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:
right before the twinkie shortage i bought a box on a whim(i never eat them) and decided to test their mythical freshness. one in the wrapper and one out, the one exposed to the air got dry, but nothing else, and the one in the wrapper is (scarily) still fresh as the day i put it on the shelf
I’ve never been a fan of Twinkies, but my family loves them so maybe I need to make these for them!
Here in Minnesota, that casserole is called tator tot hotdish. Except people do add green beans and/or corn and some use cream of mushroom instead of cream of chicken.
Apparently there is such a thing as fried butter. That just sounds apalling.
The unhealthiest foods I can think of are stuff that’s deep fried and the items they serve at the Heart Attack Grill.
I find that I prefer the taste of the desserts and recipes you post over the less healthy versions.
I never have tried a twinkie before. I’ll be sure to make this and share it with the others i live with.
Someone seriously needs to shut that restaurant down. Free meals if you weigh over, what, 280? 300-something? I think that’s more apalling than people worrying and arguing about who wants to eat chicken or not.
THANK YOU !!! This recipe was a life saver. I had to make a gluten free girl fit in this week and I found your recipe for homemade twinkies. I made it with gluten free flour and it was actually a moist fluffy little cake that was easy to fill. That’s usually unheard of for gluten free baking but the coconut oil made it so spongy and light. This recipe rocks and you made a gluten free 5 year old very happy this week! No one looked at her plate and wondered why she was eating something different. Her twinkie”hotdog” looked just like all the other kids. THANKS AGAIN!
This made me smile. Thank you so much for trying it!
I am fortunate enough to have eaten Twinkies and other Hostess products when they contained real food. Twinkies were my fave, then the cupcakes and then the Snowballs. But I haven’t eaten them in decades simply because no longer contain real food and are full of chemicals. But to find a version that can possibly taste great and is healthy too is fantastic. And the recipe is easily adaptable to using totally organic products. Thanks bunches!
Twinkies were one of my favorite Hostess treats and now I can have them again!!!! Can’t wait to make these 🙂
If your going to comment, comment with positive productive comments. You went to this website, if you don’t like it, you know what to do, you have options. Why waste space with your negative opinions? Just saying. The author of this site chose not to delete negative comments. Keep up the good word Katie! Love the spin you put on the recipes.
I think the two sides of this argument are both completely valid, and neither side is more right than the other! Yes, some meat producers can be inhumane, but many can be completely humane and cruelty free. Meat can be part of someone’s diet or it can not be, and no-one should be judged nor criticised for what they act on or what they do or don’t eat. So the casserole can be a ‘special occasion’ food- because life is better when everything is in moderation and control. So there should never be a ‘never’ food, no matter what’s in it. Sure, vitamins and stuff come from red meat, but you can be completely healthy without them. There are completely valid points for both sides of the argument, so it’s completely a personal choice. And everyone has a right to say their opinion, just nicely so no-one gets offended.
What does the banana serve as in the filling, I’m not allergic but I have a ready made cream cheese frosting but just curious as to what will I get from the banana?
Hi Katie. I was wondering how many calories were in your filling for the Twinkies. Thanks!