I love me something sweet. Sure, every now and again I get a craving for a packet of super salty crips (Pom Bear Lover 4EVZ), but more often than not it’s something heavy on the sugar that I’m feeling. To keep the urge the sneak out the shops and grab a chocolate bar every hour on the hour at bay, I like to make sure that I have some home-cooked sweet treats on hand that aren’t exactly healthy, but are healthier alternatives for what I fancy. I’ve found that these recipes tend to include similar ingredients so if you’ve got some dates, nuts and coconut butter on hand then you’re pretty much sorted. Here are five of my favourites…
Zanna Van Dijk’s Apple Cinnamon Bake. I like to make Zanna’s recipe in little muffin cases as I find that it’s the easiest way to serve them, but these are great as a mid-afternoon snack. I’m a sucker for anything of the cinnamon and apple variety so these really hit the spot and are so easy to make too with very little prep or fancy ingredients required.
Madeleine Shaw’s The Ultimate Gluten Free Choc Chip Cookies. Oh my word. I LOVE these cookies. I’ve tried a million and one cookie recipes and this is my favourite. Deliciously chewy with just the right amount of crunch; I make these in a food processor which means that they’re very easy to rustle up and there’s little washing up involved. I have tried these with a flaxseed ‘egg’ (1 TBSP flaxseed and 2 ½ TBSP water) and they still held up pretty well with just a bit less chew in the texture.
Minimalist Baker’s Refined Sugar Free Black Bean Turtle Brownies. These are great for an after-dinner, dessert treat. I like them best warmed up, served with some form of ice cream and then dug into with a fork because the texture is nice and crumbly. I can’t quite believe that the base for these is black beans?! MAD. I use black beans all the time when I make veggie burgers, but now I throw ’em in my brownie mixes too.
Livia’s Kitchen Snickers Slab. This is probably the most complex of all the recipes, but it’s well worth the faff and also gives your food processor a nice spin. A crumbly biscuit base, with a peanut caramel centre and then a solid chocolate top – these are so good that even Mark sniffs them out if there’s a box of them in the cupboard.
Madeleine Shaw’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Cake. You might recognise this recipe because it’s one that I’ve harped on about before. Personally I like to roll the mixture up into balls instead of serving it like a cake as I find that it makes a chocolatey peanut butter bite that’s great to chow down on before or after a workout. They’re so good than even my friends ask if there’s any going spare in the fridge when they come over.
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