My affair with food has existed possibly since birth. My earliest memories included spending Saturday’s in the kitchen watching my grandmother make desserts while reading her floor to ceiling collection of vintage cookbooks. My favorites? Dessert cookbooks from the late, great Julia Child.
I like good food (obviously, who doesn’t, right?), and I only post my personal favorite recipes on this blog. While I do believe that healthy food can be tasty, in regards to dessert, it’s not always as easy to find recipes that pull off both great flavor and are as healthy as they are easy to prepare.
Coupling this, with my recent desire to develop tasty dessert recipes that also help me to reduce the amount of sugar in my diet. Because sugar is great once in a while, but not when you’re scarfing it down day in day out. It’s a totally other matter!
Which is why I wanted to share one of my latest dessert obsessions, strawberry pistachio vegan brownies!
Brownies, that aside from tempered organic cocoa butter, are raw, vegan, gluten-free and guilt-free.
Featuring a combination of dates, pistachios, black walnuts, dried cranberries and strawberries, and glazed almond butter, maple syrup, and cacao dough that yields a rich, chocolatey perfection!
Although these don’t taste exactly like traditional butter and sugar based brownies, they are nonetheless chewy, rich, full of chocolate and a great way to satisfy that sugar craving. Perfect for the upcoming Valentine’s Day week ahead!
Keep in mind, this recipe is nuttier than my family tree and equally full of dates, so it isn’t exactly frugal. But it lasts quite a while and can be served in small portions.
You can get away substituting many of the ingredients and toppings based on what you have at home. You may not need to go out and buy a ton of stuff. Because shopping your pantry first is a must in my book!
You can also check out this recipe in action here:
And now that you’re looking to satisfy that sugar craving with something a little healthier, give this recipe a try:
A rich, chocolate, gluten-free brownies. Perfect to satisfy your Valentine's Day date-night-in plans or for any time of year!
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts nuts
- 6 tablespoons raw cacao powder
- 2 tablespoons organic pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup organic raw cocoa butter, tempered
- 2 1/2 cups Medjool dates, pitted
- 4 tablespoons raw almond butter
- 1/2 cup dried organic cranberries
- 1/2 cups dried organic strawberries
Instructions
- In a high-quality food processor, add your nuts, and dried fruit. Blitz the ingredients together until well chopped but not minced. Remove from food processor. Set aside.
- Add the dates, tempered cocoa butter, cocoa powder, almond butter, and maple syrup to your food processor.
- Blend until a smooth dough forms and the mixture no longer sticks to he sides of your device.If you find that the mixture is too dry, you can add a date or two more. If you find the mixture too sticky, blitz up a couple more nuts and add it to the fruit-nut mixture, until you are able to touch the dough without it sticking to your fingers.
- Add the dough to your fruit-nut mixture. Fold together evenly.
- Spoon the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper or pan and press it into a large square about 1/2 an inch thick completely around.
- Place your pan of brownies in the refrigerator for 1 hour or until firm and set.
- Cut the brownie into 16-25 pieces. Remember, these are rich and a little goes a long way!
- These brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 weeks, and last about a month in the fridge, and up to a year frozen. If frozen, thaw for one hour before eating.
Notes
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