From healthy to sinful, recipes for World Chocolate Day

For time-crunched cooks, the best kind of recipes have five ingredients and take no longer than 30 minutes. Food blogger Mish Sen, who believes in fuss-free cooking and is working on a book of Indian recipes for novice cooks, shares three chocolate recipes with Lounge.

No-bake energy balls

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

Two-third cup peanut butter

Half cup flax seeds

Half cup dark chocolate chips

3 tbsp honey or maple syrup

Method:

Mix all the ingredients well.

Refrigerate for 10 mins.

Then take the mixture out of the fridge. Divide it into laddoo-sized portions and use your hands to roll them into balls.

You can store them in the fridge for 5-7 days.

Note: You can use ground flax seeds as well. Some say that it’s easier to digest. And if you find sprouted ground flax seeds, even better.

Chocolate Bark

1 packet cream cracker or saltine biscuits

230 gms or 2 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

113 gms semi sweet chocolate chips

To garnish (optional)

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

1 tbsp crush mint

Method

Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Place cream cracker or saltine biscuits on it.

In a vessel, melt butter and sugar till the mixture boils.

Now, pour the mixture over the crackers evenly.

Bake for 10 minutes ( 350F or 180C).

Take the butter-infused crackers out of the oven. Sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate chips over them. Let the chocolate melt. Avoid touching.

Spread the chocolate evenly with a spatula.

Top with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. You can top with crush mints too. Or, leave out the toppings. Store in an airtight container.

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

1 box Oreo cookies, crushed

225 gms cream cheese

300 gms white chocolate chips

150 gms semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

Crush the Oreos in a blender.

Mix with softened cream cheese and make a dough.

Divide the mixture, roll it into balls and freeze for 20 minutes.

Melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave in 30 seconds increments.

Dip frozen oreo truffle in the white chocolate to coat them.

Melt semi sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave in 30 seconds increments.

Drizzle over the truffles.

Freeze for 15 minutes and they are ready to be gobbled.