Chocolate Brownies - A Hit This Weekend.

Saturday my in-laws came over for a little lunch-time feast and this was dessert. I just served a large square of it with a handful of fresh raspberries and it was a hit! Of course I played my little game of 'guess what's in this' and as always my audience was surprised! I got it off a raw vegan blog a few weeks ago and knew I'd want to try it sometime in the future so I kept it in my 'must try' recipe file. I didn't use the almond extract but I had some ground almonds left over from something else so I put 1 tbsp in the mixture instead. I also didn't have medjool dates so I used regular dates.

1 cup raw walnuts

3/4 cup raw pecans

1 3/4 cups (packed) pitted medjool dates (see note)

1/4 cup dried organic pitted cherries

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp raw cocoa powder (or regular cocoa if you prefer)

1 vanilla bean (see note)

¼ tsp sea salt

½ tsp almond extract (optional)

In a food processor, first add walnuts and pecans. Pulse through until fine and crumbly, then add dates and cherries and pulse through again to partially combine (mixture should be crumbly, but not yet coming together). Then, add cocoa powder, salt, and almond extract, and pulse through. With a sharp tip knife, slice the vanilla bean down the outer side to open up the bean. Using a blunt (butter) knife, scrape out all the tiny seeds from the bean on both sides, and add them to the processor. Process again, along with the almond extract if using (almond extract enhances cherry flavor). Process until the mixture starts to come together but do not overmix so that the nuts release their oils (see note). Then remove the mixture and press into a brownie pan (8” x 8”) lined with parchment paper. Use a small piece of the parchment to help press and flatten the mixture evenly into the pan. Refrigerate for a couple of hours, and then cut into squares. You can also freeze the squares after cutting, and enjoy them out of the freezer!

Notes:

1. You can substitute 1 – 1 ½ tsp of pure vanilla extract for the vanilla bean seeds.
2. If your dates are on the dry side, you can add 1-2 tbsp of water to the mixture to help assist the pureeing and the mixture easily coming together. Or, you can presoak (then drain) the dates to soften before pureeing. Also, if you use presoaked nuts, the mixture will puree easier (though presoaking is not a must).
3. If you process the mixture too long, the heat generated by the food processor will bring the oils out of the nuts. If this happens, the brownies won’t be ruined necessarily, but they will have an oily appearance and be oily to the touch. So, process minimally to begin, rather than over processing the nuts at the outset.
4. If you don’t have the pitted cherries, you can substitute another dried fruit or simply add another 3 or 4 dates to the mixture.