Chocolate Fudge Cookies (GF & DF!)

Central Market makes a gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate "crispy" cookies that are my kryptonite. So I went in search of a recipe for them that I can make for the holidays. These turned out even better than the store-bought ones!

Ingredients
2-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but good
1 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-process preferred
3 large egg whites
1 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
optional - chopped pecans, walnuts, or chocolate chips (these are really rich cookies, so the nuts help to 

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Then beat in egg whites and vanilla. The mixture will be dry until you add the third egg white. The dough will be very sticky. Stir in nuts or chocolate chips.

For smaller cookies, scoop a teaspoon-size of dough onto a lined backing sheet. For large cookies, use a tablespoon of dough. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes for small cookies, 12-15 for larger cookies, or until they are dry looking and cracked on top. Let the cookies cool.






Sources:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/flourless-fudge-cookies-recipe
http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Chocolate-chewy-cookies-333815

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Spiral Bakery, the vegan restaurant and bakery in Fort Worth, makes these huge vegan chocolate peanut butter cups. For Halloween this year I decided to make my own. Not only were they delicious, but they were easier to make than I thought. Sorry Reeses, mine are better!

Ingredients
1 package bittersweet baking chocolate bar (or your favorite chocolate)
approx. 1 cup of peanut butter (I used freshly-ground honey roasted peanut butter)
mini cupcake liners (candy size)

Directions
Put the peanut butter in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler on medium heat.

Place the mini cupcake liners on a baking sheet or plate. Spoon 1/2-1 teaspoon of melted chocolate into the bottom of each mini cupcake liner, just enough to cover the bottom.

Then roll the cold peanut butter into small balls (about 1 teaspoon each, depending on if you like more or less PB-to-chocolate ratio).  Place one PB ball in each mini cupcake liner. Then cover the PB with more melted chocolate.

Refrigerate the PB cups until the chocolate is solid. Consider yourself warned: these are addicting!

Next time I'm going to make the huge PB cups, like Sprial Diner's, using the regular cupcake liners and more chocolate and PB.