1. Preheat oven to 250. Combine oats, wheat germ, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
2. Measure out 1/2 cup of solid coconut oil. Using your hands scoop small batches out of the cup and press it together with your palms over the granola bowl so it drips into the bowl.
3. In a separate bowl combine brown sugar, juice, vanilla, and honey. You can heat this mixture if desired before pouring it over the granola.
4. Spread granola out over 2 large, rimmed, greased baking sheets. Use your hands to form clumps of granola if you like it chunky.
5. Bake at 250 for 20 minutes.
6. Stir. Bake for an additional 20 minutes. When cooled, add dried fruit.
Melt coconut oil in a large saucepan and add onion and garlic. Sauté lightly for about 20 seconds. Turn heat off and stir in remaining ingredients.
Simmer over medium low to low heat until ketchup becomes thick and reduces by half, approximately 2-4 hours. Stir every once in awhile as needed.
Purée ketchup in a blender, and then strain through a mesh strainer. If you wish, adjust seasoning to taste and if the ketchup isn’t at the thickness you want, return to the saucepan and simmer until it’s just the way you want it.
Cool, and then store in the refrigerator.
Don’t let the long ingredient list fool you. This recipe is actually very easy to make. I just got a little carried away with the spices.
But really? Allspice? Cloves? Are we making pumpkin pie? No, we’re not. Trust me, they all work together. It doesn’t taste like ketchup made with pumpkin pie spice mix. It’s really, really yummy.
You can give and take on the spices, if you want. But if you have all the ingredients on hand, make it just as is first and see if you like it. There isn’t much of each spice, so they all work together to create that ketchup flavor. If you think you can make it better to suit your taste buds, go right ahead! Then let me know what spices you did or didn’t use, and how you liked it.
The aroma of the sauce as it simmered on the stove was amazing, I kept coming back to taste it…and add salt. I’m not sure how much salt I ended up using (I kept adding a little more at a time) but just go by taste.
Since this uses all fresh tomatoes, it’s a great way to use up your summer crop if you’re growing a garden this year. And like I said, it’s easy. Really. For real. It’s one of those recipes that pretty much does it’s own thing and fills your house with nice smells in the process.
Oh, and another cool thing about this recipe? It uses honey as the sweetener (I used raw honey). I kid you not, my jaw literally dropped to the floor when I saw how much sugar some of these homemade ketchup recipes use. It really doesn’t need that much. Just a small amount of honey gave it a nice, sweet (but not too sweet!) flavor. Yum.
And for all you visual (and non visual) learners, we have a video for you today that will take you through the recipe step by step.
Place crust ingredients in food processor, process until well combined. Press into an 8 inch pie plate or tart pan. Chill until firm.
Blend filling ingredients until well combined and creamy in a food processor. Adjust minty-ness as you like. Pour filling into crust, chill until set.
Combine ingredients for ganache. Pour ganache over filling in a thin layer. Chill until set.
Place ingredients for drizzle in a food processor. Drizzle over top. Freeze for a more ice cream-y pie or chill for a softer pie. Makes one 8 inch pie.
In a medium sized bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients except milk and egg.
Place egg white in a small bowl and set aside. Add your yolk to the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Slowly add milk one tablespoon at a time to the batter, until desired consistency is reached. I used 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons but if you want a thinner batter, you can add up to 1/2 cup.
Whisk the egg white until soft peaks form (about a minute or two). Using a spatula, fold egg whites into your pancake batter.
In a lightly oiled skillet, over medium heat, cook pancakes two at a time for about two minutes per side. Watch carefully to make sure they don’t burn.
Peel bananas first, then freeze in resealable plastic bag.
Place a serving plate in the refrigerator or freezer to chill; this is so pops don’t melt immediately on the plate once they’re made.
Put coconut oil in small saucepan and melt on low heat. Remove from heat as soon as coconut oil is completely melted.
Add chocolate chips and stir until chocolate is melted. If chocolate chips do not completely melt, return to heat for 10 seconds. Do not cook; the mixture should be barely warm to touch.
Slice frozen bananas about 3/4 inch thick. Skewer each piece with a toothpick and dip quickly in chocolate. Wait a few seconds for chocolate to harden then place on the chilled plate.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Let chill in the fridge or freezer until malleable. Form into flat “cakes.” Make sure they are relatively thin, like a 1/4 inch thick.
Fry in coconut oil until golden brown. Drizzle with maple syrup and dust with coconut flour.
It’s chewy, crunchy and buttery with a pleasantly mild sweetness, as well as being naturally gluten and dairy free.
You can play around with this recipe a bit, but make it “as is” first. The almond butter can be swapped and/or combined with other nut butters, like peanut, coconut cream concentrate, or coconut peanut butter. But my favorite is almond. It’s so creamy and buttery!
Other mix-ins are great as well: chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, more coconut, less brown rice cereal, a little coconut oil – have fun with it! This recipe isn’t super fussy.
But the best thing is that you could be stuffing your face with these tasty little bites in under 10 minutes.
Make them now.
Enjoy!
Sarah
Chewy Crispy Rice Bites
Chewy Crispy Rice Balls
Prepared by Sarah Shilhavy, Photo by Jeremiah Shilhavy
Yield: approximately 2 dozen small balls
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
1/2 cup almond butter (or other nut butter of choice)
