From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

Ingredients:

• 3.52 oz. bar of Toblerone. If you can’t eat Toblerone, then use either regular chocolate or a dairy-free chocolate
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1-2 tsp. of your favorite liqueur or ½ tsp. vanilla or almond extract.

Directions:

1. In a microwave safe bowl, heat ¼ cup of cream until hot (about 30-40 seconds).

2. Remove Toblerone from paper and foil wrapping and break up into pieces. Stir into hot cream and leave for 2 minutes. Stir again and microwave as necessary so chocolate melts. With Toblerone, there will still be bits due to nuts and nougat in chocolate. Stir in liqueur or extract.

3. Let chocolate mix cool for 10-20 minutes. It will thicken slightly.

4. Whisk remaining ¼ cup of cream until stiff, then gently whisk melted chocolate mix into cream mix. Pour into two pretty glasses and chill. You can also use pretty tea cups or custard cups. Serve as is or topped with more whipped cream and strawberries.

Tips and Alternatives: To save time, make this recipe the night before Valentine’s Day.

For dairy-free: Use dairy-free chocolate and whatever cream substitute you like to melt the chocolate. Increase liquid for melting. Whisk one egg white until stiff and then fold into chocolate mix once cooled.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

Ingredients:

Cake

• 2 oz. soft, room temperature butter or butter substitute
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• ½ cup Oonagh’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix
• ¼ cup almond meal/almond flour (If you can’t have nuts, just use the flour mix)
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• Slightly rounded ½ cup pitted chopped dates.
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 3/8 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Sauce

• ½ stick butter
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup cream
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans or other nuts (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. rum or other alcohol you can tolerate (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put dates in heat proof bowl and pour boiling water over them. Add vanilla extract and baking soda.

2. Cream butter and sugar together until fairly light, creamy and fluffy.

3. Slowly beat in egg, then beat mixture well.

4. Combine gluten-free flour mix, almond meal, salt and baking powder and carefully fold into butter mix. Don’t over mix; it will still look dry and floury.

5. Gently fold date and liquid into mix. It will now look sloppy and lumpy, not like a normal cake batter. Don’t worry.

6. Grease 6 ramekins or custard cups (6 oz. each), then use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to divide batter up among the ramekins.

7. Place ramekins on baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes. They will look light and fluffy, but might sink in the middle. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

8. While cakes are cooking, prepare the sauce. Melt butter, then stir in brown sugar, cream and nuts. Simmer until sugar is melted and sauce starts bubbling and looking toffeeish. Only a few minutes. Add rum and simmer for 1 minute.

9. Turn cakes out onto plates and cover with sauce. If you leave them to absorb the sauce for ½ hour, they are even better. Then you just pop them back into oven or microwave to make them warm from the oven again.

Tips and Alternatives:

Do not attempt to use 4 ramekins and overfill them with batter. The cakes will spill over as they cook.

The cakes freeze well and can last in the fridge for a few days.

From Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

Ingredients:

• 6 Tbsp. soft butter – use solid butter substitute for dairy free; do not use an oil.
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ¾ cup almond flour or almond meal
• Pinch of salt
• ½ tsp. almond extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat butter, sugar, almonds, salt and extract together to a soft, sticky, paste-like consistency.
3. Use a cupcake pan and put 2 tbsp. in each of 8 cupcake holes. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. (You will see a lot of melted butter around the tarts as they cook.)
4. Remove from oven, press down the dough to start forming a hollow with walls. Cook for further 5-10 minutes depending on oven. They will be golden brown around edges but can still be pale in middle.
5. Cool in pan so they harden a little, but do not let them go cold as they harden and shatter when you try to remove them from pan.
6. Serve topped with whipped cream or chocolate ganache and fruit. Or, follow the instruction below for Irish Cream Filling.

