Healthy Twinkies?????
What comes to mind when you think of unhealthy foods?
Right away, I picture two things: Big Macs and Twinkies. While the latter is certainly not the most unhealthy food in existence (Hello double doughnut bacon cheeseburgers!), Twinkies have earned a bad rap thanks to their high sugar content, long list of artificial ingredients, and their creepy ability to stay fresh for 100 years.
(As it turns out, that last point is just an urban legend. Twinkies don’t really last 100 years.)
During the Great Twinkie Shortage of 2012 (It has a name… Who knew!), when Hostess declared bankruptcy and stopped producing Twinkies, I thought it might be fun to create a healthier recipe for homemade Twinkies. Paying homage to the original Twinkies—which were filled with banana cream until the US rationed bananas during WWII—I’ve opted for a banana-flavored filling in these homemade and healthy Twinkies.
You can easily make them banana-free if you prefer.
Homemade Healthy Twinkies
(makes 8)
- 1 cup spelt or all-purpose flour (130g)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup xylitol or sugar of choice (60g)
- 1/16 tsp pure stevia, or 2 extra tbsp sugar of choice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp vegetable or coconut oil (30g)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- 2/3 cup milk of choice (160g)
Homemade Healthy Twinkies Recipe: Preheat oven to 300 degrees F, and grease a canoe pan if you have one. (For Twinkies without a canoe pan: Shape tin foil, double folded for sturdiness, into 8 canoe-shaped wells. Lightly grease the insides of each well, and position on a baking tray.) In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir very well. Whisk all liquid ingredients in a separate bowl, then pour wet into dry and stir until just evenly mixed. Immediately portion into the molds. Bake 16 minutes, then take out of the oven and let sit 5 minutes before removing from the molds. Let cool completely before filling.
Filling: (Feel free to fill with something else, such as Suzanne’s Ricemellow Crème, if you can’t have nuts.)
- 1 cup raw cashews or macadamia nuts (120g)
- 1 banana (omit for a banana-free version)
- pinch salt
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- pinch stevia extract, or 2 tbsp sweetener of choice (liquid or granulated both work here)
- milk of choice as needed, to achieve a pastry-cream texture
In a cereal bowl, cover the nuts with water and let sit at least 3 hours (no longer than 8). Drain completely, then combine all ingredients in a Vita-Mix or a good food processor (adding a little milk of choice until the correct consistency is reached – you’ll need more if omitting the banana and/or if using a dry sweetener). Blend until very smooth and creamy, occasionally scraping down the sides if using a food processor. To fill the homemade Twinkies, poke three holes in the bottom of each, using a chopstick or the non-pronged end of a fork, and move the instrument around inside the pastry to make room for the filling. Pipe filling into the healthy Twinkies with a pastry bag, or a plastic bag with a tiny portion of one of the edges cut off, or the filling injector that comes with a canoe pan.
View Healthy Twinkies Calories and Nutrition
Question of the Day:
What are some of the unhealthiest foods you can think of?
There are always Cheesecake Factory desserts… and the Wendy’s Triple Baconator (as scary as the name implies)… There’s also a casserole recipe making the rounds on Pinterest that consists of nothing more than tater tots, ground beef, bacon, cream of something soup, and three different types of cheese. Not a green vegetable in sight. You look at something like that and it’s no wonder modern society is plagued with so many health problems.
Link Of The Day:
Oh wow, I remember my sister and I used to get these awful little individual cakes at the store. They looked like frogs. They were basically a teeny, tiny little chocolate cake rounds piled super high with loads and loads of BRIGHT GREEN frosting formed into the shape of a frog’s head- picture Kermit, not an actual frog. The eyes were made with yet more frosting– bright red lines around white and black circles. Those things were a mother’s nightmare, and even though my sister and I didn’t care for the taste so much, we couldn’t resist those darn sugar bombs.
Wow! I tend to feel like I’m going into a diabetic coma (even though I’m not diabetic or even close) when I think about twinkles. But these I would consider making – without the bananas. Who would want to make these with anything other than your pastry creme recipe? To me it sounds absolutely wonderful. It’s really nice to know that one can have something like Twinkies in an edible form!
These look great!
Oh Katie, oh this awesome, you are awesome, I loved twinkies, what is a canoe pan, i suppose i could look it up. Unhealthiest food, “Bastard – Flavored Bastards w/ Bastard Filling”? Hahaha I kid, I kid. Probably deep fried snickers, have had one but they sound sooo good.
I hadn’t even heard of Twinkies until recently but I have now learned they seem to be a staple US sweet! These look adorable and remind me of jam rolls that they make in England – rolled up cakes stuffed with jam, or cream, or both. So I guess you could easily use this recipe and use jam as the filling instead! They look adorable. You’re so good at making small finicky things look pretty, I would just make a mess!
What if oat flour was used in place of spelt? Would it work just the same?
Hi, Katie. I was wondering, why do you choose to use spelt flour in so many of your recipes? I know whole wheat and white flour can be easily substituted, but I am curious as to your reasoning behind using this somewhat strange flour.
Hi Jen, I’m not Katie, but I know spelt flour is supposed to be a lot healthier than white flour, but also much “lighter” than whole wheat, which can make baked goods too dense. Also, while spelt still contains gluten, some people with gluten sensitivities find it easier to digest than other flours (not sure if that’s necessarily one of the reasons Katie uses it, though.)
Yes, thank you, that makes sense. I was considering trying it myself.
If you ever read Wheat Belly it would make a lot more sense. Wheat in the States is said to be mutated (there are actually studies on nutrients in all produce now compared to 50 years ago) from the wheat grown many moons ago. As the demand for wheat went up, farmers were forced to harvest earlier and earlier thus changing how wheat grows now. Spelt is closer to those ancient forms of wheat… Hence why it is easier to digest.
Oh my gosh, what a great idea! I just love it!
To tell you the truth, I have never had a twinkie. But I could try your recipe and see how it tastes. I know people even make fried twinkies.
Have a great week!
this is just fun 🙂