“Irresistible” is the only word to describe these gooey, chocolaty hazelnut brownies, especially since they’re not even particularly bad for you! Unlike traditional brownies, these treats contain almost no harmful sugars and processed ingredients, but are just as tasty.
Cutting down on sugar sounds like a good idea, but cutting down on chocolate is just madness. These delicious treats lighten the calorie load while maintaining the rich taste we all know and love.
Indulge without the guilt!
Hazelnut brownies
Ingredients
- 50g pitted dates
- 125ml (½ cup) Stellar Organic Winery Heaven on Earth Muscat d’Alexandrie
- 5ml (1 tsp) honey
- 10ml (2 tsp) xylitol
- 100g hazelnuts
- 100g salted butter
- 100g 72% sugar-free chocolate or 90% cocoa regular chocolate
- 250ml (1 cup) almond flour
- 5ml (1 tsp) bicarbonate of soda
- 5ml (1 tsp) baking powder
- 15ml (1 tbsp) cocoa powder
- 30ml (2 tbsp) full-cream yoghurt
- 5ml (1 tsp) organic vanilla essence
- 2 extra-large eggs
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 190 °C. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter, then line with wax paper.
Begin by putting the dates, Muscat wine, honey and xylitol in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. Once the liquid has almost evaporated and the dates are nice and soft, set them aside to cool.
Now toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes, being careful not to burn them. Remove from the heat and, once cooled slightly, take half of the nuts and blitz them in a blender. Keep the remaining half whole. Set aside.
Place the butter in another small saucepan and place it on medium heat. Once it is completely melted, break up the chocolate, add it to the hot butter and stir until the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
Get 2 mixing bowls and place all the dry ingredients, including the nuts, in 1 bowl and the yoghurt, vanilla and eggs in the other. Whisk the wet ingredients until well combined. Whisk the dry ingredients until there are no lumps, other than the whole hazelnuts of course.
Finally, combine the egg mixture with the dry ingredients, followed by the melted chocolate, then the dates, and combine well.
Pour the gooey chocolate nut brownie mixture into the prepared ovenproof dish, pop in the oven, and bake for about 15 minutes. The time you bake it for depends largely on the size of the dish that you use, but unlike conventional baking, you can take it out halfway and check – it must not wobble, but must still be very soft to the touch and have cracks on the top. Remove and allow to cool completely before getting stuck in (which will be difficult, I know).
This, drizzled with pistachio syrup, topped with whipped cream and some melted chocolate may just send you into chocolate heaven.
Notes
This recipe is extracted from Tasty WasteNOTS by Sally-Ann Creed and Jason Whitehead.
