The inertia to take my mixer out of the cupboard has been real. I haven't done any baking ever since returning home from exchange (not including mini bakes like the avo-honey granola I made a few weeks ago). Blame it on the lack of inspiration, or no lack of school work that pushes me down on the sofa watching movies all weekend instead.
So all the poring over recipes on Pinterest in between doing school work actually resulted in something baking in the oven this weekend while my parents were away on holiday. I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out (as my mom goes, "you always bake weird stuff that we all don't eat").
If I had the choice, I'd be so so so healthy I wouldn't be baking brownies. But I don't have a choice cos I LOVE CAKE AND EVERYTHING SWEET WHOOHOO. I dug up a recipe on brownies that didn't require flour, sugar or butter and boy, do they taste like they have those exact ingredients in them.
I actually thought that medjool dates were gonna be a pain to find in our local supermarkets (be it NTUC or Cold Storage) so I used to ignore recipes that called for these babies. But the other day I happened to chance upon them at NTUC Fairprice and they weren't even that expensive (about $5 for that 250g)!!!! Or maybe they were pricey but I don't know the market rate for them dates hahahahaha.
Spent a fortune on this almond butter though but still think it was worth it. I would never spend $13 on a jar of nut butter after seeing the exact same one going at €3 when I was in Europe. But ok I will make an exception (also because this brand of almond butter tastes so natural and unsweetened!!!) this time round.
Here's the recipe (I increased the quantity because I didn't want to waste the dates I know I would never use them again so might as well use them all in one bake), adapted from RealSimpleFoodBlog:
Ingredients
250g pitted medjool dates
250g dark chocolate (unsweetened)
125g almond butter (unsweetened)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp sea salt
125g almond flour (ground almonds)
250g pitted medjool dates
250g dark chocolate (unsweetened)
125g almond butter (unsweetened)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp sea salt
125g almond flour (ground almonds)
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a brownie pan with parchment paper.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a brownie pan with parchment paper.
Soak the pitted medjool dates in boiling water.
Chop the dark chocolate and melt it by placing it in a large bowl placed on top of a pan of simmering water.
When the chocolate is melted, turn off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Drain the water from the dates and puree the dates using an blender (or food processor) until no lumps remain.
Whisk the almond butter into the melted chocolate. Fold in the date puree. Beat in the eggs one by one, waiting for each egg to be completely mixed in before adding the next egg.
Lastly fold in the salt and the almond flour.
Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan and bake the brownies for ca. 20-25 minutes or until just set.
Leave to cool completely in the pan. For clean edges on your brownies, cut with a very sharp knife, cleaning the knife between each cut.
I actually wouldn't mind putting a bit more salt in them. Also still in awe at how brownie-like these taste because I thought they'd be overwhelmed by the medjool dates. Might cut down on the dates and add more ground almonds because they still taste really sweet.
Making a mental note here that I really need to get a real food processor but I feel like my blender works right for now (although I have to give it an occasional shake or two to get the bits into the blades).
0 comments