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Moist, fudgey and decadent brownies to fill any chocoholics most sinful craving. Yet these beauties are deceptive: sweetened only with fruit, a serving of veg, and they contain some protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
Sigh. I absolutely love these fudgey gems and so does my family. They don’t know they are being deceived….and neither will anyone else. So go ahead…make these and make some new friends. Convince people healthy food CAN be delicious.
I was originally inspired by one of my very favorite blogs: Hope For Healing’s Zucchini Cake. I love that recipe and it inspired me to create something with my winter supply of squash puree.
And I would be remiss not to mention some of the topping ideas swirling though my head with these bad boys as a perfect base: pureed raspberry, Paleo caramel, crushed candy canes, my Easy Vegan Buttercream Frosting…..what would YOU top yours with??!!
INGREDIENT NOTE: I have used TOASTED quinoa flour here. I personally cannot stand the flavor of regular quinoa flour. If you feel the same way, just toast the whole bag of flour in a 300 degree oven for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until toasty smelling and evenly golden. This process removes the bitter tannins that give regular ole quinoa flour it’s nasty (in my opinion) bitter/dirty flavor.
You are welcome to sub other flours here…my baking tips page divides gluten free flours into their protein weights…so use that as reference to sub one or more flours. This will change the end product inevitably!
- 20-25 Medjool Dates (about 1 cup), pitted
- 1 cup extra hot water
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (or extra dark)
- 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil (or other)
- 2 tablespoons chia meal
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup tapioca flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup TOASTED quinoa flour
- ¼ cup teff flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large liquid measuring cup, place the dates, hot water and unsweetened chocolate. Set aside for a minimum of 10-20 minutes to get soft.
- In the bowl of a 14 cup food processor, place all the date mixture, and the next 4 ingredients through the vanilla. Puree until smooth.
- Sprinkle in the remaining dry ingredients. Pulse several times to mix thoroughly,
- Pour batter into a greased 9″ pan (round or square as preferred.)
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40-50 minutes until the middle is just set and a knife inserted comes out clean.
- Let the brownies cool completely, cut and store in an airtight container.
This post was shared on Sugar-Free Sunday, My Meatless Monday, Natural Living Mondays, Monday Mania, GF Mondays, Make Your Own Mondays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesdays, Fat Tuesday, Hearth & Soul, Traditional Tuesdays, Wheat-Free Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, GF Wednesday ,Healthy 2Day Wednesday, Kids in the Kitchen, Seasonal Celebration Wednesday, Whole Foods Wednesday, Thank Your Body Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Made From Scratch, 12 Days of Christmas Goodies, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Keep It Real Thursday, Pennywise Platter, Wellness Weekend, GF Friday, Whole Foods Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Healthy Vegan Fridays,
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When her third child was born with severe food allergies, Tessa took to the kitchen to figure out how to feed her family well. Always up for a culinary challenge, their journey has taken many twists and turns! Lots of Paleo, and lots of top 8 free. Good food for families, that's what she's about!
You combined chocolate and pumpkin. I think I love you.
OMG, these look amazing!!! I HAVE to make these!
Please do Cassidy, and come back to provide some feedback!!
Fabulous recipie, as usual, Tessa!!! I wanted to ask you a quick question as I greatly value your GF baking expertise.
I want to make a traditional Irish barm brack (bread/cake that has dried fruit in it) for my family Christmas Eve dinner. But every recipie I have come across calls for self-rising flour. What can I substitute for regular self-rising flour that will still be delicious in a GF fruit filled treat? Thanks SO MUCH!
Hi Rebekah! I had never heard of Irish Barmback before you! I looked at a few recipes..interesting, i am totally curious now! If you send me a recipe, I can help you more specifically, but in general, you will want to add a touch more gf flours than regular…and self rising just means there is leavening mixed in, so you would need to add that and possibly a touch of gum…depends on other ingredients. If you want to replace white flour texture…use half starch half whole grain flours…which on my baking tips page would be the light and medium flours. So if you are doing one cup of flour, use half cup starch, half cup one or two others medium flours of choice. Sorghum, white rice, brown rice, millet would be good choices for more white flour textures.
