Allergic to Chocolate? The Best Non-Chocolate Chocolate Recipe

Go to any restaurant and four of the five desserts will include chocolate. Go to an outdoor picnic or any get-together and the most common desserts will contain chocolate, whether brownies, cakes or cookies. Even if you are an outdoor type, many trail mixes are loaded with some kind of chocolate chip. What torture it is for those, like my husband, who are allergic to chocolate.

There is, of course, carob chips and carob powder. Place the chips in a trail mix and they aren’t too bad. But replacing them in a chocolate-chip cookie recipe just doesn’t do it for true afficiandos.

Allergy sufferers need not deny themselves any longer.

Here is a recipe that even carob haters say is incredibly delicious. The good news is carob has less fat. The bad news is that this recipe takes a little time, but is still easy to do and well worth the effort. I do recommend and finally broke down and bought a 9 inch square pan for this recipe, since an 8 inch square pan keeps the dough too moist. The recipe allows for variations. Feel free to use cherry, coffee, yogurt, peanut butter, cinnamon, caramel or mint-flavored chips and a complementary extract, depending upon what you like. During the summer use a toaster oven and bake this outdoors. It works just fine, although you may want to add another five minutes to the baking time.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease and flour a 9 inch by 9 inch pan.

Mix: 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. Set aside.

Beat: 3 oz. cream cheese (softened) and 1/4 cup sugar. Add 1 egg. Stir in: 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp almond (or other) extract and 1/3 cup of your favorite flavored non-chocolate chips. Set aside.

Mix: 1/2 cup carob powder and 1/2 cup melted margarine or butter Add: 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs (beaten) and 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the above and pour half the combination until it covers the bottom of the pan. Pour the cream cheese filling on top and then the remaining carob mixture. Use a spoon to swirl the colors together and bake 40 minutes or until a knife in the center comes out clean. Cut into squares.

You no longer have to deny yourself the rich, yummy and addictive flavor of chocolate.

by Linda Murdock

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