Raw Brownies aka Energy Bars Mark 3

OK so here it is the ultimate raw non brownie aka energy bar. I have made them twice before and they were nice but not great and certainly nothing like brownies. I have never put icing on my brownies. Well I did put some chocolate butter cream icing on the beetroot brownies that I made because I was trying to mask the beetroot but its not necessary on my usual recipe that's for sure. I said the first time that I made them that I was thinking of mixing the 'icing' and the base together and I finally did it this week.

The ingredients are
For the base:

1 cup (110g) walnuts
1 cup (150g) medjool dates, pitted
1/3 cup (30g) cocoa powder

For icing
1 avocado
70 g/2.5 ozs raw honey (the honey makes them non-vegan though) or agave nectar
30 g/ 1 oz. cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
dash salt
dash cinnamon

Method:

1. Mix the base ingredients together in a food processor until they look like potting soil. 

2. Blend the 'icing' ingredients together in the food processor.

3. Mix the icing and base together and then pat down into a small tin.

4. Freeze for at least an hour and then eat. 

As you can see they look much more like brownies than the layered ones. They have a kind of chewy texture. They were nicer than the previous attempts because of this. 

Raw Vegan Brownies aka Energy Bars Mark 2

The last time I tried these they didn't quite turn out as they did in the blogs I'd seen them in, nor as I had hoped. I put that down to the dates I had used in the base. This time I made them with Humdinger Stone-out Dried dates. They are the ones that I snack on and are moist which I think is what this recipe needs.

 The base, dates, walnuts and cocoa blended together nicely and when I put it into my (new, smaller) tin it appeared to stick together well. I popped the base in the freezer on it's own for a while because last time the icing was hard to spread because the base kept lifting into it

 I blended the avocado, cocoa, honey, cinnamon and vanilla together and it easily spread over the frozen base and I popped it all in the freezer.

It was much nicer than last time. The base stuck together much better and the chocolate avocado icing is surprisingly nice.

The next time I make this I'm going to mix the icing and base together before I freeze it.....

Vegan Brownies or Energy Bars - You Decide!

Despite my disaster with the vegan chocolate blueberry cake the week before last when I saw this on one of my favourite food blogs I was intrigued and I had to try it. I think because I am ever hopeful that there is something remotely low in calories that could be good for me and satisfy my sweet tooth. It's a long shot I know! I bought the ingredients on Friday in my excitement and then had to wait until my return from London before I could try them out.

A large part of my job is managing expectations, sadly, in most cases, keeping them low. These were listed on the blog (well two blogs) as raw brownies. Now the recipe I use for brownies is Nigel Slater's, it is full of chocolate, eggs, sugar and butter and is absolutely mind-blowing. Finding a recipe without those ingredients that would match up was unlikely. I presented these to Mr VST, without telling him what the ingredients were, as home made energy bars. I think this was more realistic and managed his expectations. He tucked in and said that they were really tasty. I think they were OK. For some reason, and I think it was the dates, the base didn't gel together at all. When blended, the base ingredients were supposed to look like potting soil, unfortunately, mine stayed that way! I bought some dates which were fresh but not medjool, I think I will make sure I get the right ones next time. I also thought about mixing the 'icing' and base together and freezing them to see if that would work.

I bought whole walnuts and have a new appreciation for walnut shellers

Potting soil!

No that's not vegan ice cream!