These healthy raw hazelnut chocolate brownies are grain-free, dairy-free and vegan! Perfect for when you need chocolate now!
I was tempted to shape these brownies into balls again but I don’t want to overdo the ball thing. So here we have little brownie towers. :)
I love these things. No bake. Not so much sweetener and they’re actually tasty. They don’t really taste like brownies or cake, though. Just a little disclaimer. And the chocolate avocado frosting doesn’t taste like frosting with tons of butter and sugar, but I’d take this version over the sugar filled one any day.
Something else I love about these raw hazelnut chocolate brownies is that you can easily make a small batch and overeating, something I have a problem with, is no longer a problem.
I’ve had one loooong headache for 13 months now. Not headaches every day, but one long headache. Every second of every day. No matter what I do or don’t do. And pain relievers don’t work. If I get an “extra” headache, they get rid of that, but the base headache is always there. But it’s really light and more annoying than anything. I’ve been to every doctor imaginable (and I’ve been going to physical therapy for almost a year) and they can’t find anything wrong with me, so my neurologist put me on some “pain management” medicine. She warned me that I’d gain weight and crave sweets, but I really thought, “Eh, whatever. I already do that.” What I didn’t realize is that I’d basically be living off of sweets. Seriously. I hadn’t had vegetables in weeks when I realized that I had gained tons of weight. And my fat pants were now too small. Whoops.
Sonia mentioned that she needed to lose weight, and I know I definitely had to, and since then we’ve been weight loss buddies. In 3 weeks, I’ve lost 3.5 kilos (7.7 pounds). YAY! I’m well aware that’s more than you’re supposed to lose, but I’ve been getting more than enough calories and hardly exercising (because it makes my head hurt more), so I think my body is just in shock. In shock from not having sweets as every meal of every day.
I definitely recommend getting a weight loss buddy if you want to lose weight! I could have never done it without Sonia, who cheers me on and reads my food and exercise diary every day. And if you know someone’s going to read your food diary, you don’t really want to write down that that you ate 4 cookies for breakfast, half a pan of brownies for lunch, and pizza for dinner, which was totally typical for me just a month ago. I’ve even cut back to two sweets a day! That’s probably a lot to some people but that’s a miracle for me. And yesterday? My first sugar free day ever (with the exception of tons of fruit). It wasn’t intentional… it just sort of happened. WEEEEEE! :D
So having a baking blog and not having anyone to really share the goodies with kind of became a problem and that’s why you’ve seen more non-baked goodies around here lately. You can easily make 1/2 or even 1/4 of the batch and these are no exception! They’re soft, chocolately and satisfy any sweet craving you might have.
I found this raw hazelnut chocolate brownie recipe on The Wannabe Chef last week and made them the next morning. I just couldn’t wait. Evan’s picture just made them look so sinful!
Raw Hazelnut Chocolate Brownies
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 5 2×3-inch frosted cakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups (254 grams) raw, unpeeled hazelnuts
- 1 heaping cup (172 grams) dates
- 1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup (60ml) maple syrup (I used 3 tablespoons and it was fine)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 avocado (avocados come in all different sizes so I'll just say mine was 287 grams with the pit and 212 with just the meat)
- 6 - 7 tablespoons (88 - 103ml) maple syrup
- 1/4 cup (28 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 - 3 teaspoons espresso powder (not instant coffee!)
For the cake:
For the frosting:
Directions
- In your food processor, process the hazelnuts until nicely ground. It won't be as finely ground as store-bought almond meal, but a little coarser. Don't process too long or you'll have hazelnut butter. It shouldn't take any more than 20 seconds. Add the dates, cocoa powder, maple syrup and vanilla and process until a sticky dough forms.
- Place the dough between two Silpats or pieces of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4 of an inch thick (or really, however thick you want it). Cut them however you like (I used 1 1/2" circular cookie cutters) and form the excess dough into a ball, roll out again and cut out more shapes.
- For the frosting, in the bowl of your food processor, combine all the ingredients until thoroughly combined and no chunks of avocado are left. It took me a few minutes to do this but it was possible. If it's not sweet enough, add more maple syrup.
