After I posted the Vanilla Banana Avocado Ice Cream recipe…
…I got to thinking about “healthifying” desserts. You know, calling something “ice cream” when really it’s blended bananas and avocado.
Did I just healthify something by making “ice cream” out of bananas and avocado?
If so, I take no great pleasure in that.
Why not?
Most people love it when they find out a dessert is healthy. I do to, but I don’t care if it isn’t healthy, either.
I believe that desserts are desserts; they don’t need to be healthy: they’re dessert. Which is inherently not really “healthy” and that’s okay with me.
I posted recently that I believe one can eat desserts (daily) and still live a “healthy” lifestyle and be healthy and balanced.
I know that’s it’s common among many food bloggers to put bananas into a food processor and call that “ice cream”. I’ve done it. Gena’s to blame. In the best possible way, of course. She called frozen bananas banana softserve way back when.
And I’ve done a whole series of softserve variations (all in my dessert recipes)
Vegan Peanut Butter Softserve anyone?
It’s sure thick like ice cream
And it does taste wonderful! Not sure it’s “ice cream” but it’s a frozen treat. I like treats.
And then there’s the other trend of beans in desserts.
Some people put garbanzo beans into chickpeas and call them “blondies”.
I like my White Chocolate Blondies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting a whole lot.
Full fat, fully decadent, fully amazing. No beans in sight.
Katie has a recipe for Chocolate Chip Blondies. They look awesome, but I’m scared they’ll taste bean-ey!
Some bloggers put black beans into brownies and call them “black bean brownies”.
I like my Fudgy Nutella Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting
No beans. Just pure, unadulterated dense, sweet, fudgey-ness. The best and richest brownies I’ve ever eaten.
Lately I’ve seen hummus or chickpeas in cookie dough all over the place.
Christin has a recipe for Baked Dessert Hummus Balls in case you’re curious.
And Spabettie made Christin’s recipe
And Evan has Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Dessert Hummus
All that sounds great…
But…
…I’ll stick with my Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Still “healthy” and vegan and gluten free, but no beans.
Why haven’t I tried these “healthy” or “healthified” desserts?
Frankly I am scared!
I’m scared to waste good cocoa powder, sugar, agave, or other ingredients if the recipe doesn’t live up to my expectations. And they’re high.
Not to mention, time and energy are precious commodities and I haven’t those to waste, either.
I hate throwing away food from recipes that I am not pleased with and I hate wasting cooking time, energy, and money on ingredients only to wind up with a meh result.
So, I’m on the fence about the adding beans to desserts. Like I mentioned, I believe one can eat desserts and be healthy and balanced.
But everyone’s recipes who I linked look so good! So when I get back to San Diego, maybe some beans in desserts will happen. You never know.
I also believe that healthy desserts can and do taste amazing and can be totally decadent! My raw vegan chocolate mousse comes to mind. Healthy doesn’t have to “taste healthy”.
I have the utmost respect for everyone’s recipes, creations, and food choices; whether they’re “healthy” or not, bean-ey or not, and where he or she falls on the spectrum of what he or she chooses to eat. We all have our own path and preferences in life and food and I have respect for everyone’s ability to choose what’s best for her.
From my last post, it was interesting hearing what wild animals are in your area. But it was a whole lot more fun reading about if you consider yourself a wild child or not.
Questions
1. What are your thoughts on beans in desserts? Have you tried any bean-ey desserts?
As I said, I’m scared to waste time, money, and energy because I don’t want to “taste the beans”.
Twist my arm. Tell me you’ve made something with beans in it that’s dessert-ey and you love it!
2. What are your thoughts on “healthifying” desserts? Do you try? Do you care?
No, I don’t try or care.
I actually almost go over the top the other direction to make things as sinfully rich and decadent as possible.
Desserts are treats, extras, and should be treated as such. It’s just not worth my chew to have something less than 100% decadent. I’d rather not have it at all and don’t care if it’s not considered healthy. Life is short, enjoy dessert is my motto.
Anyone want a piece of fudge?
It’s vegan & GF, though!
3. Yay or nay: “Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot?”
Yay!
With that happy thought, I hope to enjoy the beach for one more day!
I’m savoring the last bits of Aruba before we head home.
I wasted a whole batch of ingredients on black bean brownies…and they made a huge mess too. Disgusting!
I’m with you—desserts are meant to be indulgent! I do like to use high quality unprocessed ingredients whenever it’s reasonable to, but I don’t try to cut fat or sugar—I just try to use better quality versions of it.
I went through a phase of trying to name things “mock” anything….So instead of making “tuna” out of chickpeas…I just called it Chickpea Surprise. So banana ice cream? I think Banana Soft Serve is the best name…it may have some connotations related to ice cream, but it is wonderful in its own right! Like with anything, there must be balance between being realistic and enjoying life! Food allergies do get in the way of my sweet tooth…for sure!
I’m not in the whole bean craze in general–they make me feel icky!
Enjoy your day!
thanks for lmk about the Black Bean Brownie flop and yes, naming things “cute-sy” names or trying to name it something it wasnt…in the early days of my blog I tried to do that (Reading too many raw cookbooks who had a mock everything…) and now, no. I just name it what it is. That way google searches can find it too.
