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Healthy Chocolate Crackle Christmas Trees

December 12, 2013 | Holidays & Entertaining

Healthy Chocolate Crackle Christmas trees

These Healthy Chocolate Crackle Christmas trees are a simple, nourishing Christmas inspired treat. I was inspired to make these at my sons Prep party day. I saw one of the mums from another class carrying a pretty chocolate tower and I couldn’t help but enquire what it was. She said it was a chocolate crackle Xmas tree. Now I’m not a fan of accumulating too much cooking stuff, so I was thrilled to hear that she used a piece of cardboard, shaped into a cone and then lined with baking paper for the mould.

I make healthy chocolate crackles for my kids parties, so I knew right away what I would do. But loving to experiment as I do, I also whipped up a grain free version too. I’m thrilled to share these with you. I hope you enjoy them !

Health benefits

Made with puffed whole grains as opposed to the sugar ladened commercial rice bubbles, these make a guilt free treat. The coconut and coconut oil are super healthy for reasons I’ve written about here. The grain free version is a great source of protein and healthy fats.

Take a look at the variations (below the main recipe) for suggestions to alter the recipe to suit many specific dietary requirements.

Healthy Chocolate Crackle Christmas Trees

Prep 15 minutes
Cook 5 minutes
Total 40 minutes
Serves: 1 high tree
Healthy Chocolate Crackle Christmas trees
ADD TO FAVORITESADDED TO FAVORITES
5 from 1 vote
This Chocolate Crackle Christmas Trees looks tricky to make, though it's anything but.There's no special mould needed (it's quick and easy to make your own) and it's an impressive Christmas inspired treat.

Ingredients

  • 100 ml coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoons rice malt syrup or maple syrup (more or less to taste, I used rice syrup)
  • ¼ cup desiccated coconut (optional)
  • 2-3 tablespoons cacao (more cacao will make it more chocolatey)
  • 2 cups puffed grain I used puffed brown rice but it would work with millet, quinoa or activated buckwheat (or a mix).  See variations below for grain-free.
Prevent your screen from going dark

Method

  • Over a gentle heat, warm the coconut oil and syrup until combined. Mix in the cacao powder. Now combine this with the puffed grain and coconut (or nut variation below).
  • To make your mould, roll a piece of thin card into a cone shape and stick together. Line this with baking paper and wrap a piece of foil around the tip of the cone (to stop any oil leaking out).
  • Now spoon the mixture into the cone. Every couple of tablespoons, I packed the mixture down into the mould using the end of a wet rolling pin.
  • Once done, lay on its side in the freezer until set (15 minutes or so).
  • Remove the card and baking paper, decorate with berries and cherries and serve immediately (or store in the fridge until ready to eat).

Variations

Grain-free

Replace the puffed grain with the same amount of toasted almond flakes or another chopped nut or seed.

Low-fructose

Use rice malt syrup to sweeten.

Coconut-free

Replace the coconut oil with raw cacao butter and omit the desiccated coconut.

Make it minty

Add peppermint essence or essential oil for a peppermint chocolate treat.

Tip

Let your kids break them apart (like you would a Ginger bread house) to eat - messy but fun!!
 

I'd love for you to spread the Christmas cheer and share this with a friend!

 
Course: Dessert

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Category: Holidays & Entertaining Tags: chocolate, chocolatecrackle, christmas, coconutfree, cornfree, dairyfree, dessert, eggfree, familyfood, garlicfree, glutenfree, grainfree, legumefree, lowfructose, lowsugar, nutfree, onionfree, seafoodfree, sesamefree, soyfree, sweet, treat, vegetarian, wheatfree, yeastfree

Reader Interactions

19 Comments

Post a comment
  1. Kerri says

    I make this recipe a lot and I love this idea but it wouldn’t last 5 mins on a Qld Christmas Day 🙁

    November 29, 2014
    Reply
    • Georgia Harding says

      Ha ha – yes like any ‘crackle’ even the traditional type, they don’t hold up well out of the fridge. Last Christmas Day I made a couple of these (and it was a really hot day – I’m also in QLD). I served them straight from the freezer and they were fine for about half an hour or so. The kids had a good go at them and then I popped what was left back in the fridge looking a lot less pretty than it did to start with. They finished it off Boxing Day! G x

      November 29, 2014
      Reply
  2. Jane says

    How do you serve it though?

