A Healthier Splurge – Twinkie Recipe

This Twinkie recipe will let you have your Twinkie, and eat it, too!

Healthy Food

By Rachael Derr, RD

The Twinkie, or the “Snack Cake Golden Child”, as Hostess refers to them.  What memories do you have of those golden-soft Twinkies?  These nostalgic spongy snack cakes are made with some pretty unappetizing ingredients, like hydrogenated oil, and then filled with a cellulose gum-based, artificially flavored vanilla cream.  Yum.  Definitely not a heart-healthy or figure-friendly snack, but Americans still love them.  Remember the “Great Twinkie Shortage of 2012” and the mass panic surrounding it? I know, I know, opening the crinkling packaging and smelling the sweet artificial aroma of that cake is like a blast from your past.

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The original Twinkie was made in 1930 and was filled with a banana cream, unlike the current vanilla rendition. Due to a shortage of bananas during World War II, vanilla became the main flavor for the filling and the much-loved artificial flavor Americans now know so well.  If you love Twinkies but would prefer a healthy Twinkie, you’re in luck.  The Healthy Dining team scoured the Internet in search of a healthier way to make Twinkies.  This recipe is kickin’ it old school with a banana filling made with cashew crème, reducing the calories and saturated fat.  This Twinkie recipe will let you have your Twinkie, and eat it, too!