Healthy Chocolate Tahini Spread Recipe

For all that I promote healthy eating on my blog, I'll admit, I do like having indulgences... even if sometimes I'll regret them afterward. That's why recipes like this are so terrific- I get to have "junk" that is actually nutritious and healthy- all the pleasure, none of the guilt. This is a recipe I got from my friend, Deborah, and it is really awesome and delicious. I use it as a spread for sandwiches, as a topping for rice cakes, to dip fruit in, or just even eat it by the spoonful when no one is looking...

The biggest reason, aside for taste, that this chocolate spread recipe is a favorite of mine is because it has carbs, fat, and protein, which make it a terrific energy booster when I'm feeling I need a perk me up. And that is exactly why it's become part of my go-to breakfasts.
It's also got all that calcium in it because of the sesame, which is something terrific for someone like myself who is currently off dairy.

Healthy Chocolate Spread Recipe

Ingredients:
0.25 cup water
0.5 cup cocoa powder
1.5- 1.75 cups honey, date honey, or any other healthy liquid sweetener (maple syrup and agave nectar would likely work as well)
1 kg/ 35 oz of tahini/sesame paste. I use sesame paste made from unhulled sesame seeds as it is more nutritious, and whose ingredients are only sesame. You can use regular hulled/white sesame tahini, provided it is pure sesame as well with no other ingredients.

Instructions:

1. Mix water with honey and bring to a boil.

2. Add cocoa powder and mix very well.

3. Turn off flame.

4. Mix the tahini, ensuring it didn't settle.

5. Pour tahini in a slow stream into the cocoa/honey mixture, mixing it as you're adding it. It will get thicker and thicker as you pour in and mix in more.

6. Put the chocolate spread into a container and refrigerate. It will harden somewhat as it cools, so make sure to transfer it to the container when its warm and easier to transfer.

7. Use on sandwiches, as a dip for fruit or pretzels, or as in my picture above, as the spread of an open faced rice cake sandwich topped with fresh fruit like nectarines.

Note- if you find your chocolate spread recipe hardens too much in the refrigerator and gets too thick, mix a little more water into it to thin it out to a spreadable consistency.

Enjoy!!!

Do you think you'd make this recipe? Does it seem like something you'd enjoy? Would you consider such a spread a treat, a nutritious breakfast, somewhere between the two, etc?

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