Sweet Almond Treat for your Easter Basket
By Chef Valerie Wilson
I have been asked what is the healthiest substitute for sugar, and in my 23 years of teaching cooking classes, my answer has not changed: it is brown rice syrup. Brown rice syrup is made from the whole grain brown rice. The whole brown rice is cooked down to create the thick, sticky syrup that you can use to make any and all desserts. Because this sweet syrup comes from a whole grain, it is maltose. This is very important. Other sweeteners are sucrose, fructose, or dextrose.
Maltose is the least reactive sugar, released slowly into your bloodstream, unlike white sugar or sucrose, which releases very quickly into the bloodstream and wreaks havoc with all the organs in your body. Brown rice syrup and the maltose in the syrup will not spike your blood sugar. For that reason, it is considered the healthiest sweetener.
It has a mild, sweet taste that is satisfying. However, if you have been using very sweet sweeteners, they may not be sweet enough for you initially. If you stick with the brown rice syrup, it will taste sweet after you give up all those intensely sweet foods that are not good for you. You will find it in a jar at your local health food store, or even some mainstream grocery stores now carry it. It is thick and sticky like honey.
When measuring it, coat your measuring cup and spatula with a little oil, and the syrup will slide right off instead of sticking.
Almond Power Treats
(Recipe out of Chef Val’s Simply Healthy Scrumptious Desserts Cookbook.)
½ cup almond butter
¼ cup brown rice syrup
½ cup rolled oats
2 tsp. flax seed meal
Pinch sea salt
2 T. raisins
2 T. toasted pumpkin seeds
2 T. ground toasted pecans
1 tsp. dulse flakes
toasted coconut to roll the treats in
- Put in a saucepan the rolled oats. Toast the oats on medium heat for 3 minutes.
- Add the flax seed meal and sea salt, continue sautéing for a couple more minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
- Grind the pumpkin seeds up in a food processor into small pieces.
- Mix the toasted ingredients, ground pumpkin seeds, and the rest of the ingredients (except the toasted coconut) in a bowl. You should get a firm dough that will stick together.
- Form into small balls and roll in the toasted coconut.
