Halloween Munch Dark Chocolate Bark

Halloween munch dark chocolate bark is a fun and creative way of using healthier Halloween candy products! 

For October’s virtual cooking class, I wanted to create a fun, festive and kid friendly dessert using healthier candy products. It’s so easy to switch out sugar and overly processed-filled Halloween candy products with healthier brands like Yum Earth, That’s It, Hu Kitchen and so much more (product recommendations for this recipe at the bottom!)

Halloween bark recipe is as simple as they come! Using only 3-ingredients to make the bark, and topped with your favorite go-to halloween candy products or venturing out into the healthier but still spookier side!

FAQs and tips on making dark chocolate bark: 

• After the chocolate has cooled, it is hard to spread or for toppings to stick so work quickly while your chocolate is still warm! 

• Storage? If the chocolate bark is set out at room temperature for too long, it will start to melt so best to store in the fridge for about a week or the freezer for 2 months. Don’t expect it to last that long in your house, though! 

• A spatula or back of a spoon are the best tools to spread the chocolate across a parchment paper lined baking sheet. 

• You can obviously use a double broiler to melt your chocolate but the fastest and easiest method is simply using a microwave! Microwave in 30 second increments while stirring until melted. 

Other great Halloween recipes: spookylicious green smoothie

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with!

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Halloween munch dark chocolate bark is a fun and creative way of using healthier Halloween candy products! 

SERVINGS: 6-8 | PREP TIME: 5 MIN | COOK TIME: N/A

Ingredients

• 2 cups dark chocolate chips (about 12 oz)

• 1/3 cup white chocolate chips

• 1 Tbsp+ 1 tsp coconut oil

• 1/4 cup candy corn

• 1/4 cup gummy worms

• 1/4 cup popcorn

• Halloween sprinkles

Directions

• Line a medium/large baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil leaving overhang on at least two sides.

• Add the chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp coconut oil to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 sec. Stir with a spoon and continue to warm in 30 sec increments until melted.

• Spread the melted chocolate across the prepared baking sheet and use a rubber or offset spatula to smooth into an even layer.

• Melt the white chocolate and 1 tsp oil in a separate bowl for 30 sec increments until smooth.

• Drizzle the white chocolate in a “spiderweb or mummy style” across the baking sheet of melted dark chocolate.

• Place candies, popcorn, and sprinkles on top of the bark while melted then place the baking sheet in the fridge or freezer for 1 hr to harden. Once hard, use a knife to cut into pieces of bark and enjoy!

Notes

• Keep bark in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer until ready to eat!

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S'mores Cookies

S’mores cookie with a surprise marshmallow filling you cannot resist. Gluten-free, dairy-free friendly, refined sugar-free and no campfire needed!

Fun fact about me that not many people know is that I am a pyro! Maybe that is why I am a volunteer firefighter but I just absolutely love fires - campfires, bonfires, having a fake fire scene playing in the background, the sound of fire food crackling … I’m obsessed! 

And now that I have niece and nephews close by, I take full advantage of spoiling them with campfire treats - s’mores being #1!

So when we had Thanksgiving this past week, I wanted to surprise them with a dessert that I knew they were going to love. Because why try to give them traditional desserts like pumpkin pie when we know they aren’t going to like it or try it? Why not just make them something fun and that they will actually enjoy! 

And that is why I created this s’mores cookie recipe! They couldn’t believe that a cookie was also a s’more! And to top off the mindblown effect, when I ripped the cookie apart - they couldn’t believe that there was a gooey, melted marshmallow inside and that I didn’t have a fire to produce that sort of effect! 

All this to say, that if you are wanting major Aunt brownie points - you should make these cookies! And selfishly for yourself - that is why they are gluten-free, dairy-free, and naturally sweetened. They will not know the difference!

And if you are unfamiliar with gluten-free or plant based s’more products to look for - I have added the products I used at the bottom of the recipe for reference. I will say that the Hu Kitchen stuffed dark chocolate bars just really elevate this recipe - especially if you are team peanut butter cup in your s’more stack! 

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with!

