Not Snickers Salad (THM-Friendly, WW, Low Sugar)

My family is so sick and tired of hearing me say the word “snickers.” I’m obsessed with this dessert. I eat it pretty much every night. What can I say? When I like something, I really like it.

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I found this one during one of my more intense diets (Trim Healthy Mama –an excellent plan, just not for me – after three months, I could think of nothing but jelly beans, 24/7). This was so yummy, I kept the recipe even after I crashed and burned.

If you’re doing THM, double-check to make sure it still fits. I’m not sure how much I’ve modified it since 2016.

And bonus – it’s low in WW points.

Because…Cake

I truly enjoy this as an after-dinner treat, breakfast, or a snack. I’d eat it even if I didn’t care about the effects of sugar.

Whoa, let’s not get too exuberant, Joni. Here’s my disclaimer: I’d eat it even if I didn’t care about the effects of sugar unless it was next to a slice of cake.

Then I’d totally eat the cake.

Not Snickers Salad is easy, it has protein for energy, the ingredients aren’t hard to keep in the house or pricey (after the initial outlay for caramel extract), it doesn’t make a big mess to eat it (although I still drop it on my shirt but there’s no help for that), and it doesn’t take my impatient, cooking-averse self a really long time to make. More time than a bowl of ice cream, yeah, but it’s pretty much mixing together a bowl of yogurt and chopping an apple.

I don’t even peel the apple, for Pete’s sake.

So if you’re looking for something that feels and tastes like dessert without the ensuing coma, this might be the ticket.

Basically, you sweeten some Greek yogurt, add mix-ins (peanut powder and caramel extract), chop an apple into it, and spike it all with some 100% dark chocolate.

Yes, a baking bar. Gross, right?

Like every kid, I’ve tried one of those delicious-looking baking bars in the past. And like every kid, I immediately spit it into the trash.

I’m a milk chocolate girl all the way. I love cheap, sweet chocolate. I’ve been known to hit the Hershey World Factory Tour at Hershey Park several times in one trip. In case you aren’t Hershey-aware – they give you free chocolate* just for taking a fake factory tour – I know, right???

I prefer milk for eating (scarfing). But if you mix dark chocolate into a sugary-tasting something, it’s delectable. And it’s even better than milk chocolate (words I never thought I’d say) in this recipe. Even if you care not a hoot about sugar intake, dark is still a better choice here. Milk chocolate would get lost in this.

Plus now you can save your milk chocolate for eating all by its delicious little self. Win!

Um, DID YOU TRY the Baking Section?

You can also use 60% or 70% or another dark chocolate. And I have – when I took the photos for this, I was actually using an 80% bar because my son bought the chocolate and couldn’t find the baking bars.

But he did get in the car, travel to the store, shop for me, and buy me chocolate so I won’t complain.

Who am I kidding? Of course, I will complain. But deep down I’m grateful.

Thank you, baby.

By the way, the original recipe was called “Snickers Salad.” I’ve since Googled Snickers salad and this ain’t it. Most of the varieties are made with pudding and have actual Snickers chopped up in them. A “salad” with a full-sugar candy bar on top – genius, if you ask me. But this nap-free version is really good, too.

And it is reminiscent of a candy bar. A candy bar with no shame attached.

Learn From My Mistakes

• Peanut powder and peanut flour are the same thing. Supposedly, you can mix this ingredient with water to get a peanut butter substitute. I’m here to tell you – no, no you can’t. But – it’s perfect for flavoring chocolate dishes.  Whether you care about fat or not (peanut flour is “defatted” which is just an awesome word all by itself), it’s easier to mix peanut flour than peanut butter into yogurt anyway. And it’s not a “weird” ingredient. No health food store trip required. I mean, how often have you seen anything by Jif in a health food store, am I right? And Jif makes a great, no added sugar version.
• I splurge and use a Ghirardelli 100% baking bar. My Walmart has it for $2, but if you can’t find it there, try Amazon. Learned the difference between cheap cocoa and the good stuff awhile ago and never looked back. But you don’t use much so it lasts a long time. If I use a sweeter chocolate, either intentionally or by accident, I prefer Lindt.
• Any nonfat plain Greek yogurt works. I’m sure you can also use pre-sweetened. But since pre-sweetened doesn’t agree with me, and since I like it super sweet, I buy plain and dump in massive quantities of Splenda myself.
• Caramel extract is expensive. Not so much if you eat this regularly, because the bottle lasts a lonnnnggg time, but it’s not cheap to buy and use once if you don’t enjoy this dish. So if you don’t want to spend much to try this, you can sub in vanilla or go without. It won’t taste as good, but it will give you an idea before you use valuable Wendy’s money to buy a $4 bottle of caramel extract. After all, they have that 4 for $4 deal so yeah, it can be a tough choice.
• Don’t go without the peanut powder though. It won’t be even close.
• Gala apples are great for this. Cheap and easy to get with a lightly sweet taste.
• A non-stick knife like this one is invaluable for this recipe. This is my favorite knife for chopping things like apples and carrots and chocolate. I couldn’t find it last night (it better not have been accidentally thrown away or I will freak out) and had to use another knife. The chocolate didn’t snap the same way, and I couldn’t get the apple slices as thin.

Update – I wrote this a week ago and I still have not found my knife! I suspect it went into the trash inside a takeout dish or something.

Or our basement raccoon is now making his own Not Snickers Salad downstairs and swiped it. Kudos to him on watching his sugar intake, I guess.

• There’s no way I’m telling you how much Splenda I use. Let’s just say I like things sweet. And I will probably die early from artificial sweetener poisoning.

But I will enjoy my short dessert-filled, not-in-a-sugar-coma life.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
• 1-2 small Gala apples (or 1 large)
• 1 heaping Tbsp unsweetened peanut powder (or peanut flour – same thing)
• Sweetener to taste (put it in the yogurt and sample it until there’s no tang – unless you like the tang)
• 5-6 drops of caramel extract (I use a dropper like these – soo much better than trying to drip it carefully into the dish from the extract bottle) UPDATED: Watkins no longer makes caramel extract. It is now caramel flavoring (I included this link in case you can’t find it, but I purchase mine at Walmart). If you use caramel flavoring, use way less. Like 1-2 drops instead of 5-6. Use one drop and test it. It’s extremely strong.
• 1/4-3/4 oz. 100% Ghirardelli baking bar (or Lindt 60%-90%) – you can use more if you like, just don’t blame me if it ends up being non-THM. Or blame me. I’m okay with it.

Instructions:

1. In a large cereal bowl, mix the yogurt with sweetener, tasting it until it’s not tangy.
2. Add the caramel extract and peanut powder.
3. Mix very well with a rubber scraper, making sure to get all the extract mixed in thoroughly. You do not want an accidental taste of plain extract (blech).
4. Then core and cut up an apple (or two if they are small) into 8 wedges (each).
5. Slice each wedge into little trapezoidal chunks directly into the bowl.
6. Mix again until the apples are mostly covered in yogurt.
7. Finally, finely (see what I did there) chop the chocolate (very finely – you also don’t want an accidental overly large chunk of 100% chocolate on your tongue) and sprinkle over the top.
8. Pat yourself on the back for eating something healthy. Don’t feel guilty that it tastes like candy.

Keep an eye on my Meal Planning category for more no-sugar dessert recipes, as well as easy regular dessert recipes.

Because dessert – ‘nuff said.

*Makes the $69 park ticket price (because who goes to chocolate world without also going to Hershey Park?) totally worth it!