Healthy Chocolate Fondant

It might seem like an oxymoron, using healthy and chocolate fondant in the same sentence, but once you get into the swing of it you can make almost any dessert healthy by substituting a few key ingredients.

Before I give you the recipe, this is good to time talk about what makes a dessert healthy.

Eating healthy is about giving your body nourishing foods that it can recognise, process and use. It’s not about counting calories. Diet coke has zero calories, but if you drink it because you think you’re doing your waistline a favour, please stop. You’re not.

Wholefoods are natural, unrefined foods that the body can easily break down into the nutrients that it needs to function. On paper meat is a wholefood – it comes from animals, and what could be more natural? However, once it’s been through our modern treatment and packaging process, it more often than not comes out the other side full of hormones and unpronounceable additives that the body doesn’t recognise or need. It’s the same with grains and vegetables. What should be naturally occurring foods grown in the ground are now mass produced to meet demand, meaning their molecular structure is tampered with in order to make them grow faster, sweeter or greener. It’s the product of overpopulation and human greed and it’s not going away anytime soon.

To combat this, many people are choosing organic or buying their food directly from trusted sources, such as farms. However, it can be difficult to know which brands to trust – and I’ll talk more about that in another post.

But as far as healthy eating goes, you should be aiming for wholefoods to give your body the best chance to use what you’re putting into it. Eating empty calories, which you get from junk food and processed food loaded with preservatives, doesn’t nourish your body. It just clogs your system and leads to weight gain and a variety of health complications.

In the case of desserts, when we compare a standard fondant recipe with a healthy one, we can easily see why our bodies respond so much better to the healthy version.

Normal fondant ingredients

• caster sugar – no nutrional value, spikes blood sugar which causes cravings and overeating
• plain white flour – no nutrional value, converts to sugar in the blood and reacts as per caster sugar above
• cocoa powder – cocoa beans roasted at high temperatures which destroys enzymes and lowers nutritional value, often packaged and sold with additives
• eggs
• butter – high in saturated fats and cholesterol
• baking powder
• vanilla essence – uses unrecognisable chemicals to recreate vanilla flavour
• double cream to serve – high in saturated fats and cholesterol

Healthy fondant ingredients

• raw honey – naturally occuring lower GI sweetener that is high in nutrional value
• macadamia nut or almond flour – natural source of protein & fibre and high in unsaturated fats
• cacao – cold pressed, unroasted cocoa beans that retain all the nutrional value of raw chocolate
• eggs
• almond milk – nutritious cholesterol free dairy alternative
• baking powder
• cinnamon – high in antioxidants
• vanilla extract – real vanilla flavour extracted from vanilla bean
• peanut butter to serve – high in protein and unsaturated fats

The wholefoods in the healthy recipe nourish your body while you indulge your sweet tooth. The ingredients in the normal recipe fill your body with empty calories, many of which it can’t or won’t use.

Here’s the whole recipe – this is one of my favourite desserts I’ve ever made! Enjoy.

Healthy Chocolate Fondant

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp macadamia or almond flour
• 2 tbsp cacao powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp almond milk (or other milk of choice)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp raw honey
• 2 tbsp peanut butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 160°.
2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and use a fork or whisk to combine until there are no clumps and mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Spoon mixture into two small lightly greased ovenproof bowls.
4. Spoon 1 tbsp of peanut butter into the middle of each bowl.
5. Place in oven and cook for 10-12 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Serve immediately with fresh berries

Tip: When you’re whisking the ingredients, try and whisk for at least 5 minutes to incorporate the most air. This will give your fondants that light, fluffy texture.