No Bake Brownies (No Butter, No Sugar & Gluten Free)
These super easy No Bake Brownies are just the best! Packed with antioxidants from 3 types of nuts, dried fruit and chia seed. Vegan, gluten free, naturally sweetened, super fudgy and super good. The perfect nutritious guilt free brownie!
Servings: 12 brownie squares
Equipment
- 1 Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup dates
- 1/2 cup pistachios
- 1/4 cup pecans
- 1/4 cup walnuts
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp hot water
Garnish
- 1 tbsp chopped pistachios
- 1 tbsp dried cranberries
- 1 tbsp walnuts
- Optional - sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Place dates, pecans, walnuts and half of the pistachios into the food processor and blitz until chunky. Add the cocoa powder, chia seeds, coconut oil, and sea salt and pulse until slightly clumpy. Add 1-2 tbsp warm water if the mixture is dry to help it come together.
- Next add in remaining pistachios and dried cranberries and pulse a couple more times till the pistachios are chunky. Line a 9 x 6 inch tin with parchment. Transfer the brownie mixture into the tin and fill the tin, spreading it out evenly.
- Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave in 30 seconds intervals, stirring until the chocolate is smooth and shiny. Pour the melted chocolate over the brownie mixture covering the top evenly. Optional - Garnish with chopped pistachios, some dried cranberries and chopped pecans or walnuts. Chill the brownies in the refrigerator for ~30 minutes to set.
- Once ready to serve, cut into squares. Sprinkle a little sea salt before serving if you like a hit of salt with your brownie. Keep air tight and chilled in the fridge. It will store well for at least a week.
Video
Notes
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Note 1: The key to success in making these super-good and super-fudgy vegan brownies is essentially a good blender or food processor. A good blender does all the work and makes this No Bake Brownie a quick, easy and No Fail recipe.
Note 2: Use a high quality cocoa powder. Cocoa powder is what gives that dark chocolatey fudgi-ness to this No Bake Brownie, so use a good quality one. I like the Hershey cocoa powder which is usually readily available in most supermarkets; or the Varlhona cocoa powder which has a wonderful deep chocolate taste.
Note 3: I used dates, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, cranberries and chia seed for my No Bake Brownies. You can easily substitute these ingredients or switch it up according to your preference. Easy additions or substitutes are flaxseed, almonds, cashews, desiccated coconut or even raisins or dried apricot if you are more adventurous. But I would keep the dates. Dates are the main dried fruit in this No Bake Brownies. It not only naturally sweetens the brownie but also gives that nice ‘fudgy’ texture when blended. So keep the dates. Dates are typically bigger and may take longer to blend in the food processor. To help it along, you can manually cut the dates into smaller chunks before blending.
Note 4: I like to reserve half of my pistachios and blend it towards the end for a much shorter time to keep them bigger and chunkier. That way, when I cut the brownies, I love those wonderful green pistachio bits peeping out and which give more texture to the bite simply because they are chunky. But if one is in a rush, you can blend the pistachios all at once and that will work too.
Note 5: Use virgin coconut oil which gives a sweet coconut fragrance. Alternatively, if you do not want to use coconut oil, it can be easily substituted with neutral oils like grape seed oil or a light olive oil with a milder flavour.
Note 6: I like to use melted dark chocolate (60% cocoa content) to top off this No Bake Brownie to give it a glossy finish. Without the melted chocolate finish, IMHO this No Bake Brownie feels naked and somewhat incomplete. You can choose to spread the melted chocolate evenly on top or simply finish with an extravagant drizzle; either way the dark chocolate notches up that deep velvety chocolate flavour and gives a beautiful finish to the brownie.