A soft chewy raw vegan brownie made with pecans, coconut flour, dates, cacao and sea salt. This is one of those super simple recipes that will satisfy your sweet tooth to help you replace those oh so dangerous desserts. 😉
Dominick and I make these very often, because they are just too easy and yummy. We actually just finished our weekly batch in 3 days, because we are pigs and we also had incredible blueberry vanilla ice cream to go with it. The greatest part of this ice cream recipe is that the base is avocado and cashews; sounds weird, tastes amazing, trust me and my favorite picky eater, Dominick!
We were all about those walnut-date brownies at first, but we’ve come to realize that we’re just not into the heavy nut desserts as much as we were before. Plus heavy nut desserts are unrealistic in the long-term because they are super expensive, especially when combined with raw cacao powder and medjool dates. Organic pecans and walnuts are on average a whopping $13/pound!! Coconut flour is usually only $4 per pound. When you make a lot of brownies, the little replacements helps!
Coconut flour brings the perfect fluffy texture and sweetness that pure nut and date brownies simply cannot achieve. In my opinion coconut flour doesn’t taste like coconut, it tastes slightly sweet and nutty, further adding to the deliciousness.
When making the brownies, there are two different methods that will yield different results. The pictures in this post illustrates method 1 using a Vitamix blender.
Method 1:
Blending everything together at once in a blender or food processor.
The results depend on what kind of equipment you have.
Blender:
A vitamix blender is extremely powerful and will yield a more dense brownie and cookie, as the nuts are nearly blended into a butter. You will have to intermittently scrape down the sides to make sure it blends evenly.
Food Processor:
I have found that food processor with serrated blades nearing the bottom of the container yield the best results because there is more surface area, and you don’t have to intermittenly scrape the walls. It will also turn the nuts first into flour, and if you continue to process it will eventually turn into butter. Processing the nuts to an in-between flour and butter consistency is best so that the batter sticks together. The ninja food processor, and other non serrated blade processors do not grind nuts into a flour or butter, but rather processes them into a granular size. This will make it hard for the batter to stick together, in which case you may want to use date paste or nut butter to help it all stick together.
Method 2:
Processing everything separately. This method takes a bit more time but results in a fluffier brownie. The water mixed with dates helps everything stick together, rather than the “nut butter” like in method 1.
- Blend the nuts into a flour and the dates into a paste with a little bit of water.
- Hand mix all the ingredients together, slowly adding the flour into the date paste.
- Once you have a solid mixture, that resembles cookie dough, put it in the food processor to aerate the batter.
- Then you pour the batter into a glass dish and lightly press down.
A similar method is also used in my pound cake recipe which is super fluffy!
These brownies store for about 2 weeks, I haven’t tested any longer than that because we eat them too fast 🙂
Raw Vegan Pecan Brownies
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 cup dates
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- De-pit the dates, and soak if you do not have soft juicy dates.
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor with serrated blades or a powerful blender, manually mixing to make sure it all blends evenly. Process until the brownie mixture builds up and sticks to the walls of the food processor.
- Press down brownies with your hands or a spoon into a glass dish.
- Freeze for 20-30 minutes or refrigerate for an hour or so to let them firm up a bit.
NOTES
If you want less sweetness and more nuttiness, use 1/2-3/4 cups dates and add a tablespoon of nut butter.
If the mixture turns out dry it's probably due to non-juicy dates, either add a tiny bit of water, or nut butter.
