Ooey gooey, melty, chocolatey unbaked brownies – the perfect recipe for those days when you just really need a brownie!
And if you’re anything like me, that would be every day.
Good thing these babies freeze well!
Brownies are my Kryptonite. I love them even more than chocolate chips cookies.
Think about it: you only get a small amount of chocolate when you eat a chocolate chip cookie; whereas with a brownie, the entire thing is melty, gooey chocolate.
Also Try These Almond Butter Brownies – Flourless & Vegan
All chocolate is always going to be better than some chocolate.
If you put a plate of brownies down in front of me, you can pretty much do anything you want without me noticing.
My mind will only be thinking about the plate of brownies in front of me and how to stop myself from eating all the brownies.
I’m having a hard time writing this post, because there are brownies on my computer screen, and it’s making me hungry.
I want all the brownies. ALL THE BROWNIES!!!
What I Eat In A Day As A Vegan
So about these unbaked brownies…
The recipe takes 5 minutes to prepare and can be raw, gluten free, egg free, dairy free, soy free, and vegan.
They are like a cross between a brownie and a chocolate candy bar – and secretly GOOD for you at the same time!
Leftovers (if there are leftovers… how could there possibly be leftovers?!) can stay out for a few days, making these brownies a fantastic option for a bake sale or to ship to faraway friends.
I’d recommend shipping them unfrosted or simply spreading melted chocolate chips on top if they’ll be left out for an extended period of time, as coconut oil will soften when warm.
You can also refrigerate these brownies for a few weeks, or you can freeze them for up to 2 months or more.
But seriously, who has the willpower to keep brownies that long without eating them all first???
(Above – watch the video of making the brownies)
The Ultimate Unbaked Brownies
Ingredients
- 2½ cups loosely packed pitted dates
- 1 1/2 cups walnuts
- 6 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp water
- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup cacao or cocoa powder
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave
- 2 tbsp vegetable or melted coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine the dates, walnuts, 6 tbsp cocoa, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, water, and salt in a food processor. (I use this food processor.) Process until completely smooth, scraping down as needed – It may seem dry at first, but don’t add any extra water. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan, or line the pan with parchment or wax paper. Transfer dough to pan and press very firmly until dough is evenly distributed in the pan. In a medium mixing bowl, combine remaining cocoa and vanilla extract with the maple syrup and oil. Stir until mixture forms a paste (this is the frosting). Spread evenly over dough in the baking pan. Refrigerate brownies for at least 2 hours, to set. Leftovers can stay covered at room temperature for a day, or up to 2 weeks in the fridge, or 1-2 months in the freezer.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Brownie Recipes
Great news! I love your first cookbook and have even given it as a gift. The unbaked brownies are one of my favorite recipes from the book. The last time I gave your book as a gift I also included all the ingredients to make those. 🙂
I’m looking forward to another cookbook from you. I love how healthy your recipes are and would love to see more recipes that are oil free. Thanks!
I would love it if the sweet recipes you do include in your next cookbook included even less sugar than your first cookbook. We love your first cookbook, but we’ve been weaning down our processed sugar and as we start to feel better, we are also more sensitive to the sweetness. When I first made your peanut butter cookies (a huge hit here), I remember thinking they weren’t as sweet as our old recipe, but we liked them. Now I cut the sugar in the recipe in half and they’re perfect. We aren’t vegan, but two of my kids have dairy and egg allergies, and we eat gluten-free as well. I would be interested in most recipes that don’t call for out of the ordinary ingredients (like something you’d buy and ONLY use for that one recipe). I’d love to see more snacks and/or treats that are fruit sweetened. Cobblers, pies, muffins, if you could figure out a gluten, dairy, egg free cake that ISN’T chocolate or carrot/spice cake and still tastes good, you’d make our birthday celebrations a lot less predictable and more fun! (I get that subbing out so many ingredients is tricky, but a girl can dream about strawberry cake, right? We’ve given up on vanilla or yellow cake as the gluten-free flours have a different taste…) Best wishes as you create, taste, and share your way toward a second cookbook!
Well that certainly made my me dribble at 7:30am! Totally trying this, thank you for the recipe!
http://www.carlyrowena.com
Hahaha, when I saw the pictures for this post I was like, “These seem…. familiar…”
Now I know why. How exciting! 🙂 I love your book, I will definitely be buying the next one when it comes out.
No requests from me, just keep doing what you already do. You always come up with recipes I never knew I needed… until they show up on your site! (Still don’t know how I lived my life before your healthy chocolate frosting came into it…)
Would love to see some veggie burgers in there, not soy based. Also more not soy based meals in general.
Try sunflower seeds.
This recipe would work for Passover too. Thanks!
Oh, Katie, PLEASE include a section for prepare-the-night-before breakfasts/lunches for us non-morning-people!! This category is *sorely* lacking =)
It’d be amazing if you could do a nut-free version of this, since I can’t have nuts.
Those brownies *photos* are mouthwatering! A suggestion for your new book – a bigger version of a swiss roll? Or recipes combining chocolate in savoury recipes? I wonder if chocolate would go with sour recipes, as in the sweetness of the chocolate against the sour taste, or some other contrasting taste. Then again that could end up a disaster! Gosh, I’m even thinking of a beanburger with some kind of chocolate sauce on it with other spices! Well, it could work like BBQ sauce!
Hi!
Such a nice recipe, and the brownies will turn out delicious I hope (they are cooling in the fridge now :)) Only thing is, I can’t afford proper food processor, so I had to use my blender. Aaand… I broke it in the process 🙁 It seems it wasn’t fit to process the dates and walnuts and got overheated and one small but crucial piece melted.. I had to finish the mixing with a mixer, and when it didn’t work, I even used a fork. 😀 It took nearly an hour, not 10 minutes. Well, no can do.
I probably should have known to do this, but I didn’t and it would help if the recipe suggested it. My food processor kind of freaked out with all the ingredients at once. I think if I’d put just the walnuts in, then just the dry ingredients, then the dates, it would have been fine, but the gooey stickiness of the dates made it too gummy to properly crush the walnuts.
That said, this is a REALLY yummy recipe and I don’t mind walnut chunks. Not the end of the world, just a thing that I’d do differently next time and that it would have been nice if the recipe warned me about. Although I guess I may have an under-powered processor?
These unbaked brownies are great-solved my chocolate craving without guilt! Mine look pretty ugly, but the chewy chocolatey taste more than makes up for it!
I am eager to make this. However, I don’t want to mess it up. Soooo, Could you possibly provide gram weights for the walnuts and dates? It seems like “loosely packed dates” of one kind or in one particular measuring cup could vary quite a bit from another kind of dates as they all have a pretty uneven surface. And walnuts make a lumpy surface as well: not easy to see if that’s really 1.5 cups or 1 3/4 cups. And since dryness-or not dryness is an issue, grams would help lots. Thanks
Can I make this in a vitamix instead of a food processor? Have you tried? Thanks
I made a half batch of these brownies and they are great! Chewy, fudgy and satisfying, even though I cut them into smaller squares than the recipe called for! I used honey instead of maple syrup in the frosting and ended up adding another tablespoon of cocoa to balance out the honey taste. I’m not one for nuts in brownies, but there’s a subtle walnut undertone that really works. I almost understand why people intentionally add them to baked goods. 😉