My little baby girl may be a chunky monkey, but my husband certainly is not a chubby hubby. He would be if I started feeding him this on a regular basis.I didn't know whether to refer to it as a rawified "Chunky Monkey" or "Chubby Hubby," but it bares similarities to both of the popular Ben & Jerry's flavors. It has a banana-base, fudge and walnuts like "Chunky Monkey," as well as nut butter and fudge swirls, a malt-like taste (there is maca in it, which tastes malty to me) and pretzel pieces (mine are homemade in my dehydrator) like "Chubby Hubby."
I guess I could just call it "Chubby Monkey" in honor of my cute and cuddly Hayden (she has monkeys on her pajamas in this pic), who wishes she could take her first bite. Just look at that grin on her face (sorry about the mommy moment; I just had to share).
The idea for this frozen treat started from a childhood favorite of my own. It's one I've posted about before, and it seems as though I'm not the only one indulging in this rawified snack.I haven't been on the Gone Raw site in a long time, so I figured I'd swing by for a visit. I had become overwhelmed by the number of recipes and the new search engine, which makes it difficult to weed through everything (everything changed when the site was revamped ages ago). As a result, people keep posting the same recipes over and over again.
One of these recipes was for no-bake cookies/no-bake cookie dough. The original recipe is cooked on a stove top and then set in the fridge. It didn't take raw foodies long to figure out you could just veganize it and skip the cooking step all together. You can even eat it straight out of the bowl.
But, I don't know what made me think I could turn it into a raw chocolate pretzel.For some reason I thought some extra salt would make this combination taste like a chocolate pretzel. I also figured I could transform the mixture into this twisted shape by adding extra oats in the form of flour and "baking" them in my dehydrator. So, that's what I did. Check it out:
Raw Chocolate Pretzels- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp. agave nectar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup oats, ground into flour
- coarse sea salt
In a small bowl, combine the almond butter, cocoa powder and agave. Then, thin out this mixture by adding the water. Stir to a uniform consistency.
Grind 1 cup of oats into flour, using a blender (I would normally use my Magic Bullet, which bit the dust recently, so I opted for the Blendtec instead). Then, add 1/4 cup of the flour at a time to the almond butter mixture, stirring to incorporate between each addition. It should eventually resemble a play dough-like density.
Take sections of the dough and roll them into into long ropes. Shape these ropes into the familiar pretzel loop/twist and sprinkle with coarse sea salt (you'll need to press the salt into the dough to get it to stick). "Bake" in a dehydrator to your desired texture. Thicker pretzels may become crisp on the outside yet chewy on the inside, while thinner pretzels will end up more "baked" through.
Eat the larger pretzels as is, or use the smaller pretzels/pieces to make the "Chubby Monkey" n'ice cream recipe below:
Chubby Monkey N'ice Cream- 2 frozen bananas, chopped
- maca powder
- almond butter
- cocoa powder
- agave nectar
- chopped walnuts
- small raw chocolate pretzels/pieces (recipe above)
- banana slices, for garnish
Anyway, here it goes: Put the chopped frozen bananas and maca in a mini food processor and process into a creamy soft-serve n'ice cream. Add a generous drizzle of almond butter and chocolate sauce (cocoa powder and agave combined into a fudge-like consistency; it may need to be thinned with a touch of water), and swirl it into the n'ice cream with a knife or spoon.
Scoop the n'ice cream into a serving glass or bowl, adding bits of raw pretzel and chopped walnuts between scoops. Top with more almond butter, chocolate sauce and walnuts. Garnish with a small raw pretzel and some banana slices. Yum!
These recipes were brought to you as part of Vegan Mofo III. Don't forget to check in on my fellow mofo-ers for other vegan food ideas and fun :-) 
