I made these raw brownies for TH for his birthday. Surprisingly good! I agree with her, worth investing in the expensive dates. I didn’t add in the almonds, which was a mistake, they needed the texture. My mom said they tasted a bit too much like dates, but TH and I agreed that the only thing we would change would be adding even more cacao and a little bit more sea salt.
The best part about these? I felt like I ate dessert, but I didn’t have that gross sugar-high feeling that I get after regular brownies (particularly those from a box mix). In part because these are so rich that you really don’t want to eat more than one. Frequent commenter Sophia pointed me to My New Roots, the blog where this recipe came from and though I don’t plan on going all raw anytime soon, she is sharing an abundance of incredibly healthy vegetarian-friendly recipes that I would love to try. This lentil salad is calling my name…
July 5th, 2011 on 1:44 pm
yummm!!! Looks so good, I love when chocolate doesn’t make you feel sickingly full.
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July 5th, 2011 on 1:54 pm
I *just* got home from the grocery store. After yoga I picked up dates and almonds for this recipe.I’m glad you liked it, it makes me even more excited to make them. I have my eyes on that cashew dream cake next, and pretty much every single thing she put under her “Condiments” tab- especially the mint pea dip. Mmmmmmmm.
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July 5th, 2011 on 2:04 pm
These look delicious! Does anyone know if raw cacao is widely available? We don’t have Whole Foods or specialty grocery stores in our area.
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Jenna Reply:
July 5th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
I think you can just use cocoa, but it might not be as good. Maybe try ordering it online?
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July 5th, 2011 on 3:56 pm
I don’t eat chocolate but I plan on making some dates+coconut bars soon. Do you ever have larabars? So good and all of their bases are dates. They might give you some more ideas!
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July 5th, 2011 on 8:35 pm
I love that you put them in little molds, so cute
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July 5th, 2011 on 9:15 pm
This reminds me of the chocolate Lara Bars! So delish and full of awesome fruits and nuts!
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July 6th, 2011 on 12:30 pm
I was gung-ho about cacao raw-food recipes & smoothies (thinking I was doing myself a world of good with its nutrition, etc.). After four days, I started getting bizarre symptoms like eye twitching, severe kidney pain in my back, insomnia, and headaches; even though my initial experiences were heavenly. Then upon researching, I found others who experienced adverse effects too and discovered raw cacao is high in oxalic acid, hard on liver/kidney/adrenals, and strips minerals in body.
Sadly, I ended up throwing my whole bag of cacao powder away and now use only good-old alkali-processed (European-style) cocoa powder on occasion.
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July 6th, 2011 on 3:10 pm
I tried these after you tweeted it and mine were gross! I’m pretty sure it was all my fault though because I don’t have a food processor and my only blender is a bullet blender.. so i tried to do it in batches but it never really got super fine like a batter. When I took a bite I almost broke a took off on something.. sad day. I was so excited. Soo.. word to the wise people, you need a food processor!
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July 10th, 2011 on 9:30 am
I’m glad you gave some feedback on this, the recipe really made me curious. I’ll probably give it a shot sometimes this summer.
Chocolate dessert without turning the oven on during summer gets extra points from me. I’ll probably use regular powdered cocoa because I have plenty that needs to be used.
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