I have tried a few vegan brownies over the years and I am most excited about this recipe. Not only does it contain no flour so it is completely gluten-free, texture-wise it is the most legitimate brownie I have made to date. It tastes just like a less sweet version of a traditional brownie. Most of the brownies I have made in the past (which are all delicious) turn out quite soft and fudgy, which is nice, but this brownie could hold its own against any nonvegan, not so healthy brownie. It’s actually a pretty standard recipe that you will see variations of all over the internet. I like that it is adaptable. You can add other things like nuts, seeds and dried fruit as well as switch up the nut butter for different flavours. I think hazelnut butter would work really well but since I don’t think the brownies are overly sweet, peanut butter might make them a little bitter, but it definitely could work. The recipe uses a lot of dates. I love dates, they are incredibly nutritious and delicious but I know that many people don’t really enjoy dates (at least it’s one of the things people ask me to give alternatives to in my recipes) I do want to mention though in this recipe, you can not really tastes the dates at all (as opposed to a raw recipe) so I think its definitely worth trying.
The other thing I liked about this recipe is that it forced me to use a flax egg. I have been avoiding flax eggs forever because the first time I tried one, many years ago, my old, not so great blender would not grind up my flax seeds and I tried to gel them whole and it absolutely did not work. Since then I have avoided them thinking that I will ruin my recipes again. This time I got out my trusty Vitamix blender and set it on high to grind up my flax seeds and it completely pulverized them. The flax egg was ready in a few minutes, it gelled beautifully and worked a treat! Now I am excited to try them in many more of my recipes. Since making this recipe I have started grounding a large number of flax seeds in my blender at the same time and freezing them in a container. Flax seeds need to be frozen right away as they oxidize very quickly and lose all the health-promoting/hormone balancing/mood-boosting qualities they are known for. But they are ideally eaten ground for best benefits. Thankfully freezing them does not affect their flax egg quality, you can pull them out of the freezer and use just as you would use freshly ground flax seeds.
Since you all know I love to talk about hormones, for me this is the perfect dessert for boosting progesterone. The combination of cacao and almonds is rich in magnesium, vitamin b6 and the addition of hemp seeds increases zinc and fatty acids including GLA. This recipe would definitely make it into a hormone friendly dessert recipe roundup!
The recips is adapted from “from my bowl”
This recipe is vegan, egg-free, flour free, gluten free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free. Enjoy.
Equipment you will need
| Vegan Chocolate Almond Butter Hemp Brownies- No Flour | Print |
- 1 cup pitted dates
- ¾ cup cacao powder
- 1 cup almond butter
- ⅓ cup almond milk
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- ⅓ cup hemp seeds
- ½ cup dark chocolate chips
- Begin by making your flax egg. Mix ground flax seeds with water and set aside for a few minutes to gel. I use my blender to grind up flax seeds.
- Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor. Add gelled flax egg. Process until well combined and sticky. You may want to process your dates first before adding the other ingredients to help the food processor.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Transfer mixture into a lined square baking tin. The mixture will be very dense and sticky, you will need some force to press it in as evenly as you can.
- Place in oven and bake at 180 C for 15-20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and set aside to cool, slice and enjoy.