Ingredients
•Strong black tea — 2 cups
•Dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, candied peel, etc.) — 2 cups
•Milk, lukewarm (110-115°F) — 1 cup
•Active dry yeast — 1 (1/4-ounce) package
•Sugar — 2 teaspoons
•Flour — 3 to 3 1/2 cups
•Sugar — 1/4 cup
•Ground cinnamon — 1/2 teaspoon
•Ground cloves — 1/2 teaspoon
•Nutmeg — 1/4 teaspoon
•Egg, beaten — 1
•Butter, unsalted, softened — 1/3 cup
•Salt — 1 teaspoon
Sorry to hijack the fudge brownies post. But here’s one example from whats4eats.com. I’d like to do the traditional hiding-ring-in-the-bread which makes it a game. I have made plenty of GF mixes, and dabbled with egg-free substitutions (my daughter has egg allergy) but have not done much baking from scratch. How much baking soda (?) would you recommend (or would you?) to sub for yeast or woudl the yeast taste better? And what flours specifically would you try (I am willing to go get any of them as I dont have much on hand right now). And what about an egg replacer? thanks again! I really appreciate your experience with all this!
I would leave the yeast if you can have it, provides a goof flavor. Add a teaspoon baking soda too. I think an egg replacer would work great here…only one egg to replace (either an Enger-G style or a gelatin egg, or flax/chia egg). I would do 1 generous cup rice (brown or white or sweet rice) flour, 1 cup tapicoa, 1 cup sorghum, 1-2 teaspoons guar or xanthan gum. If you need the additional 1/2 cup, use tapicoa or arrowroot or potato starch.
Hi, shared a like to your facebook:) Found your on the gf monday party. Can’t wait to try your recipe. Looks great. I posted http://www.sewsweetvintage.com/2012/12/impossibly-sweet-ikea-and-trujoy-gluten.html Follow me to:)
Thanks Tessa, I can’t wait to try this. I knew your experience was going to help me out here.
These look great! I wish I had enough time to try all your fabulous recipes!
This sounds delicious! I would love to have you share your recipe on the blog hop I co-host, Wildcrafting Wednesdays! We love to have real food recipes, natural living tips, self sufficient living ideas, and herbal remedies
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2012/12/wildcrafting-wednesday.html
Thanks so much for joining the Wildcrafting Wednesday blog hop, Tessa! I’d love to have you come back every week with more of these amazing recipes!
I can’t wait to try these! I have just recently started working with ‘date sugar’ in baking and I love the difference. Would these freeze well? I would like to make several batches for my Christmas platters and have them ready
Thanks for sharing this month in our linky!
They haven’t lasted long enough for freezing trials yet Mary…but my hunch is that they would freeze beautifully. Date sugar is great…I also like date syrup!
thanks for sharing Tessa – this one looks really yummy to this chocolate girl!
those look lovely. I found you from the Gluten Free Friday Blog Hop
These sound great, I need to try baking more with dates! You are so inspiring! Got this tweeted and pinned to the Gluten Free Fridays board, thanks for linking up!
These brownies look decadent and I love the idea of healthy ingredients used to create them — good in every way! Thanks for sharing on Hearth & Soul Hop.
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back tomorrow when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts!
Tessa, I just don’y know how you do it. This is another inspired recipe I just have to try! 5 stars for sure! Thank you so much for sharing this with us at Seasonal Celebration! Be sure to pop by and this Wednesday to see if you have been featured. Rebecca x
These look totally fudgy and delicious. I love that the sweetness comes from dates (and probably some moisture too). Great idea.
hey! this recipe is being featured on healthy vegan friday tomorrow! thanks for sharing and hope to see you back again this week
Looks so good! Can I replace quinoa flour? I am not gluten free and don’t have a big variety of gluten free flours in my pantry. Can it be replaced with anything else?
Most definitely…what do you have? Have you referred to my gf flour/baking tips page?
Just saw it – great tips, thanks! Although quinoa flour is listed among the medium flours, it has “heavy” in the parentheses. So what is it?
Hi llana, protein does have some decent protein, but I always use it as a medium replacement with no issues. I will clear that up on my page!