it's not easter without chocolate!

By Fiona Kirk

Easter just ‘aint Easter unless it’s ‘chocolatey’, sweet, sugary and over-indulgent!

A wander through the supermarket aisles this week confirms that ‘big time’. And I mean BIG. Have you seen the size of some of those chocolate Easter eggs produced by the ‘big boys’ (Cadbury’s, Nestle etc)? Now, I don’t want to sound ‘hard done to’ but when I was young, they were about a quarter of the size, the only additional treats were a few chocolates inside the egg (not full-size bars displayed somewhat grossly around the main player in moulded plastic) and most of us got ONE chocolate egg on Easter Sunday. Other treats included boiling eggs till they were rock-hard, painting them with watery paint and rolling them down big hills (you never have to go far in Scotland to find a big hill!) and sometimes (dependent on good behaviour) there were toasted hot cross buns with melting butter for tea!

If that were currently the full ‘indulgent’ picture of Easter today, I would just say ‘go for it’! But sadly, the norm is for kids to receive eggs from various members of the family, not to mention friends and the chat now is not ‘which’ Easter egg you got, but ‘how many’ you got. Then there are all those ‘mini’ eggs that decorate shelves from early February and find their way into lunch boxes for many weeks before Easter is even on the horizon.

So, can Easter be ‘positively healthy’? Probably not! But there are certainly a few tricks you can employ to ease the ‘sugar load’.

There is no point in trying to pretend that the sugary, fatty, milky stuff that overtakes the shelves at this time of year has any health benefits – many of us call ourselves ‘chocoholics’ but it’s really that very ‘sugary/fatty’ taste we are hooked on. Wean yourself (and your children if you possibly can) onto some really, really good 70% or more cocoa solids dark chocolate - Green + Blacks, Divine and James Chocolates (John Lewis stores) are easy to find and be happy in the knowledge that you are enjoying some health benefits.

Chocolate

Raw chocolate (cacao) is extremely rich in antioxidants and contains protein, fats, calcium, iron and a host of flavanoids. Once it is turned into a ‘candy bar’ a number of the nutrients are cooked out of it but a truckload of studies that have been done over recent years prove that ‘good’ (70% or more) chocolate still has a host of health benefits when consumed in small amounts (think one of those VERY small bars of Green + Blacks dark chocolate you see at the checkout!) But how often do the food police ‘big up’ the health benefits of something that we all knew to be ‘bad for us’! So the answer this Easter is to attack the Easter egg with confidence remembering all of the above! And if you want to really push the boat out Harvey Nichols are selling a solid Valrhona chocolate egg covered in a kilo of golden leaf made by the illustrious French ‘Maison du Chocolat’ for a mere £550 – they only made five of them, so you best move fast to beat the rush!

Hot Cross Buns

sorry, delicious I know but too sugary and fatty to make the ‘Positively Healthy Easter’ list and although Simnel Cake is seriously rich in dried fruits and marzipan which is rich in almonds, I don’t think you can produce a really tasty version without a barrel-load of sugar. But, how about cupcakes? They are seriously ‘now’ – cupcake shops are opening daily and I reckon its time for an ‘Easter Cupcake’ and to keep the sugar and fat low, my suggestion is a Carrot Cupcake sweetened naturally with carrots, dried fruit and unsweetened apple puree and topped with quark (low fat cream cheese) and honey. It ticks all the boxes, trust me AND if you get a bit artistic with the topping, it looks fabulously ‘eastery’. Here’s the recipe:-

Carrot Cupcakes

Cupcake Mixture
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup grated carrot
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 1/4 cup chopped dates
1 tsp. allspice
1 1/3 cup water
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup apple puree (‘Organix’ or ‘Clearspring’)
paper cupcakes

Topping
1 tub/carton quark + organic runny honey

Place the carrots, dates, raisins, water, apple puree, cinnamon, cloves and allspice in a saucepan. Bring to a boil & simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Cool. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add cooled carrot mixture to flour mixture. Mix thoroughly. Pour batter into paper cupcakes and bake in the middle of a 350 degrees farenheit oven for 30-35 minutes (keep an eye on them and don’t let the tops brown). When they are cool, mix the quark with honey till you get a spreadable consistency (a bit like hummus), spread on top of the cupcakes and decorate (swirls or grated carrot, slivers of apple, flaked toasted almonds or ‘mini’ eggs - well it is Easter after all!)