food to glow

National Chocolate Week has come and gone and, despite promising another chocolate recipe for you last week, it never happened. But, it is never too late to post a healthy chocolate treat recipe, is it?

Much has been written in the past few years about the benefits of chocolate. In fact, far from being something to avoid, chocolate has over 40 health benefits. But, while there are a few good examples, the food and confectionary industry has hijacked the the more headline-grabbing findings to promote their far from healthy food products. It seems that anything with a sniff of dark chocolate – and especially cacao – is labelled healthy, good for you, helps fight heart disease, improves your mood, ups fertility, yada yada. Look closer, however, and you might find that most of these so-called healthy chocolates contain plenty of added sugar {in various guises}, added fat, calorific or nutritionally empty fillers, as well as serving sizes that perpetuate our tendency towards ‘portion distortion‘.

Today’s recipe errs mostly on the side of healthful, being modest in serving size, minimally and naturally sweetened, containing filling and healthy fat and protein, and with a whack of beneficial cacao. It gets better: they are also crisp on the outside and gooey in the middle. A win-win situation if ever I saw one.

The bought wonton wrappers I use are small and fairly innocuous in the scheme of things {see right image}, but here is recipe to make your own. I might try making a batch with chestnut flour, or at least spelt flour, and see how I get on. Here is a gluten-free recipe that depends on a specific proprietary flour blend. If you have a favourite wonton dough recipe – whether traditional or gluten-free – do let me know. Most brands are just flour, water, egg and a little salt {very few will use free-range or organic eggs, I imagine}.

If you aren’t making your own, look in your supermarket freezer section or a  Chinese grocer and pick up a pack of the small ones for this recipe. As you only use about 12 of these wrappers per batch – unless you get carried away – you may want ideas for the rest of the packet.

Leftovers can go savoury. These little crackers look great, as do these steamed wonton ideas over at foodrepublic.com. This oddly titled but interesting article will spark your own ideas of what to do with these floppy little tiles of dough. I have in the past pushed oiled wonton wrappers into mini muffin tins to bake into brilliant little crispy cups. The baked cups can then be filled with sweet or savoury fillings. Eating one-bite treats is much more fun and convivial than knife and fork food.

And making and eating this one-bite treat is definitely fun.