If you saw a version of the following post a few years back on my SageWoman blog, I posted it here too, for folks who don’t follow the other blog:
Chocolate Lumps
Gluten and sugar-free dessert
Pagans do not have to worry about lumps of coal in our Yule stockings. But you can have chocolate lumps instead, yum!
My approach to the ecstatic path is down to earth and often quite simple. For example, last year I made a list of things to 1) keep my spirits up during the Yule season and 2) help create a happy season for other people.
Inventing a new chocolate recipe was on the list. … Well, the list didn’t just include inventing new chocolate yumminess. The real point was my consuming said yumminess. 🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will use the recipe again this year. Here it is:
This may not be to everybody’s taste. I don’t like my chocolate sweet, but I like it really dark and really chocolatey. This recipe has a lovely fruity undertone.
It makes about about a dozen chocolate lumps. All measurements are by weight.
In blender, blend 2 & 1/2 ounces pecans. Blend til most are ground well, but leave a little of them still in small bits. Put into bowl.
Add to blender 1 & 1/2 ounces each:
* frozen unsweetened orange juice concentrate
* water
Plus 1/2 ounce each:
* raisins
* dried coconut, shredded or flakes. It does not matter whether it is shredded or flakes, because it’s going into the blender. If you do not like coconut, dried apricots might make a good substitute. If you try apricots, let me know how it comes out. If you use apricots, I suggest you blend them on their own, til most are ground well, and a little are in small bits.
Blend until puréed.
Then put the blend into the bowl that has the pecans. (You’re going to need a spatula to get all that yumminess out of the blender.)
Add to the bowl 1/2 ounce unsweetened cocoa.
Mix all ingredients.
The mixture ended up too moist to roll into balls by hand. So I dusted a pretty little plate (on which I would serve this treat) with cocoa. Next, I used a spoon to put a lump of yumminess onto the plate, and then pushed it about with spoon and fingers until it was a dusted lump—not a lump of coal but of chocolate. I added more cocoa to the plate as needed.
Nobody’s going to care that these things are not perfectly shaped, because they taste heavenly, and the roughness makes them look beautiful.
Part of my commitment to walking an ecstatic path is to make positives out of negatives. So, when served, if these lumps get people’s fingers sticky, I’ll explain that if they lick the chocolate off their fingers, it will make their Pagan soul happy. 🙂
Aside: Yes, I know the ecstatic path has serious, mystical aspects. Fact is, I am so comfortable with them that I can also be light-hearted about the path.
A light whimsical heart floats high and happy among the clouds. Eat these lumps = Be a happy fey-touched witch or other wondrous being. End of aside.
This is gooey goodness, so not for putting in Yule stockings. But while eating lumps, I was chatting on the phone, telling a friend how good the lumps taste. His response to my happy noises was “Organic orgasm!” An apt description.
