These gluten free and vegan date sweetened brownies are made with all wholesome ingredients for a dense and fudgy treat!
Moist, fudgy and decadent brownies to fill any chocoholics most sinful craving.
Yet these beauties are deceptive as they are sweetened only with fruit, a serving of veg, AND they even contain some protein, fiber, and healthy fats!
Sigh. I absolutely love these fudgy 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.
Topping ideas for these date sweetened brownies
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,
- Easy Vegan Buttercream Frosting
Can I use different flours in the gluten free vegan brownies?
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!
But if you have a gluten free all purpose flour you enjoy, it should work well here.
Want some more gluten free and vegan treats?
- These Dark Chocolate Brownies have a sneaky ingredient no one EVER guesses
- My Gluten Free Empanadas are filled with berry preserves and chocolate chips for a fun treat!
- A no bake dessert, this Paleo Raw Chocolate Tart is sinful and decadent!
Date Sweetened Brownies Recipe:
If you try these dense and fudgy vegan brownies, be sure to come back and leave your feedback below!
Fudgey & Decadent Date Sweetened Brownies - Gluten Free & Vegan
Ingredients
- 20 Medjool Dates about 1 cup, pitted
- 1 cup extra hot water
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate or extra dark
- 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil or other
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Additional sweetener to taste if necessary I use stevia if needed, but almost never need it, taste and see what YOU think
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup teff flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- 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 (I LOVE mine and use it all the time!), 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.
Nutrition
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Would like to try one of the recipes, but I haven’t seen positive feedback from someone that actually tried the recipe. Comments are related to how good the recipe sounds, not tastes. Am I missing something?
Hi Carla! I hear you! My sister laments the lack of those types of comments in many of my posts too. Getting comments is tough…90% of people use the recipes but ever think to or get to leaving feedback. I can’t tell you how many times people have said, “oh we loved such and such, thanks for a great recipe!” And I had absolutely no idea they even visited my blog, let alone used the recipes. As your reach grows, comments increase too, and I am still pretty small as far as blogs go. We love this recipe, and would love tohear your feedback if you get to trying to out!
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!
hey! this recipe is being featured on healthy vegan friday tomorrow! thanks for sharing and hope to see you back again this week 🙂
These look totally fudgy and delicious. I love that the sweetness comes from dates (and probably some moisture too). Great idea.
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
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! 🙂
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. 🙂
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!
those look lovely. I found you from the Gluten Free Friday Blog Hop
thanks for sharing Tessa – this one looks really yummy to this chocolate girl!
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!
These look great! I wish I had enough time to try all your fabulous recipes!
Thanks Tessa, I can’t wait to try this. I knew your experience was going to help me out here. 🙂
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:)
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.
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.
OMG, these look amazing!!! I HAVE to make these!
Please do Cassidy, and come back to provide some feedback!!
You combined chocolate and pumpkin. I think I love you. 😉