Your whole food, plant-based life.

Vegan Hazelnut Brownies with Cacao Frosting

These hazelnut brownies are kind of an accidental post. It all started with a bag of hazelnut flour. I had used the bulk of it making the crust for a strawberry rhubarb galette (kind of a free-form pie without a pie plate) last weekend. The galette was pretty tasty but the crust still needed a little finessing which I hope to do before rhubarb season is over.

Vegan Hazelnut Cacao BrowniesOn Monday morning, this half-full bag of hazelnut flour was sitting on the counter, staring me right in the face. I had to do something with it. As a former Nutella addict, when ever I see hazelnuts, I think chocolate. Except when I was thinking strawberry rhubarb galette. Ok…back to the bag of flour. On a whim, I threw the flour in a mixing bowl and started working on vegan hazelnut brownies. I wanted to make a recipe that was oil free and low in refined sugar. Dang if it didn’t turn out great and worthy of a blog post for you!

Ingredients for Vegan Hazelnut Cacao Browines

My sweetener of choice right now is homemade date paste. Even though dates are 80% sugar, they are also full of nutrients and fiber. Crazily enough, dates don’t adversely effect blood sugar. And eating them can cause benefits in triglycerides and antioxidant stress levels. Dr. Greger has a wonderful video on dates as a green light food here: Dates.

I wanted to keep the ingredients simple so I used golden flax seeds for the binder, and no oil! A little baking powder and apple cider vinegar gives some lightness to this fudge-like brownie and that is it. You can add a half of a cup of Lily’s Chocolate Chips (sweetened with stevia) or cacao nibs for a little extra chocolate surprise.

In went the date paste to sweeten the brownies. But if you are anything like me, sometimes, date paste just isn’t enough. So, as an experiment, I also added a little maple syrup to even things out. And that is the beauty of this recipe. Use a bunch of healthy sweetener and balance it out with a bit of maple syrup and you get deeper, more complex, sweeter flavor than if you had just used dates.

Vegan Hazelnut Brownies

When they came out of the oven, it was apparent that a little frosting would make a good thing, better. So I obliged. I still wanted to keep it as healthy as possible so I took my chocolate mousse recipe and altered it a tad to make a delicious frosting. Once again, sweetened with date paste and a little maple syrup. And to balance off the flavor and make it taste a little more like traditional chocolate frosting, a half of a cup of Lily’s stevia sweetened chocolate chips. It’s entirely optional but it is amazing how much just a little bit of a more traditional ingredient can round out the flavor.

Ingredients for Chocolate Avocado Frosting

 

Golden Flax

Don’t be afraid of flax in a recipe! If you use golden flax, you really don’t taste it. And it brings with it numerous health benefits! They are high in antioxidents, good for your heart, help fight cancer, and are high in omega 3’s!  Bring on the flax and bring on the health!

For a raw version of Hazelnut Brownies, click here: Hazelnut Brownies

This is not a sponsored post, nor do I have any connection with Lily’s Chocolate Chips. I just really love them. As always, we do get a tiny commission if you use our links to buy the product off of amazon. It goes towards paying for the cost of the ingredients and site maintenance. Cheers!

Share Via
Share on Pinterest
Share with your friends










Submit


14 Comments

  1. Cachou wrote on July 31, 2017

    Hello Susan,
    Can you tell me if we can make this recipe without a furnace?
    Thank you for your recipes all truly delicious.
    Here in France, I have made adepts to your wonderful recipes and explanations.
    Thank you very much
    Cachou

    Reply
  2. Lois wrote on July 28, 2017

    The name of your website is perfect! Everything that you make looks soooo amazing!! I love your recipes and the information that you share about each one. The personal story and the information about the ingredients. I love that you have some recipes that are strictly raw some that are cooked but they are all healthy which I love.Your website is the only one that I subscribed to and have not left. Thank you so much for all that you offer Susan.

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on July 28, 2017

      Lois, you made my day. Thank you so much for your kind comments. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Gemma wrote on July 27, 2017

    Wow! These brownies look so mouthwatering! Even more luscious with that yummy frosting. 🙂
    Can’t stop looking at your brownie pictures, hee hee.

    xo

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on July 27, 2017

      Thanks so much, Gemma! I love hearing that! 🙂

      Reply
  4. kate mccabe wrote on July 27, 2017

    Sometimes i wonder how long those Bob’s Redmill flours have been on the shelf….and from grinding to us buying them. For nut flours, i use the wet pulp from making any nut milk, then dry it out, and grind it in the Vitamix. It makes the most wonderful light, fluffy flour. and has worked well in many cookie things i’ve done. I’m sure you have probably made your own, Susan…

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on July 27, 2017

      Hi, Kate, I have found that Bob’s is really good at having a limited best by date. There is a blog post on how to make almond flour but sometimes I like to use something already made. The hazelnut flour I got from Bob’s was actually really fresh. But you can always make your own. Even hazelnut flour! The post for almond flour is here: Almond Flour.

      Reply
  5. Louise wrote on July 27, 2017

    what about coconut flour ? could that work ?

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on July 27, 2017

      Coconut flour is a beast. It absorbs liquid like a sponge. You would have to dramatically change up the wet ingredients in the recipe to try to make it work. You can not exchange it 1:1 in this recipe. Cheers!

      Reply
  6. Wendy wrote on July 27, 2017

    Thank you, this recipe looks Rawmazing. I am so excited to try it. I will with the almone flour too.

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on July 27, 2017

      So glad you like it, Wendy! Cheers!

      Reply
  7. Sharon-Ann wrote on July 26, 2017

    can u exchange hazel nut flour for???????

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on July 26, 2017

      I imagine almond flour could work. But I haven’t tested it. Cheers!

      Reply

Post a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

ooter(); ?>