    November 29, 2014
    Reply
    • Georgia Harding says

      I made two big ones last Christmas day (grain and grain free) and I just sliced bits off. You could also make individual little cones or even just use the mix in little cups like regular ‘crackles.’ (this is what I do for b’day parties).

      The lady I was inspired by at last years school party had hers in one big cone in the school fridge, and bought it out just as the party started. The mum just served it up to the kids on napkins, G x

      November 29, 2014
      Reply
  3. Kristy @ Loulou Zoo says

    Hello Georgia, these look great! I think I recall reading something on your site about limiting puffed grains as they aren’t that great for you (but ok as a treat, like Christmas!), am I right? I make a chocolate crackle as well but I remember reading something you posted and it made me stop making them..so I wanted to check! Thank you so much 🙂

    December 19, 2014
    Reply
    • Georgia Harding says

      Yes Kristy, I am quite wary of puffed or extruded grains (wrote about them in my ebook). So Xmas, sometimes birthdays is the only time I use them (or I mostly make the ‘grain free’ tree) if no one has nut allergies. So yep. you’re spot on. Merry Christmas G x

      December 19, 2014
      Reply
      • Kristy @ Loulou Zoo says

        Oh great thank you Georgia – I was wondering whether I was dreaming or not! Thank you so much for the reply. You have a lovely Christmas too x

        December 19, 2014
        Reply
  4. Peanut Head says

    what a grew idea – thanks for sharing

    December 19, 2014
    Reply
  5. Lina Fidanza says

    Fabulous. What a great recipe. Thank you for sharing. Have 2 little “cones”, and a few cupcake papers as well, in freezer. Looking forward to serving them up on Christmas Day.

    December 21, 2014
    Reply
  6. Georgia Harding says

    You’re welcome G x

    December 22, 2014
    Reply
  7. Wendy says

    5 stars
    I made this today as a slice using puffed millet. Both kids loved it (eldest child incredibly fussy and hardly likes anything, so this was a huge success). Such a quick and simple recipe – thank you.

    December 14, 2019
    Reply
    • Georgia Harding says

      Fabulous – so glad they were a success Wendy. Thanks for the 5 star rating too, G x

      December 15, 2019
      Reply
  8. Alex Kofler says

    Hi Georgia, I remember a post from a while back about extruded grains being toxic. Are there different types of these puffed grains where some are okay?

    November 13, 2020
    Reply
    • Georgia Harding says

      Yes Alex they are certainly not ideal (they are heavily processed). In the case of this recipe, it’s treat/ celebration food. You can do better (grain-free version is the best option here) but you could do a lot worse too (insert the 50 ingredient gingerbread houses at the supermarket) ?

      November 14, 2020
      Reply
  9. Tish says

    Where can I find the article on puffed rice please?

    December 5, 2020
    Reply
    • Georgia Harding says

      Weston Price writes about it a lot https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-foods/dirty-secrets-of-the-food-processing-industry/

      December 6, 2020
      Reply
  10. Zulfaa says

    Hi, I’ve just made this using Buckwheat puffs and because the puffs are soft to begin with (first time trying them so not sure if they are meant to be soft?) the crackle is soft and chewy. Is there a better grain or non grain that will replicate the same crunch as rice bubbles?
    Other then that, flavour is spot on.
    Thanks

    December 13, 2020
    Reply
    • Georgia Harding says

      I find puffed wholegrains are never as crunchy as the processed ones sorry. I also find the weather affects these – if it’s humid or rainy (lots of moisture in the air) they don’t retain as much crunch. Keep them in the freezer can help too (cold dry air) or the fridge. Glad you enjoyed the flavour G x

      December 14, 2020
      Reply
      • Zulfaa says

        Thanks for the reply Georgia. Yes, the humidity makes sense. We live in PNG so humid all year round – and most things don’t keep well. My freezer is fully packed with dry goods, haha.

        December 15, 2020
        Reply

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