Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

Well, I've just come back from spending 2 glorious days at the Toronto Vegetarian Festival. Never have I had such a variety of food choices! Animal welfare, nutrition, lots of samples, delicious entrees, cupcakes, my favorite vegan Nanaimo bars and cooking demonstrations.

Also met the sassy and knowledgeable Meagan telpner and learnt a lot from her talk. She recuperated from Crohn's disease by going vegan. Here is a sample of the type of yummy & super healthy recipes she cooks up:

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups
(makes 12)

2 bars dark chocolate, try and hit up the 70% or greater (or 1 cup unsweetened or bittersweet bakers chocolate- dairy free)
1/2 cup, almond butter (smooth or crunchy depending on your preference)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract, or 1 tsp fresh vanilla bean
pinch sea salt (plus more if you want to sprinkle on top)
3 Tbs arrowroot or tapioca flour
2 Tbs cacao nibs (optional)

Create a double boiler by filling one larger pot with water and placing a smaller one inside. Made sure no water gets into the inside pot as this will turn the melting chocolate.
Add about 1/3 of the chocolate into the small pot and stir as it melts
Once melted, pour into 12 muffin liners. You may wish to add the liners to a muffin tin for added support
Chill the tin in the fridge or freezer, until the chocolate has hardened a little (about ten minutes).
Mix together the almond butter, salt, vanilla, arrowroot flour and optional cacao nibs until it is able to form little round doughy balls. You may need more arrowroot flour but best to add 1 Tbs at a time to make sure.
Make 12 small ‘patties’ and place on the chocolate base in the muffin liners.
Melt the remaining chocolate and pour into the cups, covering the almond butter
You may wish to sprinkle sea salt or cacao nibs on top
Keep in fridge or freezer and best to hide way at the back.

Follow her making love in the kitchen blog here: http://meghantelpnerblog.com/2010/02/18/chocolate-is-to-love/