I don’t know about you, but I have trouble keeping my hands off the Halloween candy. I have trouble before Halloween, when it’s stashed in the bag on top of the fridge. I have trouble after Halloween, when it’s in my kids’ rooms awaiting consumption at a prescribed rate of one piece per day. I no longer have the metabolism (or the conscience) to indulge in stolen Snickers bars more than once or twice a year, but they continue to obsess me. So what’s a mom to do?
Though I’d love to be able to cut out sugars altogether, I’ve never been good at abstinence. Fortunately, while pondering this problem, I remembered the “truffles” my friend Vickie brought to me at work recently. Vickie eats gluten-free and vegan, so she’s a wellspring of wisdom for anyone seeking alternative snacks. These didn’t disappoint. Dense and fudgy, they took the edge off my after-lunch craving for sweets. And because they were full of protein and good fats, they left me satisfied.
I begged the recipe off her. She obliged, also sending a link to a recipe for vegan brownies. In a move that was either insane or brilliant, I tested both after eating supper at Gus’s. They were easy enough to make with a fried chicken hangover and quick enough to make on a whim. But when my older son, who knows I frown on stealth vegetables, saw me dumping black beans and pumpkin purée into the food processor, he winced. “That’s not some Sneaky Chef thing, is it?” I replied that I was doing it right in front of him, so how sneaky could it be?
Solly, my younger son, didn’t seem to mind the legumes as he licked the bowl. The only objection came from my husband, who avoids sugar. He perversely wanted the brownies to be sweeter. However, after eating a couple of them and a truffle or two, I felt thoroughly sugared up, though not as filled with self-loathing as I might after a York Peppermint Patty binge. As a bonus, rolling the truffles exposed my hands to copious amounts of coconut oil. So making them doubled as a spa treatment, right? I plan to keep a batch of each around to get us — kids and parents — through jack-o’-lantern season. If all goes according to plan, we’ll head into November heart-healthy and well-moisturized.
Vickie’s Truffles
Dreamstime
Makes about 16 balls
Ingredients
2 cups raw unsalted cashews
¼ cup raw cacao powder
⅓ cup raw honey
¼ cup unrefined coconut oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Optional coatings: cinnamon (2 tbsp), almond flour (¼ cup or so), or coconut flakes (½ cup or so)
Directions
Line a sheet pan with waxed paper or a dozen or so mini-muffin papers. Place optional coating on a plate nearby. Combine all but optional ingredients till smooth and then shape into 1-1½” orbs, rolling each in whichever you’re using — almond flour,cinnamon, or coconut — to lightly cover before placing on waxed paper or in mini muffin papers. Freeze for 10 minutes. Remove from freezer and refrigerate.
Non-Sneaky Pumpkin-Black Bean Brownies
Dreamstime
Adapted from Ceara’s Kitchen (cearaskitchen.com)
Makes 12
Ingredients
1 cup oats (quick or rolled; use gluten-free oats if needed)
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1½ tsp instant coffee powder (optional; I left it out because the last thing my kids need is caffeine)
3 cups black beans (canned or cooked soft), rinsed well and drained
1 tbsp vanilla extract
⅔ cup maple syrup, agave syrup, or honey
¼ cup melted coconut oil
¼ cup pumpkin purée
6 tbsp cocoa powder
Optional mix-ins
¼ cup walnuts, chopped (I skipped these so my kids could take them to their nut-free school)
¼ cup dark chocolate chunks or chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x9 brownie pan with coconut oil. In a food processor, pulse the oats until they’re a coarse flour. Blend in the baking soda and sea salt.
Shake any remaining water from the black beans. Add instant coffee (optional), beans, and remaining ingredients to food processor. Blend until all the ingredients are creamy and smooth and the oats are almost undetectable in the batter. Pulse the chocolate chunks and walnuts very briefly into the batter in the food processor. Don’t over-process. Spread the thick, sticky batter in pan with a damp spatula.
Bake for 15-20 minutes and leave to cool for 5 minutes in the pan before slicing and serving. They’re done when the surface is dry and beginning to crack and the sides are pulling away from the pan.
To restore fudginess, reheat later for 30 seconds in the microwave.