This past week has seen several days of drop dead gorgeous weather in our parts. It was scorching hot on Wednesday and Thursday and so I’ve lost interest in cooking. And although it was raining all day today – this recipe is in keeping with my hot weather mood – it’s a tray of no bake brownies studded with juicy and tart raspberries.
This is a great dessert for hot weather as it is delicious and pleasantly cooling eaten straight out of the freezer (or fridge) and it’s seriously easy and quick to make.
While it is certainly not healthy per se, it is healthier than traditional brownies / fudge as it is partly based on a sweet potato – an ingredient I do like to incorporate into desserts sometimes (like in these muffins or this mousse). It really works a treat and adds no nasty aftertaste, which some alternative ingredients tend to add. I’m thinking of you, avocado! We’ve enjoyed this dessert a lot and I hope you’ll too.
- 200 g / 7 oz vegan 70% cocoa dark chocolate
- 200 g / 1 cup cooked* sweet potato
- 100 g / ½ cup almond or cashew butter (or peanut butter if you don’t mind the flavour coming through)
- ½ tsp salt
- 80 ml / 1/3 cup maple syrup or 165 g / 5.8 oz dates, pitted and soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes**
- 22 g / 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 250 g / 8.8 oz fresh raspberries
- Line a shallow tray (mine was 20 cm / 8″ x 15 cm / 6″ ) with a piece of baking paper. Optionally, grease the bottom of the paper a little and sprinkle with oat flour or almond flour all over. Get rid of the flour that hasn’t stuck to the greased paper by turning the tray upside down over a sink. This will prevent the brownies / fudge from sticking to the paper.
- Melt the chocolate very slowly over a bain marie / water bath. Make sure the bowl with chocolate does not touch the water underneath.
- Place all of the remaining ingredients (apart from the raspberries) in a food processor and blend until super smooth.
- Once the chocolate has melted and cooled a little, feed it through the food processor’s chute while the machine is running. Process until well combined and smooth.
- Pour into the prepared tray, level with a spatula and decorate with fresh raspberries by pushing them into the mixture.
- Set aside in the fridge (overnight) or freezer (2 hours to set). Once set, cut into pieces using a sharp knife. Heating the knife blade over a gas flame is a nice trick to get neater squares.
- Store in an airtight food container in the fridge (they will keep for up to 4-5 days) or freezer (if you intend to keep them for longer).
**Adjust the level of sweetness to your taste (it will also depend on how sweet your chocolate is). Adding an extra tablespoon or two of liquid sweetener won’t have that much of an impact on the texture.