Simply a better ingredient!
Since learning how the foods I love to eat when I was growing up were destroying my body, I made it my mission, for the last twenty years, to create alternatives that would give me the same enjoyment but also be healthy fuel to my system. Having my cake and eating it too was my mission statement.
Like many of you out there, we cannot just eat anything we want. Yet, finding the right alternatives is expensive and time consuming. As the Deceptive Chef, my Chef Sessions™ have taken out the time and expense of searching for those ingredients. I find the options that will most closely resemble what you grew up eating and give you the same pleasures and comforts you remember.
Alternative ingredients are a very specialized industry. The people that make alternative foods have been driven to do so because of their particular reactivity. Some are gluten intolerant, others dairy or sugar. I happen to be all three. I’ve also learned how over-yeast-ed we are and how most ingredients in the alternative options, on the shelf and in the freezers, have preservatives and acting agents that are just as detrimental to the body as the original items we have had to remove from our diets.
That’s why I get, SO excited when I come across a recipe that I can replicate with ingredients the body can actually digest and truly use as proper fuel for healthy living. I call them Deceptive Delights™. The perfect fit from the Deceptive Chef.
Please enjoy this Rice Crispy treats recipe. The ingredients I have chosen create a delicious facsimile and are just as addictive. You will notice no gluten, no dairy and no refined sugar. The benefit being you can take that extra bite or two without a negative impact.
There are a few notes for this recipe that I think are important to highlight. The company, One Degree has the best crisps. They are bigger and crispier with no added refined sugar. They also make a cocoa crisp for a fun twist on the recipe. Be sure to use raw almond butter. Roasted nuts are not good for our digestion and you don’t want to impart a roasted flavor to this recipe. And finally, I recommend trading out your vanilla extract for ground vanilla bean. Be careful to purchase 100% ground vanilla with no other ingredients. A little goes a long way so it’s worth the trade!
Ingredients:
3 cups crispy rice – One Degree sprouted brown rice crisps
¼ cup cocoa butter – melted – I purchase through Amazon
¼ cup plus 2 tsp pure maple syrup – Costco offers the best value
4 tbsp raw almond butter – Trader Joes offers the best value
¼ tsp ground vanilla powder – SloFoodGroup
Pinch of pink salt – Costco offers the best value
Directions:
Line a square baking dish about 8×8 with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium to large size mixing bowl, add the three cups of brown rice crisps and set aside.
Get a small to medium pot and fill it with enough water to come halfway up the glass measuring cup and turn on to medium heat. Add the cocoa butter to the measuring cup to melt. Once the cocoa butter has melted, remove from the pan and add in the rest of the ingredients minus the crisps. Whisk to combine completely.
Pour the contents of the measuring cup over the crisps and mix to fully incorporate. Once fully incorporated, pour the mixture into the baking pan and smooth the top and out to the edges pressing down to create a tight structure.
Put into the fridge to chill and firm. About 1 hour. Remove from the fridge, picking up by the parchment paper, remove from the pan and lay onto a cutting board. Cut into desired shape.
Enjoy! Store the rest in a covered container in the fridge until consumed. Which let’s face it, these are not going to make it to the fridge!