- The espresso flavor was really light even with quite a bit of powder, but I still liked the difference it made. Add the frosting to the cake and store in the fridge.
Recipe adapted from Chocolate Hazelnut Cake {Raw/Vegan} - The Wannabe Chef
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57 comments on “Raw Hazelnut Chocolate Brownies (grain-free, dairy-free, vegan)” — Add one!
Heidi – I know! It's terrible. I never look at myself in the mirror so the only way I realize it is if my pants don't fit any more. Strict isn't such a bad word to use with this. I have to be strict with myself now. I'm sitting here all by myself and have this chocolate cake in front of me. And it's got gooey chocolate ganache. I "only" ate 1.5 pieces. It's killing me!
Love how you presented these! They do look so good :) And GREAT for you on the weight loss! Isn't it amazing how weight can creep up on you like that? Ugh, it's ridiculous. I have to be really strict with myself or else I slowly go back to eating nothing but junk. Maybe strict isn't the right word, more like I have to be very mindful about everything I eat, and how much of it. Anyways, I'm so sorry to hear about your headache problem. How strange! I hope it goes away, or at the very least I hope they figure out why it's happening :(
Evan – Thanks! Happy you like the brownie tower idea. :)
Ally – Thank you!
These came out terrific! Love the lighting and glad you liked them. I think I have to steal the brownie towers idea :)
oh. my. goodness. these look to good to be true! perfect job, as always!
xo
Erin – Thanks a bunch! It is difficult when you kind of "have" to bake. But I'm sure you can do it! I'm gonna email you.
sweetpeaskitchen.com – Yeah, it's kind of weird but it works!
Kathryn – Thanks! I had one for about three weeks too and it went away. I kind of thought it'd happen again with this one, but nope. At least ir's light. Thanks for the nice comments. :)
My Italian Smörgåsbord – You'll never see artificial sweetener over here. :) I've put Stevia in my smoothies a few times, but that's it. Good luck with your diet changes! I honestly don't know how you can do it, with all that amazing bread you bake. If I had hot bread or hot sweets, I would be all over the bread. I can't resist hot bread. But I'm sure you'll be successful! And thank you for thinking my goodies are good enough to sell. :) I hope you enjoy these!
congrats for your diet plan. I have kind of started one myself and I am liking taking paying a little extra attention to what I eat. you know, when you wrote that these raw brownies need just a little sweetener I got scared. just hate artificial sweeteners in food. so happy that you are not going that way even if dieting. so I can continue to drool over your amazing creations :) I think you should start a company for healthy treats or something. you really have a talent (and I am so going to make these!).
Woah, I had a headache for 3 weeks and it was bad enough. I can't imagine suffering for that long! I hope you feel better soon. And congrats on the weight loss, that's very impressive!
I love hazelnuts so these brownies look amazing, I think I have all the ingredients on hand too!
Avocado in the frosting? I love it! :)
These look incredible! Congrats on the weight loss! I am trying to lose a couple pounds, and it is slow going :( Baking for the blog doesn't help! Hope you get answers on your headaches soon.
Gwen – Thanks for the tip! That's pretty much the only thing I haven't tried yet. And Chinese medicine. But it's the next step. I'll have to see what (private) insurance covers concerning that. Thanks again. :)
Mellissa – Thank you! And yes, I've started eating my veggies. It's always an ordeal but I'm trying. I sometimes even eat them for breakfast just to get it out of the way. But I try to eat lots of fruit. It's a lot of sugar, but veggies… they're just so difficult to get down!
Sonia – I will totally take it and run with it! I'm certainly not complaining about losing too much. :) I am proud of myself but you know, I'm super proud of you too! And I do think of this as a lifestyle change. Not a temp thing at all. Although I'd probably like to have some more calories. That'd be nice, but not that many more. I really hope I don't go back to the sweets craziness. I had never experienced anything like it before! I don't know if it was really because of the medicine, but I'm not on it any more and things are clearly a lot better. :) Thanks for pinning this and for the nice comment! And I'm sure these do freeze well. Gotta try it next time!
