A Raw Brownie Recipe

Who does NOT like brownies? Anyone? Anyone?

I hear crickets….

However, I’m guessing normally after indulging in a brownie (or a few), you feel pretty guilty, maybe a bit gassy, and you wake up with a nice little zit forming on your face the next day. I might be being a bit dramatic, but in all honesty, the side effects of eating a dairy & gluten filled brownie kinda suck!

Well, I have a little solution to all your problems: Raw Brownies! These raw brownies are gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, vegan, raw, etc etc and I promise they will impress even the most skeptical of people.

I was first introduced to the raw brownie about three years ago by my best friend’s older sister. She is big into healthy, wholesome food, and would whip us up these raw brownies in 5 minutes flat. Since then, my nutritionist friends and I have started following another site called My New Roots, which is an amazing blog written by another Holistic Nutritionist who also has a great raw brownie recipe. So, I would say these raw brownies are a combination of inspiration of the two, with a bit of a twist since I was out of certain ingredients.

You’ll notice a new ingredient that I haven’t posted about yet: carob powder. There will be an “In Mandy’s Pantry” post on this coming shortly. It just happened that I ran out of cacao powder after making one too many batches of these, so I had to substitute. Turns out I liked them even more with the carob, so I highly recommend using it.

Recipe Tips:

The only appliance needed for these brownies is a food processor.
It’s best to store the brownies in the freezer until about 30 min before eating them, and then just transfer them to the fridge. Otherwise, they tend to melt a bit.
When you go to cut the brownies, it helps if they’re not rock hard frozen…let them melt a tiny bit.
You may need to add a touch of coconut oil, depending on the texture. You want them to be crumbly, but you could easily press them into a ball or a brownie shape and they’d stick together.
Lastly, if you have a small food processor (a 4 cup vs an 8 cup), make a 1/2 batch of this recipe because it won’t all fit. Then you can either make 2 batches, or stick with a 1/2 batch.

I can’t wait to hear what you think of them 🙂

Recipe

Prep Time:

5 mins

Cook Time:

0 mins

Total Time:

5 mins

Serves:

Ingredients:

2 cups walnuts (I used raw, organic)
2 cups pitted dates (I used medjool)
½ cup raw cacao powder
¼ cup carob powder (if you don’t have this, you could put another ¼ cacao powder)
¼ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup almonds, chopped
1 TBSP maple syrup (see note above re texture)
1 TBSP coconut oil
sprinkling of salt

Directions:

In food processor, pulse almonds until chopped, but not fully ground (these give the brownies some texture). Then, remove from food processor.
Pulse walnuts until nicely ground.
Add the coconut flakes, salt, cacao/carob powders and continue to mix.
Add the dates (not all at once) while the food processor is on (I dropped through the top opening one at a time)
Add in the maple syrup and coconut oil
Add back in almonds and pulse just enough to mix
Place in 8x8 baking tin (lined with parchment paper or coconut oil) and press down so they won’t fall apart
Place in freezer for 30 minutes and then try not to eat the entire batch!