White, Yellow and Sweet

White Chocolate Lemon Coconut Bars

I meant to come here either with a post about our big party and what we ate in the Lake District, or a post about how to recover from a party like that without depriving yourself: Kitchari, the main healing food of Ayurveda. But right now, I’m really excited about something that’s not exactly a ‘detox’ food. Excited enough to be writing about it first thing on a Saturday. I don’t normally blog at 7:49 in the morning, but I just tasted my lemony yellow experiment after waiting through a night of sleep. It was extremely character-building for me to wait until now, especially after a grueling yoga class last night. But they needed to cool and the topping needed to set, so I kept my dignity, but let me tell you, it was hard to wait.

See, I’ve been wanting to make these for a while. Then I received a package of chocolate goodies from the lovely people at Divine Chocolate – a nice side effect from having a food blog that I had not anticipated. That meant that there was a stack of chocolate bars staring me in the face every time I opened the cupboard for some rice, beans, olive oil, whispering “use me…”.

I discovered food blogs in April, and one of my first three favourites was Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks, particularly because she seemed to be a girl after my own heart in her choices of whole foods, whole grains, and alternative flours. Back then, she had just posted a recipe for ‘Amazing Black Bean Brownies’ from a cookbook by Ania Catalano. When I heard that title, it was like a mini revolution happened in my head. “Beans!! Beans instead of flour!! Brilliant!!” For someone like moi who doesn’t handle gluten so well and who teaches cookery to many others who don’t, this was a little like finding…well, the Rosetta Stone might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I did feel like a new little world had opened up: treats made with beans and my favourite sweetener ever, Agave nectar.

Please believe me when I say: beans do NOT ruin the flavour of your favourite brownies! I’ve been baking the dark-chocolate version since May for various functions and people have always raved, saying how much they melt in your mouth, they’re incredible, and so on. No one has said, “hmm, they taste really ‘beany’…” and given me a sideways look. The only way to know is to try them for yourself, so as we say in the US, get crackin’!

Health/Ayurvedic notes: the beans do help balance this for Kapha, because of their astringent, drying nature and their higher fiber/protein content as opposed to wheat flour, which is quite heavy in its qualities. Not that a Kapha person should have these all the time: they do have coconut, sweetener, lemon, butter, white chocolate…they’re much better had in the winter, by a Vata, or when you’re very active. Obviously. The agave nectar is glycemic index neutral, so these shouldn’t give you nearly as much of that sugar crash feeling as other sweets, although of course there is sugar in the white chocolate and a bit in the crust and topping, which is optional. Personally, because they don’t have dark chocolate, I know I can be trusted to only have one, which in my book is a good thing!

This week, morning has looked a little like this...

White Chocolate Lemon Coconut Bars with White Beans

1 cup soft-cooked white (navy) beans
1 100 gram bar of white chocolate
1/2 cup (scant) butter (I used home-made ghee due to no butter in the fridge, and it was fine)
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
3/4 Tbs finely grated lemon zest
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (scant) agave nectar

For the topping:
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tsp agave nectar
1 tsp demerara sugar

For the crust:
1/2 cup almond flour (finely ground almonds)
1 TBS melted butter or sunflower oil
1 tsp agave nectar
1 tsp demerara sugar (optional – gives a nice little crunch)

Preheat your oven to 350 F, 160 C. Butter or oil an 8 by 8 baking pan. Mix the crust ingredients and press into the bottom of the pan.

In a double boiler, melt the butter with the white chocolate until smooth. Put the beans, butter/white chocolate mixture, lemon zest and juice into a food processor and puree for a minute or two, until smooth and thick. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs until light and airy. Add the agave nectar and beat well again. Pour in the bean/chocolate/butter/lemon mixture and fold them together with a spatula until combined. Pour the batter into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for about 35 minutes, until a nice, thin, bubbly brown crust forms on the top. Remove and let cool.

In the meantime, put the ingredients for the topping into a small frying pan and mix over medium heat. Continue to stir frequently as the coconut begins to toast: be careful, once it gets hot, coconut will burn easily. Turn the heat down if necessary. Sprinkle this evenly over the bars once they’re out of the oven. Let cool for about 45 minutes, then put them in the fridge and chill a bit: they’re a bit more firm when chilled, but if you don’t mind mooshiness, then feel free to eat them at room temp or warm.

I also created this recipe to make a half batch: only about 16 bars, but if there are more of you in your house, then you might want to double up – they’ve been going very fast around here.