If someone had told me a year or two ago that I’d be someone that ordered a salad regularly in a restaurant, I’d run away and hide all the goodies I could get my hands on thinking they were about to go extinct. It’s true, I whole heartedly adore baking. I revel in the warm fuzzy feeling it gives me, especially when theres Frank Sinatra and a glass of something involved.
It’s 100% my favourite thing to do and I can’t imagine not being a kitchen person. However, I feel like I’ve grown up from being the person who’d buy a metre long slush puppy from the cinema and eat four cream cakes in five minutes (I admit this does occasionally still happen.) I still love my sweets and conjuring up my next indulgence. But most of the time, I’m pretty good with eating well.
Its fairly obvious that I have a raging sweet tooth. So eating well and avoiding cake at work on a regular basis is hard. The struggle is real! So recently I’ve been dabbling in the world of raw food and healthier food in general. I’ve become really interested in super foods and packing my meals with all sorts of grains, seeds, vitamins and more. (I’ve even been making my own Almond Milk guys, like… wow.) I no longer look at food and wonder how many calories is in it, I look and think about how nutritionally dense it is. I have no idea how long this will last but its been about 6 months now and I’m still feeling it.
I’ve been scouring pinterest for interesting energy bar type recipes to power me through the day and keep my cravings at bay. And I think I’ve found it. I want to send a big virtual hug to Sarah at My New Roots for this recipe.
I know that these little snacks are called ‘brownies’ but I want to tell you now, as you can see… these aren’t brownies. At all. But I can imagine that for someone living a raw lifestyle, these would be like heaven on a plate. Nothing can compare to a gooey warm brownie for me, but these babies definitely do the job when it comes to sweet chocolatey satisfaction with none of the guilt.
These are so easy to make and are a delicious snack throughout the day. They keep me full without bloating me and give me bags of energy. These are defiantly going to become a staple in my kitchen. What about yours?
Ingredients – recipe from My New Roots
- 100g walnuts (I used a mixture of pecans and hazelnuts)
- 25g raw cacao powder*
- pinch of salt
- 220g medjool dates (try and get the best quality you can)
- 80g almonds, chopped
Note: I only made half of Sarahs recipe (as medjool dates are quite expensive) and I’m so glad I did! It still made quite a lot of brownies. Feel free to double it and make even more, or thicker ones if you’d prefer. I have also converted all of her cup measurements into grams.
*Raw cacao powder is the cacao bean ground down. All of the cacao butter is removed and your left with a chocolate powder. It’s like a healthy version of cocoa powder but without all the added sugar and dairy. It has so many health benefits, I’d recommend reading up on it. Can be purchased in many health food shops. Great in smoothies too!
Method
Place the walnuts into your food processor and blend until the nuts are finely chopped. Add in the cacao powder and salt, and blend again until combined.
Place the processor on blend and add in the dates, one at a time through the feeding tube. Once all the dates are added, take some mix and press it in your hands. It should clump together into a ball. If it doesn’t, add a few more dates.
Place the chopped almonds into a large bowl and combine with the blended date mixture**. Press into a lined brownie dish or any dish of your choosing (I did mine into a tart tin.) Fridge until cold, cut and serve. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.
**I didn’t bother chopping my almonds. I just ended up adding them into the food processor at the end to chop and combine everything at the same time.
