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).
Nice job getting your depth of field on in that picture. macro lense?
lol nope, blur tool with photoshop. I am so lousy with cameras! I’m embarrassed to say I use the automatic; haven’t mastered f stop, aperture, and all those terms yet. Someday!
I loved samoas! I just tried to make healthy vegan caramel sauce. The non vegan one had sugar, butter and cream so I used agave, coconut butter and unsweetened almond milk. The flavor was very yummy (it had a hint of toasted coconut!) but it was WAY too sweet. It’ll be good diluted in a milkshake or used in small amounts. Maybe raw sugar would be less sweet? Let me know if you have any luck!
Deal… and you let me know if you have any luck! 🙂
Samoas were always my favorite girl scout cookie, cant wait to see your recreation 🙂
Who hasn’t had a girl scout cookie! tagalongs are my fav:)
If you figure out how to do Somoas I will love you forever! They’re definitely my favorite, but I don’t even remember the last time I had one.
Oh Katie you’re crazy!
For what its worth I think these brownies are delicious. You’re photography skills are great!
I’ve honestly never had a Girl Scout cookie
awww I *heart* you, Kat 🙂
LOL!! 🙂 I love the poo joke! Of course, I tend to cross the line a lot with my humor, well, in writing anyway, which is why I don’t have a blog 😛
That floating brownie is HILARIOUS!!! LOL. This is exactly why I love your blog. However, the other photos are beautifully clear. I want a camera like that!
Thin mints were my favorite girl scout cookie as a little girl, even though I’m more partial to peanut butter patties now, the thin mints bring back the greatest memories 🙂 It’s nice to have something reminiscent of that in vegan form 🙂 How fun!
The camera is actually just ok… it’s photoshop that’s amazing!! And I was so excited to find out that if you’re a student or teacher, you can get it for 80% off! (A huge deal, because it’s regularly $699. Yikes!)
I’m typically not picky with my sweet tooth, so I “loved/liked” everything, well almost everything (didn’t really care for the chocolate creme sandwich cookies one year (the only things i really don’t care for are marizpan and black licorice, off hand). As a girl scout, I always made sure to buy some cookies to eat, and of course, sell the most in my troop. “cept when we were selling, samoas were called caramel delights/delites, and tagalongs were called peanut butter patties. i’ll be honest though, and say i hadn”t had a caramel delite until i got older, and was surprised by how good they are. too bad they’re a fortune now. i might try this new recipe soon
Thin Mints are like a drug to me! I.just.can’t.stop! Hence the reason I don’t buy them…well, that and they are severely overpriced! :-/
I was a girl scout in kindergarten and first grade! Loved it! I still have my little sash thingy!
Although I was never a Girl Scout, I do have a healthy appreciation for those cookies–remember when I made oatmeal in every single Girl Scout cookie flavor?