A Sneaky Chocolate Dessert

Hi, friends! We're back to Monday. Did you have a good weekend? Ours was pretty social, which is a nice change from the past few weekends. I brought a sneaky dessert to a friend's on Friday night, which I'll tell you about in two paragraphs.

There was also a donut sale at our church for the Appalachia Service Project. A group of teens and adult leaders (John being one) is going to rural Kentucky for a week this summer to help rebuild houses and build community. They raised about $1,500 this weekend (woo hoo)! Through April 8, 2012 10% of all sales from my Etsy shop will be donated to the Appalachia Service Project.

So back to my sneakiness. On Friday, we went to a friend's party. I volunteered to bring a dessert, but didn't think about the timing of everything. There was no time during the week to prep, so I was left with 45 minutes between getting home from work and leaving our house for the party. Therefore, I wanted to make something fast, no-bake, healthy, and reasonably priced. 

Good thing I remembered this recipe from last year. After a quick stop at the grocery store on my way home from work, I was ready to go. I threw all the ingredients in the food processor, sliced some apples, and we were out the door.

I served the bowl of chocolate dip with the apples and didn't tell anybody what was in there, besides Nutella. One guy literally pulled up a chair to the dip and went to town with apple slices, crackers, maybe even a spoon.

So what was the secret healthy ingredient?

Garbanzo beans! I made a dessert hummus and people ate it up! The Cupcake Project "frosted" gluten-free cupcakes with her chocolate hummus. We were having pizza for dinner that night, so I wanted something lighter, like apples. This hummus would also be perfect to bring as an afternoon work snack!

The original recipe called for honey, but we were all out. Instead, I substituted maple syrup. If I make the recipe again (a strong possibility), I'd like to try it with honey.

And thankfully Stef made the side note that "if you use Nutella or another product with lots of added sugar, your end result will be sweeter than [the original recipe] and, depending on your personal taste preferences, you may need to cut back on the honey." My hummus seemed pretty sweet without adding any honey or syrup, so I only added a little maple syrup to make the dip a little creamier.

Do you ever sneak healthy ingredients into your recipes?

Sneaky Chocolate Hummus
Adapted from the Cupcake Project

Ingredients
1 can (14 oz) garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1/2 cup Nutella
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Honey or maple syrup, to taste (I used about 1 Tablespoon)

Directions
Put the garbanzo beans, Nutella, and brown sugar in a food processor.

Pulse until it's as smooth as you can get it. Scrape down the bowl occassionaly.

Add honey or maple syrup, to taste. This will sweeten the hummus and help make it creamier. Pulse the food processor a few more times.

Store hummus in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to enjoy with fruit, graham crackers, pitas, cupcakes, or a spoon :)
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