Ding Dong!
During a certain time of the year, a knock at the door might mean one of two things: Jehovah’s witnesses or girl scouts. If it’s the latter, chances are they haven’t come empty-handed.
Samoas, Tagalongs, Thin Mints.
A few weeks ago, I decided it’d be fun to try and re-create said girl scout cookies, only in a healthier (and raw) form. Currently, I’m brainstorming ideas for how to do the Samoas. But for today, you’re stuck with raw thin mints. In brownie form.
Hope you don’t mind!
Prettier than a picture!
If you saw my thoughts on twitter, please don’t let yesterday’s tweets deter you from trying these raw brownies.
I swear, they taste amazing, despite some opinions on how they look (or what they resemble). You might even notice it’s this the same photo three times in the post; that’s because the other photos looked even worse. The brownies look yummy in real life, but I just could not manage to get a good picture. So when I went to review the photos, my choices were: go back and take another photoshoot or say, “What’s important is the taste” and just post what I had. Lacking the time and desire for more picture-taking, I went with option two. Besides, it gives me an excuse to make these brownies again in the near future so I can provide y’all with some shots that’ll actually do justice to the stellar taste!
As for the floating brownie photo above? I love how—in some professional photographs—everything is blurred except for one part of the photo. Obviously I am not a professional, ‘cause this just looks weird. Oh well, I tried!
Raw Thin-Mint Brownies
- 1 cup walnuts (120g)
- 1 and 1/3 cups pitted dates (230 grams) (I highly recommend Sunmaid, because they’re softer.)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoons cocoa powder
- A few drops pure peppermint extract (depending on how minty you want them… Start with less; you can always add more.)
- Optional: for even more chocolate flavor, add chocolate chips. Or add cacao nibs.
- Optional: tiny dash of salt (I always add this and recommend it.)
Directions: Combine all ingredients, using a food processor. (No need to blend the dates first; I just blend everything all at once. But if you use a Magic Bullet, you might want to do it in batches. I’ve not tried this in a regular blender and therefore can’t vouch for it.)Form into brownies or balls or bars… or even cookie-cuttered shapes!
(I don’t have specific nutritional info for this recipe, but the nutrition stats are probably pretty similar to a Larabar.)
You know what would go well with raw thin-mint brownies?
One of my favorite healthy recipes: Mint-Chocolate-Chip Milkshake.
I’m gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day, can ya tell?
Question of the Day:
Have you ever eaten a Girl Scout Cookie?
And were you ever a girl scout? When I was in girl scouts, you could always tell my cookie order form from all the others: It was the one with an overwhelming number of orders for Samoas (the only ones I liked) and Thin Mints (the only ones my mom liked).
I made these last night and followed the recipe exactly but they did not hold together. No matter how much I tried to form them in balls, they just crumbled. Any idea how to fix that? Aside from that the flavors were spot on and delicious. I still ate it of course, but made a huge mess and they did not turn out pretty like yours. Any suggestions??
I HIGHLY recommend sunmaid dates. They are much softer!
You didn’t blend them long enough. I don’t use sunmaid and they turn out fine as long I blend them to death. If you still have a problem add a little more vanilla to wet it a bit.
Just made these. Soo good! I would not recommend using a blender though. Mine overheated and I have a pretty powerful blender. I will definitely be making these again..in a food processor!
I’d love to try this but I have a genetic(based on an informal family poll) aversion to coconut. Any ideas? I do use artificial sweeteners or a mix with part sugar when I’m baking because I’m diabetic since so mnay baked goods depend on sugar to brown, among other things. Drink of choice is usually waater with an occasional foray into artificially sweetened iced tea or fruit pulp sodas.
I’m confused… there’s no coconut in the recipe.
Whoops, my bad! I started with that recipe and kept linking into others that were mentioned. I think it might have been the fudge babies with coconut oil but since i can’t seem to find the recipe…Do you have a search option? Can’t find one.
Sorry for the confusion!
I do! It’s at the top-right, under the first foodbuzz ad. Depending on your browser, it might be pretty small. It’s big on my browser, but I know things look different on others. But it’s there! 🙂
SO YUMMY…and super easy on the making and clean-up! I made larabar-esque shapes out of them and put them in the fridge for an easy weekday snack. I’m a mint-aholic so I added a lot more mint extract. I even garnished them with some mint leaves :]
They worked up perfectly in my magic bullet! Small batches are good, like you recommended. i then hand-mixed the batches in one big bowl to make sure everything was evenly distributed. Awesome!
I made these last night! I didn’t realize that I would be 1/3 cup short of dates, so I improvised and used some black beans! I ended up blending it a little too much, but in the end, I balled them up, stuck them on toothpicks, and then dipped them in melted chocolate with mint extract. After a few hours of freezing they were amaaaazing! not as healthy as yours though, I guess. Haha 🙁
I love all of your recipes. They make me happy and help me to not feel deprived of sweets. 🙂
I just made these (again! Love them) but this time I added rum extract instead of peppermint. I have amazing, clean, RUM BALLS! So good!
At some time between 1992 and 1999 the Girl Scouts came out with a chocolate chip cookie that I really do think had crack in it. I ate them by the boxful. I know – you think I mean I ate a lot of them. No, I ate them A BOX AT A TIME. My boss’ little girls were Girl Scouts and I spent a hefty portion of my salary buying all the boxes they could lay their hands on. I think they had to get unsold boxes from other parents to satisfy my habit.
Changing the subject, last week I made German Chocolate Fudge Babies to take to work. People were still asking for them the next day (they ran out pretty quickly). This time I’m prepared: I’ve made mint chocolate chocolate chip, samoas with chocolate chips, peanut butter and chocolate chip, and gingerbread. I too used cashews in all, plus a small amount of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in the mint (just what I had on hand). I have to serve as quality assurance as well as cook so I tried them all, and they are without a doubt AMAZING. The mint ones are my faves, but I have always had a soft spot for mint with chocolate. Has anyone tried stem ginger and chocolate? What about orange or lemon extract instead of mint? So many things go great with chocolate. Anyway, I’m loving these recipes (last week I also made the genius blondies – best use of chickpeas ever, even better than roasted – and Texas Caviar with tortilla chips, I added the juice of one lime). And your Photoshop skills rock!!!
I have a weakness for girl scout cookies…samoas and thin mints are my absolute favorite!! YUMM
Katie,
Can these date bars be made in batches and frozen? Excited to try and use as a lunchbox treat for my kiddos.
Yes!!
I just bought a 4 oz container of cacao nibs, thinking they’d taste like chocolate, but they taste kind of like rum extract, kind of gross. Is there any way I can neutralize the pungent taste.