Dessert recipes w/out refined flour/sugar?

JanetinVirginia

So I eat healthy diet - organic, very little red meat (maybe once every week or two), lots of cruiciferous veggies, fruit, etc. etc.  But I'm having a hard time revamping "dessert" & finding recipes without refined white flour or refined sugar.  I have exactly one recipe for brownies - no flour or refined sugar.  But that's it.

Have any dessert recipes to share or cookbook recommendations - esp cake (I don't care much about frosting - I scrape that off anyway) - just a good cake recipe?

Here is a really simple brownie recipe - I guarantee you'll think they are regular brownies.

1 15oz can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

3 eggs

1/3 c melted butter (I use little less)

1/4 c cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 c honey or agave

1/2 c chocolate chips

1/3 c chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350.  Spray 8x8 pan.  Place all ingredients (except walnuts & choc chips) into food processor.  Blend until smoot.  Stir in chips & walnuts).  Bake 30-35 min.

timerdog

I am going to try your brownies tomorrow! I am trying to cut out sugar and white flour as well. If I know of a dessert I will post it for you. I read the "Anti Cancer " book and it made a lot of sense to me. I am a huge dessert person so this can be a treat for me now and again.

Racy

Hi JanetinVirginia



Thanks for the recipe. I made this today and it was so easy and quick, as well as healthy and tasty :-) . I added a few raisins to the mix.

AmyIsStrong

I thought chickpeas were a no no for us ER+ women since it is a phytoestrogen.  I love hummus but rarely eat it now for that reason. Your thoughts?

sweetbean

Everything that I have read about phytoestrogens from recent studies is that they are a good thing for us.  They are just estrogenic enough to fool the cancer cells and bind to the receptors, but too weak to actually feed it.  I have been eating an organic hummus sandwich every single day and have seen massive shrinkage of my tumor.  I eat zero sugar/refined flour/processed foods.  Very little meat.  No dairy.  Mostly veggies and fish, with a few protein smoothies thrown in.  And nuts.  Lots of almonds!  But as for phytoestrogens, they seem fine to me.

AmyIsStrong

That is fascinating! Thanks so much for replying, Sweetbean. I will not worry about the hummus. I do eat flaxmeal every morning and that is a phytoestrogen also, but for some reason I worried about the chickpeas more.

What's your take on soy? I stopped tofu also. Never used soymilk but I DID eat a TON of processed soy - those ground beef substitute 'crumbles,' soy burgers every day for lunch (for years) and soy protein powder in shakes. No more of that now.  

Racy

These issues are confusing, I know.

However, chick peas are included as a protein source as part of the anticancer shopping list at the end of Dr Servan-Schreiber's book, Anti cancer a new way of life. Also, in Foods that Fight Cancer by Drs Beliveau and Gingras it says that chick peas contain a very small amount - 0.1 mg per 100 grams of isoflavone, which is the questionable ingredient in soy. (I used 500 grams when making the brownies so the isoflavone content of the entire batch would only be 0.5 milligrams.)  

There is a whole chapter in this latter book on soy and I need to re-read it several times to fully understand all sides of the argument. It does also state however that 'Polyphenols... (of which isoflavones are a class)... are present in many other plants and vegetables, in chick peas, for example, but only in soybeans do they exist in the necessary amounts to be of real nutritional value'. (Or not if you take the counter position of isoflavones being harmful.)

I am not a medical or scientific person so hope I have interpreted this information correctly. In any case, I highly recommend the two books I mentioned.

JanetinVirginia

This really helps.  I'm not up to speed on phytoestrogens at all!  I know for the brownie recipe you can  also use black beans instead of chickpeas.

I found a cake recipe, but haven't tried it yet.  It is made with beans too so it sounds dense.  Substituting flour is the hard part - I'm getting pretty good at agave instead of sugar and in some recipes  maple syrup.   I'm going to experiment some and see if I can substitute oat flour instead of white flour.  Seems like that should work.  I just really love a moist fluffy cake   My daughter says just pulverize oatmeal into flour.

AnewBeginning

Would wheat flour be a healthy substitute for white flour in cake recipe?

Racy

AnewBeginning

yes, I think whole wheat flour would be healthier than white but may not be healthy enough for someone wishing to reduce intake of all wheat.  There are other types of flour available apart from wheat; they have them at my local organic store, eg spelt, rice etc.  I am not sure how suitable they are for cooking but I will ask or just try some.The ones I have seen seem to be plain, not self raising.  Again, I will ask questions and let you know. 

sweetbean

AmyIsStrong,

I am not a huge fan of soy, so i wasn't eating much of it anyway.  There is an article on the www.lifeovercancerblog.com called "Soy, Let's be Breast Friends Again!"  (Very corny title, but interesting article. 

KSkier

@JanetinVirginia: I pulverize oatmeal into flour in my food-processor.  I've been afraid to use this for all the flour called for in a recipe, but do about 1/2 in everything.  Last night we served carrot cake at my three-year-old's b'day party:  1/2 the flour was oat, and I only used half the sugar called for and twice the carrots.  mmm....

mdg

These look good.  I do them with black beans.....recipe in my cooking blog link below.  I am experimenting with baking with whole wheat pastry flour, whole wheat flour, oat bran, rolled oats (I grind them in the food processor), etc....  I also use honey or agave for sweetener - no sugars.  The brownies are not bad...even my 4 year old asked for some in his packed lunch today!  (Score!!!  If the 4 year old will eat them I am happy and know they are not bad!!!!)

sdstarfish

I made up a recipe for flourless mint chocolate brownies. Instead of flour, cashew butter is used. I make them with crushed organic candy canes on top, but you could leave those off. There is also an optional frosting that goes on top

You might also like my recipes for peanutbutter and jelly cookies and pistachio shortbread cookies

Hope you like them

Lisa

Roselinda

Brownie looks good thanks for sharing.

I am going to try this tomorrow

cooking with whole foods