How low can you go?!  This gluten free chocolate peanut butter tart is sweetened with a delicious alternative sweetener that I have been enjoying of late —yacon syrup.

This lower glycemic sweetener is derived from the yacon plant which is often referred to as “apple of the earth.”  Yacon is high in fructooligosacharides (FOS), a form of fructose that is lower in sugar than others and is in fact, also a pre-biotic.  This sweetener feeds the friendly bacteria in the colon and can also aid in digestion. You can read more about Yacon Syrup on my Ingredients page.

Of course, as we all know, the best sweetener is no sweetener at all.  I believe that humans were not made to digest large quantities of sugars.  Fruit is available in most climates a couple of months of the year, if that.  And then there is my family.  They like their sweets regardless of the season.

And then there are my readers.  While it’s pretty easy to find a recipe for gluten-free roasted chicken or gluten-free burgers, the pages of Sunset and Parade are not exactly swimming with gluten-free dessert recipes.  As we all know, in our culture, gluten-free just isn’t the norm.  And of course, finding gluten-free desserts that are lower in sugar, higher in protein and dairy-free?  Well, there’s not exactly a lot of that out there.

Thankfully, I found this dessert on a fabulous blog that I follow called healthyindulgences.com.  While I don’t utilize some of the ingredients that the lovely Lauren uses on her site, I do admire her low-sugar gluten-free recipes and think this one is a total winner.  After all, who doesn’t want a little peanut butter with their chocolate?