Happy Friday everyone,
My trip to PARIS is just around the corner!!! SO EXCITED….. can you tell!!!!!
Well Michelle and I wanted to share with you all a chocolate lovers dessert. BROWNIES. And not just any brownies but raw and gluten free! YAY
We made these for our local customers for Valentine’s Day and everyone loved them so we thought we would share what we did.
Now I know what you might be thinking? Does it contain nuts? Yes this recipe does. We are not totally against nuts, we just try to limit our overall intake of them. But sometimes you need nuts to get certain textures and creaminess you desire in a recipe. And this is one of those recipes. Cashews just do a great job with providing creamy texture and smooth chocolate feel to these brownies which we just love!
Pure2Raw Recipe: Gluten Free Vegan Raw Brownie Sandwiches
Ingredients for Brownie Batter:
- 2 cups whole cashews, soaked and rinsed
- 3/4 cup coconut flour
- 2 tbsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup cacao or any chocolate powder
- ½ cup agave or any liquid sweetener of choice
- pinch salt
Directions: Place all ingredients into a food processor and pulse till combined.
Batter will be a little wet and sticky. Take brownie batter and mold into shapes if desired. We pressed ours on a flat surface, about 1/2 inch thick, and used cookie cutters to cut into heart shapes. You may just press into a pan and cut into squares. Another option is to fill your mold all the way and cut the brownies in half to fill.
Ingredients for Creamy Filling:
- 2 cups soaked cashews
- 4 tbsp coconut oil, liquid
- 2 tbsp coconut butter, softened
- 35 drops stevia
- 1-2 tbsp agave
- 1 tbsp + 2tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
- ¼ cup water
Blend till smooth in a food processor or blender.
© 2010 Pure2Raw
How to build Brownie Sandwiches:
Take one heart shaped brownies and lay it down flat. Than scoop some of the creamy filling on top of the brownie. Next grab another brownie and place on top. Set in freezer. Repeat till our brownies are filled.
There you have it folks. A delicious and easy gluten free vegan and raw brownie sandwich. No baking or dehydrating time required here! We like to eat these right out of the freezer. It reminds us of a cookie sandwich.
I am sure many of you have seen the issues with sugar and agave going around.
Real quick our thoughts:
Sugar is Sugar!!! No matter what form it comes in. Everything in moderation!
We still use agave, but occasionally. The main forms of sweetener we use in our daily eats and baking and unbaking:
- -stevia
- -dates
- -Yacon
- -Coconut sugar
- Lucuma
- -Maply syrup, agave, and black strap molasses (these are rare)
So you can still have your agave, just not a cup of it ; ) Not that anyone would, right?
We feel balance is key and be aware of your sugar intake. But we still feel you need DESSERT!!!
For more great reads on sugar check out Kristen and Bittsblog where they share their thoughts.
Time to get back into the kitchen got two farmers markets to bake for tomorrow! And still packing for my trip overseas!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Any exciting plans??
What is your favorite thing to do on Easter Sunday?!?!
As kids we did the whole Easter egg hunts but as we got older we were not too thrilled with that game anymore. Now we just like to be with family and friends and be in the kitchen of course baking away!
Till next time, I will be speaking to you all from Paris. Michelle will still be here plugging away and our mom is coming to visit her while I am gone!
Lori
The Twins
L&M
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
This looks incredible!! If only I could eat cashews!
Erica, you can sub in other nut that you can handle…brazil nuts or macadamia nuts would do good.
Enjoy!!
Yay, I didn’t think of that! I’ll be trying it w/ macadamias for sure!
Looks lovely ladies!!
So pretty!!
Holy yum! These look fantastic. And they are so adorable, too!
We are doing an Easter Egg hunt for grown-ups at Mike’s parents on Sunday. We’ll always be kids at heart.
Jenna it sounds like fun…we are still kids at heart too!! xoxo
Thanks for the link up. I like how you use stevia and agave. If you pair other sweeteners with agave it will mean that you don’t get a whole cup into your system. Because desserts go fast at my house.
We go through desserts fast in the house too! That is why we have learned to love stevia and other sweeteners and try not to use agave that much
HAHA. Now we love stevia!!!
This look so good!! You’d swear it was a cream and butter-laden treat from a bakery, not a delicious raw vegan dessert
Enjoy Paris!!
Have an amazing time in Paris! Oh my gosh I’m so jealous! Oh, and enjoy the time with your bf too! Bet you really can’t wait to see him!
And the heart brownies with cherry cream center… there are just no words. Amazing? Phenomenal? Outstanding? Delicious? I don’t know. None seem to capture how crazy freakin’ great those look! Thanks again for all the wonderful recipes!
