Healthy peanut cocoa candy reminds me of a candy found in a childhood treat bag from an event many celebrate… and that rolls around every October 🎃… but the candy variety I grew with wasn’t filled with healthy treats (as candy usually isn’t).
I think of those hard peanut butter and Charleston chews… do you remember those?
They’re candy wrap is so vintage-typed enticing and shiny modern sports team bright.
Mary Jane chews are not just shoes (and they’re not Choo’s as in Jimmy Choo’s).
The candy had a molasses taste that’s reminiscent of old-fashioned candy you could find in candy barrels at Opie’s Candy Store in make-believe Mayberry where the Andy Griffith Show’s character name comes from. 🛢️
They were ironically impossible to chew and could probably take your teeth out like hard taffy.
They made peanut brittle seem less brittle to your teeth. 😁
Sometimes the wrapper was stuck to the candy. 🍬
…But as kids we lived care-free so we would eat anything with sugar.
And we were even taught one day in school that our tongue taste buds had labels (if we could see them) and the sweet buds were on both sides of the front tongue when food first hit our mouth. Do you remember that or did you miss that day of school? 😉
Anyway, it’s no wonder why we’re so in love with sugar.
The addiction is natural to us.
But sugar catches up with us as we grow up wiser and feel the effects.
When we eat less and we use natural flavors that pair well together, we don’t need much or any added sugar.
You can make your own peanut butter chews with dark cocoa that’s a sweet pairing.
Candy can be healthy like these but the closest we could relate to years ago was a candy apple that still had sugar.
So adults can wonder: is there such a thing as a healthy candy?
Well… let me bust the myths.
Yes, you can make candy, healthy! 🍬
And you can make them delicious and arguably tastier without added sugar.
These healthy peanut cocoa candy chews are living proof.
And they won’t break your teeth.
They’re rolled in unflavored collagen powder that’s good for joints, skin, hair, and nails.
Our kid at heart likes that. 💕
And as a healthy writer I love that! Collagen comes in different types. And is good for our aging bone loss.
You can never be too young to start and protect your bones.
Collagen supplementation can even help improve bone mass density and be a leaky gut cure. So you can think of this as healthy supplement candy.
Plus with all natural 100% cocoa version, you get the benefits of tasty anti-inflammatory polyphenols like you would from fruit in a fruit roll up.
And if that doesn’t appeal, you can use another nutritional powder you would add to your smoothie or coffee…
Another option is coconut flour that will give a nice subtle coconut taste. 🥥
And if you stick with this recipe below, how do they taste?
A resounding… Delicious!
And they’re fun-mix-ingredients-super-easy-to-make. 🎉
And to add a dash of MORE fun back, I added Black cocoa that Oreo cookies are made of.
Can you see it coming together in one sticky ball mess?
And dark cocoa gives a fun dark chocolate color.
All sticky balled up, this is now ready to make some chews (and News!)
Are you up for the healthy candy making challenge? 🍬🍫
Peanut Cocoa Candy Chews
Ingredients
- ½ cup peanuts for flour
- 2 tbsp all natural peanut butter
- 1 tsp black cocoa
- 1-1/2 tbsp Hershey's 100% cocoa or all natural cocoa
- collagen powder to roll candy in
- peanuts (one half peanut per candy)
Instructions
- Grind the peanuts into peanut "flour" or powder.
- Gather all the ingredients except the collagen powder and peanuts. Hand mix into a sticky ball.
- Shape into individual cashew shapes about the width of a finger.
- Roll in collagen and add peanut halves to the tops.