Thursday, April 5, 2012

Dark chocolate sunflower brittle

Every Easter morning as kids we'd wake up to baskets wrapped in colored plastic—pink, purple, and yellow. We'd have Cadbury eggs, Peeps, Robin's eggs, and small trinkets hidden inside. Then we would head to sunrise service and eat a big breakfast afterwards. My parents always out did themselves at holidays and Easter was no exception.

I wanted to share the ingredients of those popular creme-filled eggs that many kids will receive on Sunday. Hershey's doesn't list the ingredients online, but I found this article that does.
Which would you rather eat?
As a kid receiving all that candy was great, but nowadays I steer clear of processed sweets and candies. Don't get me wrong I love chocolate, but the stuff I eat nowadays contains little sugar, and mostly just dark chocolate.

There have been a number of recent studies boasting the health benefits of consuming dark chocolate. I'm not arguing with that one. Here are some reasons why you should eat more dark chocolate. Off to nibble on a piece of dark chocolate now...
This is an easy, healthy treat you can make at home with that leftover bag of dark chocolate chips you have in the pantry.

Dark chocolate sunflower brittle
1/2 c organic dark chocolate chunks or chips
1/4 c sunflower seeds, raw or toasted
2 tbsp roughly chopped almonds
pinch of salt

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Pour about an inch of water into a small pot. Bring the water almost to a boil. Meanwhile, put the chocolate into a glass or aluminum bowl. This will act as a double boiler. Place the bowl on top of the almost boiling water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the boiling water below. Stir quickly with a spatula. Turn off the heat, and continue stirring until all the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat. Add the sunflower seeds, almonds, and pinch of sea salt. Mix well.

Pour the mixture onto the parchment paper. Spread about half an inch thick with your spatula. Don't worry about getting it perfect. The seeds will make it hard to spread evenly. Toss into the freezer for a couple of hours until completely cooled and set. Remove from the freezer and enjoy. Makes about one large chocolate bar.

9 comments:

Erin said...

Love the side by side! It's always amazing how much random crap can go in to processed foods. I'd take your brittle any day :)

Adrienne said...

This looks great! I am a huge fan of brittles and say dark chocolate and I'm on board :D

Amanda (wit and whistle) said...

This looks amazing! I can't wait to try it. I'll probably still indulge in my annual Cadbury egg too though. I have no will power!

Kaitlin (The Garden Grazer) said...

Simply awesome. What a yummy, fantastic idea!

Eileen said...

Now THAT looks like a fabulous idea! I might try one brittle with just seeds and nuts and another one with chopped dried cherries mixed in--what do you think?

Carrie | acookgrowsinbrooklyn said...

It has never occurred to me to make a "healthy" version of brittle by incorporating seeds instead of just nuts. But I'll do anything to justify my chocolate intake!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

This sounds wonderful. Thank you!

shanna said...

Love the way you compared traditional eggs with this brittle. Such a difference! Here's to whole ingredients!

Mike said...

Dark chocolate is good for you but you got to make sure you make it yourself. The chocolate bars at stores are super bad for you.