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?
Flourless Tart Crust
Ingredients
- 1½ cups peanuts, roasted
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 2 tablespoons yacon syrup
Instructions
- Grind the peanuts in a to a fine meal (make a crunchy meal for a crunchier crust)
- Pulse in the salt and baking soda
- Pulse in the grapeseed oil and yacon syrup and continue pulsing until the dough is formed
- Remove dough from food processor and press into a 9 inch tart pan
- Bake at 350°F for 8 minutes, until fragrant and golden brown
- Cool, then fill shell with Vegan Chocolate Pudding
- Serve
Equipment
Feel free to use my standard chocolate pudding as referenced (and linked) in the recipe above, or, try this new lower-glycemic, gluten-free chocolate pudding sweetened primarily with yacon, below:
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Lower Glycemic Chocolate Pudding Filling
Ingredients
- 1 (13.5 ounce) can full fat coconut milk (not lite)
- 1 pinch celtic sea salt
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey
- 3 tablespoons yacon syrup
- 5 drops stevia
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a saucepan, heat coconut milk and salt over medium heat
- Raise heat and sift the arrowroot powder into the pot, then Whisk vigorously by hand or with a hand blender until thick
- Whisk in agave, yacon, stevia and vanilla
- Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes; add chocolate, stirring vigorously until melted
- Chill for 10 minutes, then pour into cooled pie crust
- Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until firm
I haven’t tried to use yacon and agave interchangeably, so am not sure if that would work in my recipes and others. Whenever I want to see if an ingredient works in a recipe I make sure to test it.
In terms of flavor, I find that yacon is not as sweet as agave and its taste is not as “sharp.” Its flavor is more mellow and “round.” On its own, yacon has a flavor similar to that of molasses, however, in the pudding recipe above, the chocolate mostly hides that flavor. If you try yacon, please stop by and let us know what you think.
And have a great Passover everyone!
Nicole says
Dear Elana,
I want to tell you how your recipes have changed my life. I have issues with gluten. It is a bit of a love-hate relationship, and that tricky-sneaky gluten has managed to evade testing itself positive and so I am not officially a Celiac, although with the articles I have been reading lately I am realizing that those older tests are flawed. Regardless, I have tried my best to eliminate gluten from my diet (and even the high-carb gluten free fare gives me trouble….it is the high carbohydrate content and I have diabetes in my family, so although I am only 37 years old, I know I have insulin issues that I have to deal with now.) Eating high carb (gluten free or not) makes me gain weight and if it is wheat, watch out: I pork up like a corn-fed cow in no time at all. A lot of it is water retention, too, which started when I was a teenager but I did not know what was going on. It was mild, and I always knew I could gain 5 lbs in a day or two if I ate too much (not knowing what that “much” is…..it is wheat!!!), but it all ballooned out of control when I got pregnant with my first child, similar to your story, Elana. All 3 of my pregnancies were hell, and the water and weight gain were almost unbearable. I wish I knew then what I know now!!! I have experienced none of that with the almond or coconut flour recipes in your cookbooks, and you have changed my life from one of confusion, bloating, weight-gain misery, and ill-absorption of nutrients (deficiencies galore), to absorbing what I eat much better (with blood tests to prove it!), NO weight gain despite eating desserts and cookies from your books, quiches, etc. (ALL my favourite foods, with a different version à la almond flour!), no bloating, and understanding what is going on with my body and what I eat. THANK YOU for changing my life and that of my family. We all love eating this way and love the recipes. They are so tasty and delicious and I feel that I will never eat the “other” way again. There is no need to. I check out your website often (I am a busy working mom but go look at it when I have some free time now and then, and when I am looking for a new recipe to try) and I want to tell you how much I enjoy it! I just printed your chocolate peanut butter tart recipe and can’t wait to try it out this weekend….
Paleo is the ONLY way to go for me.
Thanks again for being such a great pioneer with almond flour and for putting your story out there. You have helped a lot of people and put what I was personally experiencing into words. God Bless you!
Very Sincerely,
Nicole in Toronto, Canada
Anna Zell says
How happy I am to be able to make chocolate pudding w/o eggs or dairy! I didn’t make the crust, just the filling used 2T agave, no yacon, no stevia and 60% chocolate chips. It’s fantastic.
Thanks as always!
Linda Wilson says
Can’t wait to try this recipe…amazing what can be done with good nutrution rich ingredient.
Katie says
I have made this a few times now! My partner and I seem to eat it all to ourselves over a couple of days lol soooo good!
Julie says
This looks amazing, I absolutely love peanut butter with chocolate!
I want to make this for company tonight, do you think it would be okay to substitute palm sugar for the yacon syrup?
Rhonda Ahrens says
Question about 73% cocoa do you have a good place you regularly get it? Many of your dessert recipes call for it but I only find bittersweet, 60% or 100% cocoa at standard stores like Safeway and King Soopers.
Thanks,
Rhonda
Maria says
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! I made this for Thanksgiving and my family happily ate it along with many gluten/dairy/egg filled desserts on the table. Everyone loved it and nobody guessed it was specially made to accommodate my food allergies. I will definitely be making this again (probably this weekend!)
Diane says
I tried the pudding but didn’t have any yacon syrup so I used molasses instead. It tasted good before I put it in the fridge. However, four hours later, when it thickened it had a strong molasses taste. It was okay but next time I would try just a tablespoon of molasses. I do like the idea of that extra layer of flavor. I also used semi-sweet chocolate chips and 3 packages of stevia powder. Thanks for another great recipe, Elana! Love your cookbook and hope you create another cookbook soon!!
Whitney says
Elana-
I cannot eat coconut and was wondering if you had an idea as far as pudding goes. Strangely, I can use milk in baking (not drinking though) and know you are dairy-free, but do you think it would function as a substitute?
-Whitney
elana says
Krista, thanks for your comment and for sharing your substitutions, they sound amazing!