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S’mores cookie with a surprise marshmallow filling you cannot resist. Gluten-free, dairy-free friendly, refined sugar-free and no campfire needed!

Serving: 2 Tbsp scoop = 8 large cookies, 1 Tbsp scoop = 16 regular cookies | Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 10 min

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup gluten-free 1 to 1 flour

• ¾ cup coconut sugar

• ½ cup dark chocolate chips or bar, chopped

• ½ cup mini marshmallows or 8 large marshmallows

• ½ cup graham crackers, crushed/chopped

• 1 egg, room temperature

• 3 Tbsp milk of choice, I used coconut milk

• 3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp pink himalayan sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, combine egg, coconut sugar, milk, oil, and vanilla. 

3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Gently stir in the chocolate chips, graham crackers and marshmallows if you are doing mini. 

4. Using a cookie scoop or 1 Tbsp, scoop out 2 Tbsp worth and flatten dough out to place a large marshmallow in and fold the rest of the dough over the marshmallow until fully covered. If you added mini marshmallows, scoop out 1 Tbsp, and place dough onto a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Add a few extra chocolate chips, graham crackers and kosher salt flakes on top to make the cookies look pretty. 

5. Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown. 

6. Let them cool for at least 15 minutes so that the cookies can firm up. Transfer to a wire wreck to cool completely and enjoy!

SHOP OUR FAVORITE INGREDIENTS FOR THIS RECIPE!

Prosciutto Wrapped Figs

A sweet, salty and acidic appetizer or snack delight that features figs stuffed with goat cheese and pistachios, wrapped with prosciutto, and air fried or baked to tender goodness.

Confession time: I don’t like figs, there I said it! Dried figs, sure. Fig newtons as a kid when that was the only snack you could find in the pantry, you bet. But fresh - you can forget it! 

So when my personal training client handed me a bag of freshly picked figs, I had no idea what to do. But she entrusted me to create a recipe using them and I didn’t want to let her down! So not only does this recipe goes out to my client … you know who you are ;) This fig recipe also goes out to my newfound fresh fig taste buds! 

The secret to enjoying fresh figs is wrapping them in prosciutto and roasting or air frying them. Having the addition of goat cheese and pistachio for added creaminess and texture doesn’t hurt either. And to take it to an even magical level, enhance the complexity in sweet, salty, and acid flavors with a drizzle of honey. 

It quite literally cannot get any better than this! 

So if you are looking for a summer appetizer, macro balanced snack, or trying to figure out ways to use figs, then this is your recipe ladies and gentleman! 

And feel free to switch out ingredients: figs for dates, goat cheese for blue cheese, pistachio for almonds, honey for balsamic glaze, prosciutto for bacon, air frying for baking…you get my drift ;) 

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with!

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A sweet, salty and acidic appetizer or snack delight that features figs stuffed with goat cheese and pistachios, wrapped with prosciutto, and air fried or baked to tender goodness.

Servings: 4 | Prep Time: 4 min | Cook 5 min

Ingredients

• 8 figs

• ⅓ cup goat or blue cheese, softened

• 8 prosciutto slices

• 2 Tbsp raw pistachios, chopped

Garnish

Local honey and chopped pistachios

Directions 

1. Cut the figs in half and set aside. 

2. In a small bowl, mix softened goat cheese and chopped pistachios until well combined.  Dollop a small amount on one fig half and place the other fig half on top like a sandwich. Repeat with the remainder of figs where you should have 8 fig sandwiches. 

3. Wrap the prosciutto around each fig sandwich. The ends of the prosciutto should overlap. Place a wet toothpick through prosciutto wrapped fig so that it doesn’t fall apart. 

4. If using an air fryer: preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees and cook for 5-7 minutes flipping halfway until prosciutto is crispy. 

5. If using the oven: preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place in the oven on the top rack and roast for 8-10 minutes. 

6. Garnish with honey drizzle and leftover chopped pistachios and enjoy! 

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The Best Gluten Free Confetti Cake

The Best Gluten Free Funfetti Cake - Fluffy, tender gluten free cake that reuses layered tops as cake ball garnishes!  Includes baking techniques to create that perfect “just came from the bakery funfetti cake.” 

