Coconut and Berries

Healthy, Vegan Recipes by Emma Potts

Raw Berry Cream Brownies

We interrupt today’s scheduled post for chocolate! I had something else planned for today but then I made these Raw Berry Cream Brownies and decided I had to post them straight away. Not that you shouldn’t be excited about my next post of course, but chocolate is always prioritized!

Raw Berry Cream Brownies

I’ve been baking up a storm in my kitchen recently (more on that to come soon…) and as much as I love doing so, admittedly I don’t feel my best after eating a ton of flour, even if it is wholegrain.

Avoiding flour and still enjoying a sweet treat is no problem at all though when raw desserts are so darn delicious!

I’ve made many a raw brownie in my time but almost always date and nut based ones. I thought I’d go down a different route this time and try and replicate a cooked brownie texture. It was certainly a fun experiment and a resounding success if I do say so myself! They turned out fudgy but with a slightly fluffy “crumb”. They are still very rich so to cut that I added a layer of berry cream using some mixed berries I had in my freezer from the summer. It  took these over the top!

Raw Berry Cream Brownies

The secret to the texture is coconut flour! I know, I just said I didn’t want to use flour, but coconut flour is rather different. Being made from coconut it’s of course gluten and grain-free. It’s also very high in fibre and low in carbohydrates.

Please do not try and sub homemade coconut flour in this recipe- it will not work! Store-bought coconut flour is defatted, unlike shredded coconut, and acts like a sponge soaking up liquid and giving these brownies their moist cakey texture. It’s widely available in health food stores, large supermarkets and online.

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Raw Berry Cream Brownies

Yield: 6 Brownies

Ingredients

    Brownies:
  • 1 Tbsp Water
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1/4 C Maple syrup OR Agave nectar
  • 1/3 C Unsweetened apple purée
  • 1/3 C Raw cacao powder
  • 1/3 C Coconut flour
  • 1/3 C Almond flour/blanched ground almonds
  • Pinch of salt
    • Berry Cream:
  • 1/2 C Mixed frozen berries, defrosted (You can use fresh if in season)
  • 1/4 C Cashews, soaked, rinsed and drained
  • 1 Tbsp Maple syrup
  • 1 tsp Lemon juice
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 Tbsp Coconut oil, melted

Instructions

  1. Line a small baking tin or container with parchment paper to help you remove the brownies later on (I used a 5 1/2” by 3” container)
  2. In a food processor combine water through to apple purée. In a separate bowl stir together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the food processor and process again until fully incorporated. You will have a very thick mixture.
  3. Spread the mixture into the prepared container and smooth out the top. Refrigerate.
  4. For the berry cream, blend the first five ingredients. When smooth add the melted coconut oil and blend again.
  5. Pour the berry cream on top of the brownie and refrigerate or freeze for a few hours. Use the parchment paper to remove from the container and cut into pieces.
  6. Store in the fridge or freezer as the topping will melt if left at room temperature.

Notes

*Adapted from Practically Raw Desserts

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2013/10/12/raw-berry-cream-brownies/

  Please try these and let me know what you think!

Raw Berry Cream Brownies

I’d like to try a raw vanilla cake with coconut flour too…

Have you used coconut flour before? Any must-try recipes to send my way?

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Comments

    • Thanks Jess :) You know, everyone talks about “Bake-Off” but I still haven’t seen it! I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be with watching chefs cooking with eggs and dairy though…

      • It’s pretty over-rated in my opinion. My Mum is absolutely obsessed with it, loves it to the point of having a panic attack if she might possibly miss a few minutes. I agree with you - I’m not crazy about the non-vegan baking but it’s always on in our house, so I tend to catch bits and pieces. I am interested in the presentation though - I’m hooked by anything remotely arty. The dairy/eggs though? Ugh, I could do without them…but my Mum gets so little happiness out of so few things, and if she wants to chat with me about it I’m not going to complain about the non-vegan ingredients, you know?

        xxx

        • Also, I was thinking…watching the bake-off would be no different to reading non-vegan blogs, which we both do. I mean, I skim over pics involving animal products, but it’s not as if they’re cooking with meat on the bake-off and we both read blogs whose authors eat meat! I find it difficult to know what to do in that context…I mean, I really like a lot of non-vegan authors but I don’t want to feel like I’m betraying the cause by reading blogs that by extension endorse eating animals *shrug* :(

          • I hope you didn’t think I was criticizing you! I definitely don’t have a problem with programmes like Bake Off. Like you say, they’re bringing a lot of people a lot of harmless pleasure :) I was thinking I should watch maybe watch a couple of episodes on iplayer (don’t have a tv) to see if I get any inspiration for recipes to veganize!
            I do only read 1 or 2 non-vegan blogs but I’m not exactly lauding the food pictured so I don’t feel like I’m endorsing eating animals. Living in the real world does, sadly mean that we have to accept that other people are going to do so whatever we personally think or do.

