AuburnChick's Adventures

Are you singing the jingle in your head?

heehee

As a vegan who’s, conveniently, been lactose-intolerant for twenty two years, I miss out on a lot of treats.  Sure, my waistline is grateful; however, my taste buds are not.

One of the things I remember from my childhood is eating Klondike Bars during the summer…during the winter…whenever we had them, quite honestly.

Well, I haven’t had one of these in years and years.  I mysteriously became lactose-intolerant when I was twenty four years old and about seven months pregnant with Rooster.  Overnight, I found myself unable to eat ice cream.

It was with quite a bit of excitement when I came across a recipe for Healthy Klondike Bars on Instagram.  I follow a gal named Detoxinista.  She has a blog where she posts health-conscious recipes…many of which are vegan.

The list of ingredients was rather small; I had nearly everything I needed except for the raw cashews, which the Mr. picked up at Publix for me yesterday.

I soaked the cashews, as directed by the recipe, while the Mr. and I lounged at the pool.

Then, I got busy mixing the “ice cream” batter and placed it in a loaf pan.

The batter wouldn’t be ready until later in the night, so I waited until today to finish the bars.

I melted my coconut oil for the chocolate topping out in the sun.  I figured I might as well take advantage of the summer heat.

I had an oopsy when I poured cold maple syrup into the coconut oil/cocoa powder mixture.  The chocolate seized up on me.  Shame on me.  I’ve been watching Food Network like crazy and had seen home cooks make the same mistake.

Thank goodness I’m sort-of smart.

I took the bowl back outside, and it didn’t even take a full minute before the chocolate had warmed up and was silky smooth.

The Pioneer Woman better watch out!  Auburnchick is fast approaching her skill level.

heehee

Popping the loaf out of the pan wasn’t exactly as easy as I’d hoped, probably because I’d accidentally spilled some of the batter outside of the paper between it and the pan, and then it froze, sticking the paper to the pan.

Sheesh.  I can make anything difficult.

Then, it was time for the messy part.  I cut the loaf into eight parts and got ready to add the chocolate topping.

According to Detoxinista’s blog and the comments that followed (because I tend to overthink and over-research everything), a spoon was the best utensil to use to apply the chocolate.  It would otherwise seize up (ahem) and freeze when it touched the loaf.  There went my idea of dipping the blocks in it.

The spoon, though, was not easy.  Ugh.

Then, I had an idea.

I pulled out my little brush…the one I use to oil my cooking pans…and dipped it in the chocolate.  Then, I “painted” the chocolate onto my bars.

This worked okay.  I figured out that I really needed to dab the chocolate because the bristles of the brush were starting to freeze up with chunks of chocolate.

Go ahead and admire my French manicure.  I did it myself last night.

Booya!

Anyhoo, when I finished with the tops and sides of the blocks, I turned them over and covered the bottoms and filled in the spots I’d missed.

Then, I set everything on a plate lined with parchment, took a picture of my not-so-pretty and definitely not-so-even bars, and set them in the freezer.

The aftermath looked bad, but it was a snap to clean up because most of the chocolate was on the paper.

Biting into the “Klondike” Bar…oh my.

What would this lactose-intolerant vegan do for a Klondike Bar?

Why, she’d make a stomachache-free version of it herself!

Filed under: Vegan | Tagged: Detoxinista, Klondike Bar, vegan |