I turned the big dirty thirty a couple weeks back (pisces in the house!?) and it feels so good! Ever since I was a kid, I dreamt of this day. For some reason, in my childhood brain, 30 meant that I was going to be a woman. That I would have it all together. That I was going to be successful. And in most ways, it feels that way or at least leading to that prediction. 

For so many years, I would let my stomach succumb to a laundry list of birthday cake ingredients that made me feel like crap for the sake of pleasing coworkers who barely knew me or family members that “forgot” that I had a gluten and dairy sensitivity. But not this year! This year, I am making my own damn cake! And the cake will have ingredients that I can fully digest and not feel like crap after! Haha

So if you feel the same way, you are making a cake for someone with these sensitivities, or just want a really good funfetti cake then look no further! 

I’ve been watching a lot of baking shows during COVID: Great British Baking Show Nailed It, you name it! So this cake was inspired by all those late nights drooling over all the glutenous and sugary-laden desserts! Haha! 

With that said, even though these recipes are traditional, I learned the techniques that can be applied to gluten and dairy-free baking! With cooking in general, it’s all about learning and finding ways where cooking can work for you! So the techniques used for this cake will, in the end, produce a damn good gluten-free cake. 

Directions in the recipe below, provide the techniques used but if you need more information regarding how to: reverse creaming, flat tops for even layering, milk soaking layers, build supported cake layers, frost your cake or leaving it naked, tools needed for a layered cake, and so much more -- check out Erin McDowell’s video on How to Make Layered Cakes and Claire Saffitz Makes Confetti Cake.

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with!

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The Best Gluten Free Funfetti Cake - Fluffy, tender gluten free cake that reuses layered tops as cake ball garnishes! Includes baking techniques to create that perfect “just came from the bakery funfetti cake.”

Ingredients 

• 1 ½ cups gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour

• ½ cup organic granulated cane sugar

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ¼ tsp salt

• ½ cup goat milk + ¼ cup or plant-based milk

• 1 tsp lemon juice + zest of one lemon

• 1 egg + 3 Tbsp egg whites (whisked + room temperature)

• ½ stick grass-fed butter (room temperature)

• ½ tsp almond extract

• ⅓ cup (1.75 oz) sprinkles 

Frosting

• Coconut whipped frosting (homemade or store-bought) or frosting of choice

Toppings 

• Sprinkles and cake balls (from leftover cake tops + frosting)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and spray 3 - 4-inch springform pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. Make your “buttermilk” by adding lemon juice and zest to your goat milk. Let sit for at least 10-15 min. Set aside. *The zest just adds brightness to the cake, not necessarily creating the buttermilk mixture. 

3. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

4. Turn the mixer on the slowest speed. Slowly add chunks of your softened butter until everything is mixed and looks like coarse sand. 

5. Add your buttermilk mixture and bump up the speed to 4. Mix for one minute and scrape the bowl. Slowly add the whisked egg mixture, and almond extract and continue mixing for one minute. Stop halfway to scrape the bowl one more time. Mix until combined. Your batter should be thick but creamy and pourable. 

6. Take off the paddle attachment and fold the sprinkles into the batter. 

7. Divide the batter into your greased pans and fill ¾ of the way full. I like to evenly distribute batter by weighing each pan or use a cookie/ice cream scooper to make sure each pan has the right amount of batter. 

8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick when inserted, comes out clean. 

9. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes, then gently remove the pan and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. 

10.  Let layers cool completely before stacking and frosting. I like to place my layers in the fridge for about 20-30 min to firm up the cakes for easier stacking.

11. Before we start stacking, it’s time to start slicing! In order to have even layers for a tall and flat layered cake, we need to make sure each layer is even. Bonus: Slicing the tops off our cakes will make our cake balls for garnish! 

    1. Use a knife to score the entire outside edge of the cake - right where the cake stops cooking in the pan (you will see a distinct edge right as it starts to dome up). Go slowly, not too deep, and make sure you are getting down to eye-level.