Oh and yes, agave, sugar, sweets, all in moderation!
Holy mother I need to make these!!!! Maybe a last minute addition to my Easter Menu? Nothin’ too exciting, just ehading home to celebrate with the family although I’m really looking forward to it!!
I just saw this article today and found it scary/ interesting.
I love your desserts (I’ve ordered them) and had previously also used lots of agave…
not sure if this is 100% correct but it’s worth a look:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/30/beware-of-the-agave-nectar-health-food-fraud.aspx
Those look SO good, love the heart shapes!
What delicious looking brownies and the ingredients are so simple..my fav! It’s a super bonus that you don’t have to dehydrate it! Thanks for sharing. And on the sweetner front..I agree that sugar is sugar (albeit some are worse than others) but it needs to be kept to a minimum. Yes, moderation is super key!
Have a wonderful trip to Paris..sounds fun:)
Happy Easter!
One word: Yum.
YUM-O!!!! those look amazing! cashews are so perfect for raw desserts!
omgosh…that brownie sandwich looks UN. REAL. I’m curious, though, why do you try to limit your intake of nuts?
Hey Gracie, I just realized I never answered your question about why we limit our nut intake. Well when we first went raw we ate a lot of nuts and noticed we were always extremely tired. So we cut them out and noticed our energy improve. Now we have nuts occasionally. Nuts, raw or not, can be dense and hard to digest, so we feel for us we can still enjoy them but in moderation. Also we notice our skin breaks out more when we over due them. I hope this answers your question. ; )
Ok I went to your site to look at your smores recipe and now i see this! OMG amazing!!!! Thank you for providing your recipe for the brownies. My raw brownies have a tendency to turn into either goo (choc mousse) or more raw choco date ball consistency. This is perfect, thank you for being so giving with your recipes as I know this one must have had TONS of trial and error.
And of course the creamy filling looks amazing.
Paris, Michelle, enjoy!!!!!! And im with you on agave, ok in moderation.
So yummy and cute. Right up my alley. Enjoy Paris
This recipe looks amazing!
No plans for Easter. Hope you have a great one though!
OH MY YUMMMM! This looks absolutely ridiculously over the top amazing! I need one now!
Ayez un temps merveilleux à Paris gai.
baisers,
xoxo
EM
These are amazing looking! My son saw these and asked if I could make them.
Have a great trip. So jealous!!!
Agave? I agree as well, all in moderation. Also if it’s truly raw it’s probably processed better as well.
Love these cute desserts!
We are going to The Man’s parents’ house for a big Easter dinner with my parents too… should be fun
What do you think would happen if you dehydrated the brownie batter for a little bit? Do you think it would get chewy?
Amanda – yes you can dehydrate the brownie batter. In terms of chewiness, you will get better results if you use dates. Dates provide great chew. But you could still dehydrate the batter! Hope this helps.
Thanks! I will try it and let you know how it turns out.
OK so I used soaked dates in the brownie mixture instead of agave, and dehydrated the hearts for about 2 hours, and they came out just like chewy brownies! I rolled the brownie batter in between 2 pieces of wax paper to get it even. I also salvaged the cream that I couldn’t get out from the bottom of my vitamix, added some more cashews, and made cashew milk this morning to go with my breakfast! Great recipe!
Amanda – awesome!!! We hope to make this again for us soon
Thanks for letting us know how it turned out!!
I have only the powdered stevia in a spice-like bottle. How much should I measure for recipes that say “one packet”? what about when the recipe says “drops”?
Thanks!
GABS I would say one packet of stevia would equal about 1/4-1/2 tsp, I would start small and go by taste. For the drops, same thing, start small and go from there. Let me know if you need more help with this.
I just made this recipe and it was absolutely incredible. You both inspire me so much with your healthy and mouth-watering recipes, workouts and the respect you have for food. Thank you so much for all of these recipes they have changed the way I eat FOR GOOD and have opened up an array of different “eating doors” for me.
Callie – this comment made my morning! so happy to hear you liked the brownie sandwich, plus looking at food differently
thank you so much for your support, it means the world to us.
i dont have coconut flour..
any other subs? i’d love to try this recipe
Rachel you can use a nut flour like almond flour for the coconut flour.
hi, love the site!!! I am a newbie to cashew soaking, how long do I soak???
thanks
summah
Summah you can soak them overnight or for as little as 30 minutes. just make sure you rinse them before use. soaking the cashews is just to help soften them so they blend easier and helps with digestion too.
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