Thanks for lmk about the SFSButter in your brownies. I had to go back and re-read the comment. It never got emailed to me? Almost missed it! Glad i didnt :) Lmk if you try that recipe with full on SFSButter b/c I want to do that version!
I have tried beans in cookies and blondies. Both actually came out great. They are for sure different than the “normal” ones but still tasty. I think there is a place for both “healthified” and “regular” desserts. Finding the balance is key.
I totally think that you should healthify desserts, but only if you enjoy them! – i make an awesome black bean chocolate cake, which tastes better than regular chocolate cake, and i could literally eat half the cake if i wanted because it’s pretty darn good for you too :)
I love it if something is unintentionally “healthy” in the dessert department…you cake sounds awesome!
I’m really excited to try the beans in dessert trend- I’ve had several Chinese pastries with red-bean paste in the middle, and it was really enjoyable… It’s cool that it’ll add fiber/ protein, but honestly, I’m mostly just curious… Usually the things that sound the strangest end up tasting the best to me! :)
I totally agree with the not wanting to waste precious ingredients if you happen to make a flop dessert. I would like to make desserts healthier, but I like when other people do it first, then I can follow their recipes – whether they flopped to get there or not! I think you look amazing and that’s one reason why I want healthier desserts – I don’t think my body looks amazing enough for me to appreciate it (bad, I know).
Maybe my solution should be to give up desserts, but that may not work either – so healthier dessert options it is!
Well you know I could taste the beans in those blondies, but Jason swears up and down that he can’t taste them and doesn’t care! So maybe some people really can’t taste the beans.
I still think you could come up with some really good variations of the bean desserts — and seriously if you add enough sugar I’m sure you’d love them!
I forgot to link your post in this and was thinking about it after I set my auto self timer publishing feature but yes, I remember you vs. jason’s review on them!
oh i love the idea of beans in desserts! the idea of throwing in a little extra fiber punch when all it does is add to the thick and moistness of the dessert…sure go right ahead!
I made chickpea blondies once that were FABULOUS! so so good!
I can say they don’t taste beany, but if you’re worried you can always add extra sweetener :-)
enough sweetener (or cocoa powder) ALWAYS saves the day, right? :)
i don’t really care to healthify {sp?} desserts. but at the same time, if it happens to be healthy, then wonderful!!, i won’t complain to that either ;) treasure your last moments on vacation ;)
bises ~ kristina
https://beancakes.wordpress.com/
I think beans in desserts are stupid. Yes, stupid. People are trying to add fiber and protein to a brownie. Just eat a stinkin’ brownie and save the beans for another meal. A real brownie won’t do any harm.
I love your passionate comment and your honesty!
I’m with ya on the beans debate. No beans near my dessert! I’m going to have to be truly convinced (even bribed) to try a beany dessert!!
Yeah, some of those bean brownies do look darn good in the photos!
But I have never gotten around to trying to make them.
If I want chocolate, I want chocolate!
I totally agree with you on this post…sometimes I get so annoyed with my friends who freak out over eating a bite of brownie I just wanted to eat a whole cake in front of them just to spite them.
On the other hand, one of my favorite ice cream is actually red bean ice cream! I had this a lot when I was growing up in Hong Kong. You don’t taste the beans because red beans are tiny and mild in flavor. You might be able to find them in Asian (particularly Japanese) food stores. https://japaneseicecream.blogspot.com/2008/08/simple-japanese-red-bean-ice-cream.html
Let me know if you decide to try it!!
I’ve done black bean bronwnies before, and I can’t lie – they weren’t that good. I think chickpeas in baked goods would be great. I know there’s blondies recipes floating out there right now with chickkpeas in them!
thanks for lmk about your black bean brownies experience.
Hrmm, I enjoy both healthy and not so healthy desserts – depending on my mood really. Regarding CCK snickerdoodle bean-blondie, I made it using stevia and the raw dough taste so “oh my freaking god” good, but I don’t like the baked version much, it tasted “bean-y” when baked, whilst the middle bit is moist and dense, it doesn’t taste the same as the fudgy and buttery centre of a ‘real’ blondie, if you get what I mean. :)
Oh a side story, tried a certain fat free black bean brownie a while back, I chucked the whole batch away, it tasted like a bean slab, it makes me wonder if that person has ever tried a real brownie before. haha!
thank you for the very honest reviews…including the last sentence. I am lol’ing!
I’m with you–somewhat. I definitely eat a little dessert everyday. Bad habit, maybe but it’s all part of my moderation policy. I don’t add black beans to brownies or any of those other weird things. Kinda scared it will mess things up and I hate to waste it, like you.
However, I don’t go for REALLY rich, over-the-top desserts either. Makes me feel kinda sick when I eat too much. Guess I’m back to moderation. Give me real banana pudding with real vanilla wafers (maybe even homemade shortbread cookies) but I like the pudding part made with skim or 1% just as much as whole milk. As long as it’s from scratch, it’s all better than a commercial mix.
dessert every day is not a bad habit in my book :)
“real banana pudding with real vanilla wafers”—that sounds like my childhood and my grandma’s cooking…yum!