Think it’s just some lame Hallmark holiday? Have you been cutting hearts out of construction paper and tracing cupids on doilies for weeks? Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is a free pass to love and how better to show you’ve been thinking about this since the Paleo Challenge started you care than with some chocolatey Paleo treats?! We found these tasty concoctions on The Internets. Take ’em out for a spin, Paleo Valentine!

(If none of these recipes suit your fancy, check out our own Diane Frampton’s book Eat Well, Feel Good: Practical Paleo Living. There’s a whole BUNCH of chocolatey delight in those pages. Flip through the copy at GymCore then order it here!)

Chocolate & Coconut Covered Bacon

Courtesy of Paleo Dish dot Com

 

You heard us right.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of good quality bacon
• 2-ish bars of Green & Black’s 85% Organic Dark Chocolate 
• A handful of unsweetened shredded coconut or crushed raw macadamia nuts (I have tried both). You can buy Bob’s Red Mills raw shredded at coconut at Market Basket. Costs about $8-$10 and you get a TON of it!
• A few tbsp of coconut butter

How To:

• Cook bacon in frying pan on medium to high heat, until crispy (I had to do this in a couple batches)
• Remove from heat and plate to cool for a few minutes
• In the meantime… Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler (avoid burning the chocolate) – stirring frequently
• When completely melted, take a pair of thongs and fully immerse the slice of bacon in the chocolate sauce
• When coated, place on a baking pan lined with parchment paper
• Sprinkle with shredded coconut and place in the fridge to cool for 10-15 minutes
• While it is solidifying in the fridge, melt some coconut butter (manna), by placing the jar in boiling water
• Once melted, take a few tbsp and spoon it into a Ziploc bag
• Take the chocolate covered bacon out of the fridge, snip a tiny hole in the corner of the Ziploc bag and drizzle lightly with coconut butter
• Place back into the fridge and let cool once again (doesn’t take long to solidify)
• When ready remove bacon strips from parchment paper and plate
• Give one to your honey or keep them to yourself and enjoy!

 

 

Chocolate and Raspberry Pot de Crème

Courtesy of The Food Lovers Primal Palate dot Com

Ingredients:

1. Blend chopped dark chocolate, eggs, and vanilla in a high speed blender until smooth.
2. In a small saucepan heat coconut milk until almost boiling, you will see steam rising from the milk, but it should not be bubbling yet.
3. Slowly pour the scalded coconut milk into the blender and blend until smooth.
4. Place 4 fresh raspberries in the bottom of four 8 oz souffle dishes.
5. Pour chocolate cream mixture into the souffle dishes over the raspberries.
6. Cover each dish and chill in the refrigerator for two hours.
7. Garnish with shaved dark chocolate and a fresh raspberry.

 

 

Paleo Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Courtesy of Health-Bent dot Com

Yield: About 24 cookies or 12 cookie sandwiches

Ingredients

For the Cookies

• 2 c almond flour*
• 1/4 c cocoa powder
• 1/2 c full fat, canned coconut milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t baking powder
• Red food coloring (You choose what you want to use. Beet juice is the hippie way, otherwise just use liquid or gel, until you like the color you see.)

For the Filling

• 3/4 c palm shortening**
• 3 T coconut oil
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 3 T powdered sugar, or any liquid sweetener***

How to:

Set your oven to 350ºF. Whisk together all the cookie ingredients. Use a cookie scoop to dollop the batter in uniform sizes (important for the art of sandwich cookie making), onto a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Depending on the size of your cookie/baking sheet, this took two batches. Bake for about 15 minutes.

For the filling

Beat all ingredients together in a mixer. It may appear crumbly at first, but give it some time and eventually the shortening will start to get fluffy like butter. This should take about 3-5 minutes.

Once the cookies are 100% cool (Do not rush this, unless you enjoy wasting things.), use a small off-set spatula, or a spoon, to scoop some filling onto one of the cookies. Spread the filling around the surface of the cookie, top with another cookie and immediately put it into your mouth.

The filling does get hard in the refrigerator, so it’d be best to fill the cookies right before you plan to eat/serve. You could, of course heat the refrigerated cookie sandwiches in the microwave for a few seconds to soften everything up a bit.

*We just re-ordered some Honeyville almond flour. They’ve milled it down finer than previous batches we’ve purchased. Hands down, way better than before and way better than (and cheaper than) Bob’s Red Mill. These cookies really, truly had a baked texture similar to what you’d get with flour. Highly recommend this almond flour!

**Palm shortening is a tropical, non-hydrogenated, trans-fat free, flavorless, similar to butter, budget friendly fat source. They sell it at most health food stores.

***Why liquid if you don’t use powdered sugar? Granulated sugar didn’t dissolve when we made these, so the texture was oddly crunchy…definitely still edible, just crunchy.