Chef Wendell: Chocolate Samoas
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Got a date for the big game? Naturally high in the magnesium, juicy, sweet dates are gaining popularity as a quick, healthy snack, or incorporated into desserts. Obtaining adequate magnesium through diet, supplements, or both can both prevent and reverse heart disease. Here’s a sweet treat that will have everyone cheering.
1st segment: All about dates nutritional profile. Featuring widespread magnesium deficiency. Making and shaping dough.
2nd segment: Preparing chocolate sauce for dipping. Finished product.
No pill is going to cure your ills! “Mother nature spent billions of years perfecting her healing and health-sustaining garden apothecary.” — Chef Wendell
· Some estimates suggest over 90% of Americans are magnesium deficient.
· Deficiency symptoms: heart disease, high blood pressure, arrhythmia, dizziness, ED, fatigue, anxiety and panic attacks.
· The Journal of Intensive Care Medicine indicated long-term magnesium deficiency makes you twice (2X) as likely to die as other people.
· A 10-year study found low magnesium levels contributed more to heart disease than did cholesterol or even saturated fat.
· Getting adequate magnesium through diet and supplements can both prevent heart disease in most people and reverse heart disease
· Anti-inflammatory
· Reduces blood pressure
· Reduced stroke risk (The Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
· Magnesium is in dark chocolate, dates, avocados, nuts and seeds, beans, bananas.
· Fiber, potassium, magnesium, B6, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, iron.
Dates are great for:
· Weight loss
· Relieving constipation, supporting regular bowel movements.
· Prevent hemorrhoids, reducing colitis risk, and prevent colon cancer
· Lowers blood pressure
· Promoting heart health and reduce heart disease risk.
· Treating Iron-deficiency anemia
· Impotence? Magnesium can improve ED.
· Promoting respiratory health
· Treating chronic arthritis
Chocolate Samoas:
- 1 cup pitted medjool dates
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ½ cup ground flax seeds-fiber and omega-3
- Pinch of Himalayan salt
- Food processor
Chocolate dipping sauce:
- 1/3 cup ‘dark’ chocolate (chips or a chopped bar)
- 1/2 tsp. unrefined coconut oil
- Double-boiler
- Whisk
· Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Spread shredded coconut onto a baking sheet for toasting. Place in oven for 5-10 minutes, until coconut is a light golden-brown color.
· Please stay in the kitchen to watch the coconut, as it can quickly go from toasted to burnt. Or toast the coconut in a pan on the stove-top.
· Add dates and toasted coconut into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until mixture is combined and starts to form a ball of dough.
· Remove from food processor; roll 1 tablespoon size pieces of dough into a ball and then shape into a round cookie.
· Place all cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment and transfer to the freezer to harden up a bit.
Chocolate Sauce:
Unlike grocery syrups and sauces full of corn syrup, emulsifiers, and refined sugar, this sauce has vitamins and antioxidants.
- While cookies are in the freezer, add chocolate and coconut oil to a double boiler over medium heat, and melt increments until chocolate is thin enough to drizzle.
- Remove cookies from the freezer and dip / coat each one in the chocolate. Place cookies on the parchment. Transfer cookies back into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to let the chocolate firm up.
- Once hardened it’ll be easy removing cookies from the parchment paper. If you want to enjoy right away, let them sit out on the counter for a few minutes.
- Store sealed in a container in the fridge for up to one week.