  3. OH WOW! You’ve outdone yourself here!! I will have to share this with my readers!! I love this recipe- super clean and the ingredients are right up my alley! Think I’ll make a batch today:):):) I’ll send you the link when I share it later this week:)

  7. OMG Emma, these look like fancy brownies that you’d find in a trendy vegan café! Great recipe - thanks for sharing it. And I’m curious about the whole coconut flour thing - very interesting! Celeste :)

  9. I had all sorts of brownies from black bean to raw carob, but never with these colorful creams or berry-based creams. These berry creams look really pretty against the dark raw brownies and it’s always nice to have some guilt-less flour-less desserts! Stunning photos, Emma and have a great weekend! Did you go to the VegFest in the UK?

  10. Is the unsweetened apple puree something you make or buy? Also, so I don’t have to buy another item, do you think it would work OK to use all almond flour instead of the coconut flour? Thanks!

    • Hi Marisa, I’m afraid you can’t sub the coconut flour. It has rather special properties and is what gives these their fudgy/cakey texture. As for the apple purée sometimes I make it-just peel and dice an apple and cook down until mush. Or I buy organic apple baby food (usually hipp organic or clearspring).

    • Who needs artificial colour when we’ve got nature?!
      Baked coconut flour recipes to tend to use a lot of eggs. Ricki Heller does have quite a few recipes using it (especially in her new book) though and they’re all vegan :)

    • The cupcakes look great Johanna. It does seem that most recipes with coconut flour also call for several eggs.
      I know Ricki’s new book has quite a few coconut flour recipes though. I’ve made the coconut flour biscuits from her blog and they were lovely :)

    • The only baked recipes I’ve made using coconut flour are the coconut flour “biscuits” (US-style) from Ricki Heller’s blog and pancakes (if they count…). I’d like to do some more experimenting on that front though.
      You have to try these though! So fudgy :)

  14. I’ ve been thinking about these ever since I’ve seen them on instagram. You’ve really outdone yourself with these. They look so so so so so so gooooooooood! and yes, please make a vanilla cake variant too!!!!!

    • Aaaw thanks Sonja :) They get better the longer they sit in the fridge it seems too. The (3!) I just ate for dessert were super fudgy and dense.
      And yes I must do a vanilla version. You know I’m more into fruity/vanilla desserts usually.

    • Lucky you! At my family home we have a ton of berries in the freezer too but I’m in my own little flat at the moment and only have a teeny freezer compartment :(
      Hope you make and enjoy the brownies!

  19. These look amazing!!! Beautiful colours and gorgeous photography ♥
    To make the topping raw, you could simply slice a sweet apple, put it in a small bowl and blitz it with a stick blender. This is what I do and works fine.
    I can’t wait to try these. Just need to get myself some coconut flour :)
    Have a great weekend Emma xx

    • I didn’t even think about the apple purée in the brownies not being raw! Oops! Good tip on making my own though, although I tried to use my stick blender a couple of days ago and it seems to have stopped working!
      Hope you make them and love them as much as me Sharon :)

  20. Oh wow these look delicious and the colours look beautiful together! I had never tried making anything raw with coconut flour (usually only baked goods) but these look amazing:)

  21. Reblogged this on Honk If You're Vegan and commented:
    If there’s one thing I’ve learned from blogging it’s that I LOVE BROWNIES! OK, I guess I didn’t need my blog to inform me of that. Still, I’ve shared a lot of brownie recipes here and I’m sharing another one today. I couldn’t help myself - these raw brownies Emma whipped up are so lovely, luscious and believe-it-or-not healthy!

  22. Hi Emma! What an amazing topping colour. I just found your blog through Honk If You’re Vegeterian, I’m glad to “meet” you!

  26. Oh my goodness! These look so much like baked brownies! Thanks for the tip about coconut flour. I must buy some SOON! These are amazing!!!!!

  30. Hi! It’s the frist time I ready your blog and I just LOVE IT! I’m from Brazil, so I didn’t understend everything, for ex.: what is this measurement system do you use? What means “C” and “T”? Is the type of the spoon or the cup? Sorry for this stupid questions and for my not perfect english! I hope you can answer me, so I’ll cook a lot of your recipes where in Brazil!
    Thanks!

    • Hi Laura, thanks for visiting! I’m in the UK but actually prefer to use American measurements. “T” is tablespoon (15ml), “t” teaspoon (5ml) and “C” is cup (240ml). Hope that makes sense!

  36. Oh, wow this was just what I needed!! This is really fun to make and super delicious! Very pretty, too :) I’ll definitely be making this again (probably this weekend, haha) but was curious to know — if I only have raw cashew butter on hand, do you think it would work to use that in place of the 1/4 cup of raw cashews? Thank you, Emma! <3

    • So I went for it — it worked just fine and was delicious with raw cashew butter in place of raw cashews :) My favorite way to eat these is to bring the berry cream brownies out of the freezer and wait for them to get soft/slightly above room temp - - - amazing!

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