Irish Cream Filling
Ingredients:

• ½ cup heavy or whipping cream
• 1/2 cup gluten-free semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 to 4 Tbsp. Irish cream or other liqueur

Directions:

1. Heat cream in microwave safe bowl until very hot but not boiling over.
2. Stir in chocolate, allow to melt, stir well and microwave more if chocolate isn’t smooth enough.
3. Add alcohol and refrigerate for several hours until stiffer than set jello pudding.
4. Either just spoon chocolate into tarts or whisk until stiff and pipe into tarts. Whisking turns chocolate a lighter color. Piped chocolate will set up stiffer with refrigeration. Tarts stay stable even if filled earlier in the day and refrigerated.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

Ingredients:

• 3 squares (3 oz.) unsweetened chocolate or 70% dark chocolate
• 3 cups 2% milk
• 3 tbsp. cornstarch
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate and 2 ½ cups of the milk together in a 6-8 cup microwave safe bowl.

2. Mix together sugar, cornstarch and salt in a separate bowl and stir in remaining ½ cup of milk to make a smooth mix.

3. Whisk milk/sugar mix into milk/chocolate mix.

4. Microwave for three cycles of 2 minutes each, stirring with a whisk in between. Then microwave for three cycles of 1 minute a piece, whisking each time until the mixture is bubbling. Time will vary with power of microwave. The bowl will be hot and heavy, so be careful with lifting in and out to stir and taste test mixture.

5. Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla. Pour into ramekins or martini glasses. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Tips and Alternatives:

I have made this pudding with refrigerated almond milk and with a combination of almond and coconut milks – both with dairy-free and gluten-free semi-sweet chocolate. When using semi-sweet chocolate, I decreased the chocolate to 1/2 cup. I found the flavor to be thinner than with dairy milk and chocolate, but my students were happy.

I have also used the refrigerated gluten-free vanilla and hazelnut creamers. They gave an excellent flavor. I then poured cooked hazelnut chocolate custard into a hazelnut crust following the same recipe as the pecan crust I use for my Chocolate Pecan Indulgence.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

Makes about 28 cookies.

Gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free, and can be easily made lactose or dairy-free.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup certified gluten-free rolled oats, ground in food processor to flour consistency
• ½ cup Oonagh’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar (not packed)
• 1 cup certified gluten-free oats, chopped in food processor to consistency of quick cooking oats. Leave unchopped for a crunchier cookie.
• ¼ tsp. xanthan gum
• 2 tbsp. maple syrup or honey
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1+1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or dairy-free substitute, melted
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Combine the oat flour, Oonagh’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix, chopped oats, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and sugar in a bowl.

2. Heat butter and syrup gently in the microwave until the butter melts and the syrup becomes liquid. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and baking soda.

3. Add syrup mixture to the dry ingredient mix and stir thoroughly to combine. Mixture will come together as you stir it.

4. Using a 1 tbsp. measure, scoop mix at least one inch apart on lined cookie sheet. It will be crumbly, so tidy scoops of dough back into mounds on baking sheet. Flatten slightly with fingers. You can sprinkle with regular sugar for crunchier, sweeter finish.

5. Bake in 325 degree oven for about 15-18 minutes. Cookies should be golden, not dark brown.

6. Allow to cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack.

Tips & Alternatives:

The raw mix will stiffen as it sits, so work quickly if you don’t have enough baking sheets.

Drizzle the cookies with melted semi-sweet or milk chocolate once they have cooled.

Think about substituting ¼ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, coconut flakes or chopped nuts for ¼ cup of chopped oats. Or sandwich two cookies around frosting or buttercream.

If you do not flatten the cookies, then cook for 20+ minutes. They will not be as crispy when cooled.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick (2 oz.) very soft butter
• ½ cup (4 oz.) sugar
• 2 large eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup (4 oz.) of almond meal
• 1/2 tsp. gluten-free baking powder
• 2 tsp. gluten-free almond extract
• Topping: powdered sugar, ¼ to ½ cup sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat until well blended and fluffy, about 1 minute. Mix will go lighter in color as you beat it.
3. Spread mix in greased and gluten-free floured 8” x 8” cake pan. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.
4. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes until well-risen, golden brown and set but still soft in the middle. The texture should be similar to rolls of almond paste when cut, but cooked throughout.
5. Remove from oven, serve warm or cold, sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Raspberry Sauce
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 x 12 oz. bag of frozen raspberries
• ½ cup. sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• ½ cup seedless raspberry jam or jelly for extra “oomph” of flavor

Directions:

1. Melt sugar and water together, add raspberries, and simmer for just a few minutes. Stir in raspberry jam until it melts. Depending on ripeness of raspberries and your personal taste, you might want to add more sugar.