Mexican Chocolate Chewies – delicious and gluten free too!
The “Callaghan Across America” tour continues to make its way West across the country. Since my last blog we have been to Clarkston MI, Frankfort IL, Chicago IL, Louisville KY, Nashville TN, Columbia MO, Lawrence KS, Manhattan KS, Bentonville AR, Eureka Springs AR, Dallas TX, Austin TX, Houston TX, – then a seriously long drive across 3 states to get to Tucson AZ, and last night in Las Vegas NV!
You can see lots of fun photos from the road over on my Callaghan Across America album on Facebook.
The shows have been going great and we’ve been seeing many weird and wonderful things on the road.
One of the great things about touring this way, i’ve discovered, is the food! Usually at regular shows we end up eating a lot of fried and quite unhealthy food, but the house shows are full of delicious home cooked food. I thought id share a couple of my favourites from the tour so far. Because I have such a sweet tooth, naturally I had to start with a dessert!
Mexican Chocolate Chewies
This recipe was given to me by the host of the concert in Austin TX. They are made with deliciously dark cocoa powder and no flour so they are surprisingly light, gluten free, and completely irresistible!
Ingredients:
2 cups pecans, roughly chopped
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (King Arthur’s Black Cocoa powder works really well to give a deep chocolatey flavour)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp chipotle chile powder (we used 1/2 tsp and it tasted very good!)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
King Arthur Black Cocoa
Steps:
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
While the oven is heating, arrange the chopped pecans in a skillet (frying pan) or on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 5 minutes or until they’ve turned darker brown (but not black) and smell fragrant.
Mix roasted pecans with the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, chipotle chile powder and salt.
Stir the egg whites (no need to whisk them first) into the dry mixture until the batter is well mixed. Stir in the vanilla extract and chocolate chips.
Drop tablespoons of the batter on the baking sheet an inch apart, as the cookies will spread while baking. Bake for 15 minutes or until you see cracks on the surface.
Remove sheet from oven, lift parchment paper with the cookies still on it, off the baking sheet and cool on a rack. Allow cookies to cool for 20 minutes before removing from the paper as they’re very delicate.
They will keep for a few days in an airtight container.
Original recipe taken from The Homesick Texan Cookbook by Lisa Fain
Brits and Grits 