Katrina – Thanks!
Yes please! These look fabulous!
Erin, you are doing FANTASTIC my friend! I am so proud of you when I see all those veggies in your diary, even SPINACH, and very little sweets and junk. I think it's only normal for your body to shed more pounds at first, from the shock of the drastic change, so I wouldn't be overly concerned with that. Just take it and run with it!
You ought to be extremely proud of yourself and think of this as a long term lifestyle change, not only a temporary situation. Sure, you'll be eating a little bit more calories when the weight is all gone, but still not that much more, and your food choices should always be pretty similar. You NEED the veggies inside of you. They might actually help with that darn headache (hey, they might scare it away…)
Wouldn't be much use making all those sacrifices, losing all the weight only to go back to your good old ways and putting it all back on, now would it? ;)
Hey, know that I am extremely proud of you and that I am there to support you every step of the way! You rock girlfriend.
As for these little brownie bites. OMG! They were so pinned to my Must Try List and I will so be making them when my sugar free challenge is over! THEY LOOK SOOOO YUM! And I bet they freeze fantastic too!
These are gorgeous!!!!! Hope your headache situation gets resolved and congrats on the weight loss. PS. Eat more veggies!!!! :)
hi Erin,
Im from NY, working on my MFA in Berlin, love to bake.
Looking forward to trying this recipe.
Im sorry to hear about your headache. Just a thought: homeopathy has great remedies for headaches. maybe you could try homeopathy or tissue salts. BioPlasma is a great start and see if you can meet with a homeopath that an recommend a headache remedy. Berlin has many wonderful alternative doctors thankfully. I hope you feel better soon. gwen
Miryam – I know. I was very bad. But seriously, all I wanted was sweets. And as eating vegetables literally makes me gag, they just didn't get eaten. And throwing veggies in my smoothies just ruins the lovely fruit! But I always use avocado. I know it's a fruit but it should totally count as vegetables. They're green and disgusting by themselves. This meets my vegetable criteria. :) But I've changed! I'm off that medicine, on a new one, and eating vegetables. I had a big bowl of lettuce for breakfast. :D Thank you for the encouragement and telling me how bad I was. You're just so awesome. And the headache thing is just a mess… over one year and they're all clueless. It's really annoying. And yeah, having Sonia around makes it all possible. If you ever notice things getting out of control, Sonia and I will kick your butt. :)
Amy – Thank you! :) I'm happy that you like the look of these brownies. They're kind of weird looking, aren't they?
Jolee – I haven't heard of it but I'll check it out! Thanks for sharing. I'm desperate and will look into anything at this point. :)
Becca – Becca! I was the same. I never tried avocado until a few months ago when I put it in a smoothie or something and the green color went away. So if I can like it, me, Miss I HATE ALL GREEN THINGS!!!, then you can like it too. Put it in a frozen raspberry smoothie. Problem solved! And thanks. :)
I'm not sure if I would like the avacado frosting, just because I don't like the look of avacado (and therefore I must automatically hate it :P) but that cake part looks absolutely delicious!
Congrats with the weight loss. It' sure does help a lot when you're doing it with someone else, that way you're never alone with just your thoughts. Good luck!
OK, the brownie cake things look awesome – I cannot wait to try them.
Also, my family has had some luck with oil pulling to cure headaches… Have you heard of it? http://www.oilpulling.com/
Congrats on the weight loss, friend – that's awesome! You know what else is awesome? These raw brownies. I could definitely eat a ton of these. YUM!
Ok now,
Number one, These look awesome and the ingredient list is superb,! My favorite part is the frosting that reminds me of the avocado pudding that we love :-)
Number two, no veggies for 3 weeks? Bad, bad girl,! Why don't you make some smoothies and throw some veggies in it?
Wow, your headache situation is horrific. Why can't those Dr's figure out? I feel for you and I hope it gets resolved soon!
Good luck on your weight loss journey. It sure helps having a partner which also makes yourself more successful.