the dessert defense

so, i have a confession.  i eat dessert.  for breakfast.  a lot.  but honestly, i've gotten to a point where i feel like it's alright, no scratch that, it's best if i let my crazy little breakfast brain have what it wants.  if i'm really in the mood for something, there's no sense in depriving myself and feeling sad and cranky about the many cakes/pastries/treats that could have been.  food is supposed to taste awesome and make you feel good.  so why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone and make an effort to eat food that does both?  it really is possible...all you need is a little creativity, quality ingredients, and some good inspiration.  a solid blender wouldn't hurt either...i'm kind of in the middle of a love affair with mine since the big purchase a few months ago.  *swoon*  but i digress.  bottom line is this: i've kind of come to realize that there's no sense in following some strict diet or weird code of eating ethic with myself that feels like punishment.  i'm driven by reward.  sweet, gooey, cakey, chocolatey, crunchy, spicy reward.  but there IS a way to treat myself sensibly so that i'm still fueling my body with the things it craves nutritionally in addition to the treats in question.  knowing that i'm doing both feels doubley good.  that's why when i wake up with some absurd craving for pudding, chocolate, dumplings, AND pie all at once, i decide what the hell?  let's give it a go.

it's a bird!  it's a plane!  it's...hmmm...a little bit of everything?

cocoa pudding stuffed dumpling pies
ohhh yeah...
makes about 2 mini dumpling pies

preheat your oven to 375 and start to make your cocoa avocado pudding:

• 1 large ripe avocado
• 1/2 large banana or 1 small
• 1 T fat free cottage cheese
• 1 ts vanilla extract
• 1/8 to 1/4 ts stevia (start small and add more if you need it...this stuff is sweeeeet.  or you can use another sweetener if you'd like, but you may need a bit more)
• 1 heaping T unsweetened cocoa powder
• splash of soy (or any) milk...just enough to help with blending
• dash of cinnamon (optional)

now you're going to have to trust me on this one.  avocado may seem like the last thing that belongs in a sweet tooth driven, chocolate laden fantasy, but it actually blends into an incredibly smooth, creamy, decadently textured neutral canvas that easily adopts other flavors.  cocoa just happens to work amazingly well.  so, now that we've overcome the fear, let's make some pudding.
throw all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend on low or pulse until smooth.  you may have to work with it a bit to make sure it all blends.  it tends to get very thick and require a bit of assistance in my little blender, but it's nothing a little scraping of the edges and stirring to the bottom won't fix.  once it's all smooth and pudding-like, set it aside or even chill it a bit while you get your dough ready.

dumpling pie crust:

• heaping 1/2 cup of garbanzo bean flour (or other flour if you'd like to try something else.  i just really like garbanzo bean flour for its consistency and nutrition.  i haven't made this with anything else to vouch for other outcomes, but experiment if you'd like!)
• 2 T flaxmeal
• 1/4 ts baking powder
• 1/2 ts cinnamon
• 2 T unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 T agave or honey

mix all the ingredients together in a bowl to make a doughy mass.  you may need to add more flour if the dough seems too sticky.  you will want to be able to handle it with your hands without a lot of it goo-ing onto your fingers.  once mixed, split the dough into 2 lumps and transfer onto a small foil lined baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking oil or lightly greased.  sprinkle each dough lump with flour to keep it from sticking to your hands, and flatten into little pancakes, being careful that they don't tear.  add more flour to the surface as needed to make it easier to work with. 

one little dumpling pie ready to set sail, and another on the way

garbanzo bean flour tends to be rather fragile since it's such a fine powder, but produces a really yummy, creamy consistency with baked goods.  you could try this with other flours if you'd like.  it may be a bit easier to work with and may not require so much care, but will most likely come out with a completely different sort of consistency.  i happen to love garbanzo bean flour, but it can be tricky to work with if you're not used to it.
after you've made your little pancakes, it's time to add your filling.  spoon about 2 T of pudding into the center of each pancake, leaving a good amount of the pancake edge to work with.  you want to be sure you don't have too much filling, since you'll have to wrap it all up in a second.

you'll have about half of your pudding left.  you can either cover it and save it in the fridge for later, double the batch amount for the dumpling dough and make more pastries with it, or eat it right away.  i may or may not have lightly considered the first two options only to fully commit to the third.  ahem.
next, start to carefully bring the edges of the pancake up and over the pudding, pinching together at the top to make your little dumplings.  spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with cinnamon.

choco pudding vessel all locked and loaded!

put them in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 12 minutes or so...until the crust has started to brown and crisp a bit at the peaks.  top with a drizzle of agave, maple syrup, or honey, a little cinnamon, some fruit and relish in the fact that each one of these delicious little pudding pockets has about as much protein as a single serving of lean turkey breast, 12 g of fiber (that's nearly half your RDA) with under 275 calories.  not so shabby, eh?

who says health food sucks?