These no-bake vegan brownies made with dates and walnuts are everything a perfect guilt-free dessert could be – gluten-free, sugar-free, eggless and dairy-free. These perfectly chocolaty brownies will make you forget they’re healthy!
When you find a recipe that’s no-bake, sugar-free, eggless, gluten-free and still tastes phenomenal you know you’ve hit the jackpot. I guess I had a stroke of luck when I found this recipe while aimlessly pinteresting (are you following me there yet?). At first I really didn’t believe it would work, but then I thought why not give it a shot and see how it turns out. I had the ingredients at home because I was planning on baking a date and walnut cake but I guess when you find the Haley’s comet of recipes you don’t think twice before testing it, so the date and walnut cake idea was out the window and I started prepping for this recipe. And that was one of the smartest decisions I’ve made in a while.
These brownies are raw, meaning you don’t need to bake or cook them in any way. They’re entirely made with the flesh of soft dates and crushed nuts. The recipe I used to make these suggested I use mejdool dates (which is a type of dates) but I had the soft and super sweet kimia dates at home so I used them instead. My brownies turned out just fine so use either. I also used organic cacao powder by zazabox this time around and I could really taste the difference. I never really care about using organic ingredients but when I compared Cadbury’s cocoa powder with Zazabox’s organic cacao powder, I could see and smell the difference. The organic one was most definitely superior in quality and I see myself using it more often. You can use just about any cocoa powder in this recipe if you can’t find the real deal.
To make these raw brownies, you need to pulse walnuts, until they turn powdery. They might even start sticking together so don’t worry about it. Once that’s done, start adding the pitted dates. Since I used kimia dates which are stickier than mejdool and a lot softer, the end product is sweeter and stickier. But as long as you keep these brownies in the fridge they will do just fine. Also, since the dates are so sweet already I didn’t need to add any additional sweetener but if you like your desserts sweeter, add in some honey. These brownies are a great for an instant boost of energy, since they’re full of natural sugars you can just pop a small piece whenever you’re hungry. I loved these especially because I could finally enjoy a dessert without the guilt that follows later. I hope you do too!
- • Walnuts (unsalted), 1 cup
- • Cocoa Powder, ½ cup or 60 grams approx.
- • Sea salt, ¼ teaspoon
- • Soft dates (pitted), 1 ½ cup (You can use mejdool or kimia dates)
- • Almonds (chopped), ¼ cup
- • Honey, 1 tablespoon (optional)
- In a food processor, pulse the walnuts until they're finely ground. Add in the cocoa powder and salt, pulse again to mix these together.
- Add the dates one by one and keep processing them in the food processor until you form a dough. Add in the chopped almonds and mix to evenly distribute them.
- Taste the dough, if you feel like it needs a little more sweetness, add in the honey. If not, skip it and move to the next step.
- Line a brownie tray with foil paper and transfer the dough to it. Flatten it using a spatula and form a smooth flat surface.
- Refrigerate for atleast an hour so that they can firm up.
- Cut shapes when cold and store in the refrigerator at all times.
Looking for more No-Bake recipes? Try these..
NO BAKE SALTED CARAMEL CHOCOLATE OREO TART
no bake chocolate chip granola bar
no bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Brownies look great !! Will try them ..
Hi Neetha! Thank you. Let me know when you do. Would love to know what you think 🙂