lot like the color of tree trunk and logs.

Almond trees provide almonds and almond flour.

Flowers like dried rose flowers after their season has ended.

Palm trees that produce (shredded) coconut and coconut oil that was used to easily melt the chocolate.

Pretzels, oh well are not natural but you can turn into a natural pretzel in your home yoga. And you can keep your rocky road all-natural if you sub in nuts and seeds.

Peanut butter is one you may have to think about… because we see it creamy in a jar, but nature provides peanuts from the ground up. Unlike tree nuts like almonds that grow from drupe seeds, peanuts come from pods that make them legumes. 🥜

Beans and peas are other different types of legumes. They share healthy in common. Plus, a garbanzo bean and a chick pea are one in the same.

I also added some bears to shake things up. This is a happy snack. 🎉 The happy bears at least fit in the nature theme. They add color, fun and texture when you bite into your rocky road bar.

…’Da bears add to daily comfort too (like stuffed bears 🧸).

And after you’re happy with your trail bar, you can take your rocky road bar and make a trail mix by breaking up the bar into smaller, uneven pieces.

They’ll fit right into your natural activities.

You can take them on your hikes in cooler months when chocolate won’t melt.

That helps remind us of season changes and autumn cooler temp relief is near.

Fall btw is Vata season, so it’s common that you crave sweet and salty more. This is when squirrel are gathering nuts. 🐿️ And us peeps are making trails.

With opposable thumbs you can take it a step further and make many one-of-a-kind rocky road bars. The kind that Rocky and Bullwinkle would love.

Look at these oozing delights read to dive into.

Oh, and if you want to amp up your healthy snacks with all-healthy ingredients, then try this chocolate chip coconut bar made with dates, oats, applesauce, and honey.

No-Bake Rocky Road Energy Snack Bar

A snack that's sweet and salty, with texture and the perfect afternoon snack for some energy

Course Snack

Prep Time 20

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

2 oz cocoa powder (or healthy cacao powder)
2 oz natural peanut butter, creamy
1 oz shredded coconut
1 oz pretzels, broken small
2 oz nuts (almonds, peanuts, pine nuts) and/or seeds
4 oz melted chocolate
1 oz gummy bears (optional), marshmallow or healthier dried fruits
2 oz almond flour

Instructions

Add a baking sheet where the sides will come over the deeper baking pan so you can easily pull out. Use a pan at least 2 inches deep (e.g. a bread loaf pan).
Add a layer of almond flour for the base (or a dry powder like cocoa to absorb the more wet ingredients to come).
Pile a layer of the salty ingredients (nuts, seeds, pretzels, etc.). Drop spoonfuls of peanut butter randomly. You can leave looking rustic (like mud in nature) or smear in as another layer with a knife/offset spatula.
Pour melted chocolate.
Add some of the sweet ingredients (shredded coconut, gummy bears, dried fruits etc.) before the chocolate melts. Reserve some of the colorful sweets for the visible top later.
Add more salty and zhugh ingredients you want to see popping out of the bar.
When you're happy with your bar, refrigerate until set at least 20 minutes.
Pull out of the fridge, break or cut into rectangles or pieces. Enjoy! Store in fridge so the chocolate remains solid.

Matcha Cookie (No-Bake) – Low-Sugar

Matcha cookie is hard to match-ah. This one you don’t have to bake, tastes great and is low sugar. And sweet tooths, you don’t have to love green tea.

And the healthy benefits are BIG and green:

Matcha green powder comes from the chlorophyll pigment that’s anti-inflammatory (along with EGCG catechin found in green tea, some other teas, fruit, wine, cocoa, and most coffee, to name a few sources).

And matcha powder has L-theanine that’s also found in black, green, oolong and white teas that come from the same Camellis sinensis tea plant shown to be good for calming, sleep, and productive mental focus.

The downfall is matcha green powder is not naturally a sweet ingredient, so if you’re not a fan of the bitter and earthy taste… you’ll love this matcha cookie that turns out sweet as honey!

But is low-sugar.

There’s actually healthy honey in the cookie (but less than 2 tsp per cookie).

And you can make this without butter that most cookies are made with.

Coconut oil is a good healthy fat to use instead and is used in the recipe below.

It’s a recipe that fits the easy and fun mold.

And in the mold, you can simply refrigerate and enjoy.

These matcha cookie shaped-as-donuts are delicious on their own (and dare I say more satisfying than a donut! 🍩). But you can try for yourself.

And you can add a strawberry glaze with jam if you like (but is not needed especially if you’re counting low-sugar grams).

…Now we’re jammin’! 🍓

Oh, and if you want to pop these cookies (…yes, they’re cookies!) in the low temp oven and bake these for a little crunch, you can.

But I like ‘em (taste and texture) just as they are as a low-sugar sweet bite with healthy ingredients.

You can also make this matcha cookie gluten-free with buckwheat, coconut, tapioca, or all almond flour as substitution choices.

Since gluten-free flours usually make a more crumbly dough, if you find that happens, simply add a little more coconut oil and/or honey and you’ll see the crumbly bits come together when you press into the dough.

This is as easy as playing with dough and as fun as edible Play-doh!

Low-Sugar Matcha Cookie - No Bake

These are cute healthy cookies that you don't have to bake... matcha that!

Course Dessert

Prep Time 10

Servings 2 cookies

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour substitute)
1 tsp almond flour
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp green matcha powder
1/4 tsp green matcha powder (for dusting/zhughing)

Instructions

Add flour to a bowl. Make a well/hole in the middle.
Add and combine honey, extract, and matcha to make the dough mixture. Tip; Combine with a spoon starting in the middle and moving out so the liquids are incorporated. Make another well.
Heat or microwave coconut oil (for 20-30 seconds) into liquid (if not already). Add coconut oil to the dough mixture warm.
Use spoon and fingers to make a dough. The dough should be a little wet and like Play-doh. The small pieces should stick together easily.
Press into silicone mold (if using).
Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
Dust with additional matcha powder. Add a a glaze if desired and/or enjoy!

Notes

Tip: If the dough is too dry and pieces aren't combining fully, then add a little more liquid (coconut oil, honey, or extract).