A December Treat- Dairy Free Chocolate Covered Cashews and Cranberries

My husband used to travel a lot for work.   When that travel was to Chicago or through Chicago's O'Hare airport he brought back chocolate covered nuts for us!  He doesn't travel much for work any more and the kids were wishing the other day for chocolate covered cashews.   These were quick and easy to make and gone in the blink of an eye.  So I made more!  And thought I'd pass the recipe along to you.

Sticky Chocolate Gingerbread

T'was Christmas Day and all through the house wafted the smell of  Chocolate...

Oh Yeah!

I love chocolate!  Chocolate dipped strawberries... raspberries in chocolate sauce... chocolate chip cookies...
And this time of year is an excellent excuse to indulge.

A chocolate gingerbread just seemed so... perfect.  This is the same recipe as for the Black Sticky Gingerbread, minus the pepper, with the addition of cocoa.  And it is delightful!  Yum!

"Wicked Dark" Chocolate

I'm not a native New Englander.  But the New England use of the word "wicked" to mean "very" is one I'll have until I die probably.  It grew on me and stuck

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Dark chocolate ice cream... with a sprig of mint.

The third of today's trifecta is a dark chocolate.  A wicked good dark chocolate.  This one almost didn't make it into the freezer.  I tasted the mix before freezing it to see if anything needed to be balanced.  It is like a liquid dark chocolate cake batter.

Chocolate Avocado Cake

So why the cake?  April 1st is a dear friend's birthday.  Very cool right?  It was my older son's due date, although he couldn't wait that long.  And for other reasons April first is a day that we celebrate fondly.  Thus a cake was needed.

Chocolate avocado cake

This idea of avocados and chocolate comes from Joy the Baker's blog. She uses avocados in wonderful ways and I'm sure more of her recipes will be spring boards for some gluten free goodies here too.  I know you're thinking "Weird" right?  Actually "Yum!" is the word for this rich moist chocolate cake.

Chocolate chip cookies- Ah!

Mmmm the slightly crisp outside, chewy inside and soft gooey chips.  So yummy hot out of the oven that they don't last long in my house

 Quinoa chocolate chip cookies hot from the oven!

Living life gluten free and dairy free makes for interesting baking.  Being egg free as well brings another whole level of interesting to baking.