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.
Awesome! I’ve been looking forward to this post. You are so funny, you cracked me up!
Banana soft serve is a wonderful thing, and it’s been around in raw food circles for at least a decade. I’ve served it to very conventional eaters (including my dad, who is impossible) and they’ve loved it. So no it’s not ice cream, but yes it is a wonderful dessert.
I really admire your attitude about enjoying life and eating dessert. I wrote a post recently about placebo/nocebo where attitudes toward food heavily influence how that food affects you–nocebo (harmful) as well as placebo (good) (with the exception of genuine allergies, of course).
I made black bean brownies and thought they were delicious and fudgy, no beaniness discernible. But I haven’t eaten a regular brownie in who knows how long–I can’t–and Phil didn’t like the texture as much (he wants ditto foods). So I honestly don’t know if you would love them, and it sounds like you have recipes that you do love. So depends whether you feel like the adventure of it. Maybe just don’t call them ‘brownies.’ My tip would be that they come out better if you use baking chocolate than if you use cocoa powder.
One more thought: I want to agree with you on the importance of enjoyment (and love how respectfully you state your position): however, when someone’s actually allergic to something, it’s wonderful to be able to recreate it. I just posted about our ‘comfort foods’ party for memorial day: I made cardamom rice pudding, which was my favorite food in the world but the dairy made me sick. I made it with coconut milk instead of dairy, and it was heavenly–and everyone else loved it too. I also had a gluten free chocolate chip cookie that someone else made. I felt so grateful that it’s possible to replicate–and still be plenty decadent!
Can’t believe you’re already heading back to SD–enjoy the rest of your time in Aruba!
love
Ela
glad you enjoyed the post and thanks for the insightful comment back…you’re the best.
All your treats look so good! I want to try them all! Haha
I really like healthify-ing desserts. :D I’ve never tried beans in dessert, though!
Some healthified things have NOT turned out so great though ;)
I recently tried making a batch of Katie’s bean based blondies, and they were good, but not really ‘dessert’ material. Not very sweet and I could sort of taste the beans…I did swap out the regular sugar for brown rice syrup, so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or not. I usually sub agave or brown rice syrup with great success. Anyway, I hear you about not wanting to waste time or ingredients though. I ended up eating them as more of a breakfast item with some almond butter spread on top. So, not a total waste!
Hey Katelyn! I saw your comment on my post too, and thought I’d just answer you here :).
Brown rice syrup is actually less sweet than regular sugar or agave, so you need more to get the same amount of sweetness.
But almond butter can make anything taste good, right? ;)
I’ve never tried beans in desserts…just avocados once in brownies and you really can’t taste it. So i’m guessing that when using beans, especially a more mild tasting one, there shouldn’t be any bean flavor to it at all. I bet it would give the dessert a more ‘moist’ (sorry, i know you don’t like that word!) or dense texture. But if anyone can pull it off, it’ll be you! All your desserts always look wonderful!
I LOVE beans, but in desserts I can’t stand them. I really, really, really tried to like black bean brownies and the cookie dough dips made from beans. But I just can’t. They just aren’t good! I’d much rather have “real” dessert. Although banana soft serve is one of my favorites! It may not be “ice cream” but then neither is frozen yogurt and neither is sorbet, it’s just a different dessert. Still yummy!
Basically it boils down to “beans belong in salads not desserts.”
Hmmm, I haven’t tried any of the beans-in-desserts recipes except for “dessert hummus,” which I actually like quite a bit. I do enjoy healthier dessert type things (like Deb’s protein muffins), but if I want a “real” dessert, I want something that’s balls to the wall, not something healthified.
I want to go to Aruba!
Loved this post! I haven’t jumped on the healthy dessert bandwagon, and don’t plan to. I do use some “healthy” flours (almond, coconut, etc.) because I don’t eat gluten, and I do favor alternative sweeteners over plain old sugar (there’s no proof they’re healthier, so this is admittedly a preference), but that’s as far as it goes. I don’t insist that everything I put in my mouth be “healthy” from a nutritional standpoint. I do, however, insist that everything I eat be delicious. If veggies are food for the body, then brownies are food for the soul. And I’m all about soul nourishment. So I’ll take my sweet and fudgey gluten free brownies over black bean brownies, any day.
I’m right there with you – there is a reason it’s called ‘dessert’, because it shouldn’t be consumed in the masses! When I was doing my dessert class, I was like – ‘these are healthy because of the pure ingredients – BUT, that doesn’t mean you should be eating raw brownies for every meal!’ Some people got it, others didn’t. It’s kind of my gripe in regards to the raw food movement, because everyone seems to think that raw desserts are OK to consume 24/7… ?? Not so much. The sugar is natural, but it still spikes your blood sugar. Just saying… :)
Well, I must admit that I’m happ for my first batch of black bean “brownies” to have turned out yummy and totally un-beany! ;) I have a severe sugar sensitivity, so having dessert *and* being healthy doesn’t work for me as long as the dessert contains sugar or flour. I need to stay away from them and make protein a priotrity. But I envy you a little. ;)
I’m with a lot of the other commenters- I’m all for everything in moderation! I like little treats in my life! They help make my world go round :) But sometimes I like “healthifying” up desserts too. I have tried black bean brownies…they don’t taste like brownies. They’re not bad…they’re just not brownies haha.
I’ve tried black bean brownies an they sucked big time. I even had a couple other people try them and yeah, no dice. I’ll never do it again, no matter how many times people say they work.
I healthify desserts that I know I will be eating a lot of, like cookies. But if I am making them for a treat or other people – full sugar and fat all the way!
Haha, I’m guilty of making cookie dough hummus. And in my defense it was good! But not the best thing ever, although I’m sure a vitamix would have improved on that a little. Plus, the kids devoured it. Other than that I know what you mean. I made black bean brownies once. Ew, is all I will say. Some desserts I like to healthify and some I don’t. I just can’t eat decadent desserts every day or else I turn into a dessert eating monster and that’s all I eat all day. So for every day treats I healthify things but every once in a while I need a good, full of butter and sugar treat.
Beans in dessert? Hadn’t heard of that before. Although, I have made a pizza crust with chick pea flour. It worked better as a brushetta type dish though.
I do try to healthify some desserts, but not all. Sometimes the extent of making them “healthy” is replacing the sugar with honey, or using nut milk instead of actual dairy. Of course, we hardly have any sugar or dairy in the house on a regular basis, so it is easier for me to just make dessert with I have on hand. Christmas is the exception. I go on a baking frenzy and use up a lot of sugar.
Beans the magical fruit: LOL! I think that every time we use them in a recipe ;)
I am not a HUGE dessert person, but when I do eat dessert I Eat Dessert! :D
I think my justification for these? I eat a couple for my first breakfast, before my workout. They are perfect! I cut the recipe in half the first time, for the very reasons you say, I don’t like to waste food or time at all! Now I make half batches all the time, and it is (an small amount) of time well spent!
I know us bloggers are known for some weird combinations, and I also know some of the things I like are not for everybody. I appreciate that, AND your honesty, and… I will MAKE you one if we ever meet! :D
Your goodies, Christin’s, Katie’s, Evan’s….you guys have all made it all look so good…that’s why I have thought about trying them!
I’ll take you up on your offer if we meet :)
I once made the mistake of attempting to make brownies with a can of black beans; that was over a year ago and my husband STILL won’t let me live it down. They were AWFUL!
I’m all for “healthifying” desserts every now and then, but I too am a little leery about adding beans. Plus, there really is never anything to take the place of a fully decadent dessert :)
ok thank you for lmk that report from the field!