    2. Take a serrated knife and cut through the cake along the indentation made with the knife marker. The best way of doing this without breaking the layers putting each cake layer on a decorating turntable. That way, you're slowly moving the serrated knife as the cake is turning. Eventually, you will end up in the middle and the top layer should come right off without any buckling or crumbling. 

    3. Set the domed top part of each layer to the side in a medium bowl to make cake balls for later. 

12. To assemble:

    1. Spread a bit of frosting onto the middle of the cake board, serving plate, or decorating turntable. (I like to cut out a piece of 4” round cardboard as a base for my cake so that it’s easier to transfer to a serving plate without messing with the finished product) If you are using this method, place the cardboard piece on frosting so that it stays. Dab another bit of frosting on that and then center your first layer on it. 

    2. Use a pastry brush or small spoon and dab leftover goat milk onto each cake. Don’t overdo it as you don’t want a soggy cake. Sprinkle extra lemon zest - optional but so good!

    3. Stack the layers on top of one another, using an offset spatula to spread about half-inch frosting between each layer. Repeat each layer with milk dab, zest, and frosting. The last layer, turn the layer upside down so that the cake bottom is on top. *Makes for a clean flat top!

    4. Crumb coat by covering the whole cake in a very thin layer of frosting. You can also pipe in between layers where there are visible holes. 

    5. Chill the cake in the fridge until the frosting has firmed up; about 20 minutes. 

    6. Apply the final coating of frosting. 

13. To make the cake balls: Crumble domed cake tops in a small bowl with leftover frosting. Combine until you can make a ball without it crumbling. Create different size cake balls and set them aside. 

14. To garnish, sprinkle the cake top with sprinkles or however you would like to decorate and stack cake balls in the center. Let set in the fridge so that everything is firm. Slice and enjoy! 

Notes:

• Simple Mills vanilla frosting, Sprinkles, cake pans, cake decorating starter kit

• Even though goat milk has lactose, I have found that my body tolerates it better than cow’s milk. If you don’t know if you can tolerate goat milk then do plant-based milk instead! 

Mint Matcha Smoothie

Mint Matcha Smoothie or what some people like to call, the Shamrock Shake! It’s a creamy, refreshing smoothie you can have for breakfast, pre/post-workout shake, or as a dessert! This smoothie is plant-based,  naturally sweetened with bananas, and made with only 6-ingredients!

If you love all things mint, then you will love this smoothie. This recipe uses fresh mint and/or peppermint extract depending on your mint preference. My favorite addition of mint flavor is combining fresh mint leaves and CBD peppermint oil drops - so tasty! 

What really elevates that fresh minty flavor is using matcha powder. Matcha comes from the same plant as green tea but since it is made from the entire leaf, it packs in a more concentrated amount of antioxidants and beneficial plant compounds. And since matcha is naturally lower in caffeine than regular coffee, this is a great alternative if you are wanting to cut back on coffee or incorporate it into your morning routine. 

Even though this shake is considered a healthier version to the traditional “Shamrock Shake” feel free to make this when it’s not St. Patty’s Day! Now that you have the flavor combination down, feel free to change up the recipe. For example, add the optional greens powder/frozen cauliflower chunks if you know hitting your veggie goal is not in the cards that day. 

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with!

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Mint Matcha Smoothie or what some people like to call, the Shamrock Shake! It’s a creamy, refreshing smoothie you can have for breakfast, pre/post-workout shake, or as a dessert! This smoothie is plant-based,  naturally sweetened with bananas, and made with only 6-ingredients!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup frozen banana

• 1 cup unsweetened plant-based milk (I used my homemade cashew milk blend)

• 1 heaping handful of fresh greens

• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder

• 1 scoop green superfood powder (optional)

• Small handful of fresh mint leaves or 1-2 tsp peppermint extract

• 2 tsp matcha powder

Toppings

• cacao nibs, fresh mint, and yogurt

Directions 

1. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Feel free to add more ingredients depending on preference. For example, add more bananas or another sweetener for a sweeter smoothie. 

2. Nutrition Booster tip: instead of using ice cubes as a thickener, use frozen cauliflower or zucchini. Can’t taste it I promise!

Other Mint Recipes