Recipe: Fruit, seeds, almonds and chestnut flour team up to make Energy Balls

"Johanna Le Pape, French-born award-winning pastry chef who lives in Southern California, has written a cookbook that revolutionizes the art of baking. Her book, "Patisserie Revolution" (Robert Rose), explores healthier baking, discussing 30 types of flours, and 17 types of sugars. She also includes substitution guides for a lowering glycemic index, as well as vegan substitutes for milk, yogurts, creams and fats."

"Her book's long list of alternatives to wheat flour fascinated me. In all my years of baking, I never employed most of these options. I knew about almond flour and chickpea flour, but I'd never sought out chestnut flour, or coconut flour, or myriad others. She explained that the flour needs to be a complete grain, not refined. She advised combining 2 or 3 different wheat-flour alternates to build flavor and incorporate different nutrients; diversification can make for better digestion."

Healthier pastry techniques emphasize using whole, unrefined flours and combining multiple non-wheat flours to build flavor, increase nutrient variety, and aid digestion. Thirty types of flours and seventeen types of sugars are presented as alternatives, with substitution guides to lower glycemic index and vegan replacements for milk, yogurt, creams, and fats. Recipes adapt classic pastries into lower-sugar and plant-forward versions, including snacks such as Energy Balls and healthier Snickers-style bars. The Energy Balls recipe combines dried banana, flax seeds, pitted dates, chestnut flour, whole almonds, dried apricots, dried cranberries, and unsweetened desiccated coconut.

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