Double chocolate fudge brownies

Recipe by Megan May Photography & styling by Tam West

This is wholefoods decadence at its best. A double chocolate brownie topped with coconut ice cream, and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce. This dessert is vegan and free of gluten, dairy and refined sugar. If you’re used to lashings of butter and refined flour in your typical brownie, don’t let that deter you from trying this recipe. I guarantee it will surprise you, and be even more decadent and delicious — and without gluten or dairy, almost anyone can enjoy it!

Like most of my recipes there are a few small recipes within it; they are all simple to prepare and can be used as recipes on their own. The caramel sauce can be used as a topping, a dip for fresh fruit, or combined with coconut ice cream to make a salted caramel milkshake, and the fudge can be eaten on its own as a mousse.

If you don’t have any ripe avocados on hand, you could use soaked cashews instead. Double chocolate fudge brownies with caramel sauce

Makes 15 pieces Base

3¼ cups brazil nuts 1¼ cups cacao powder Pinch sea salt flakes 2 cups pitted dates 1½ avocados 2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate fudge

2 large ripe avocados ¾ cup cacao powder ⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp almond

milk ⅓ cup sweetener (organic maple syrup, coconut nectar or raw agave) 3 Tbsp raw almond butter ½ tsp vanilla extract Pinch sea salt 2 Tbsp melted cacao

butter or coconut oil

Caramel Sauce

½ cup cashews, soaked

for 2- 4 hours ½ cup organic maple

syrup or coconut nectar ½ tsp vanilla extract Pinch sea salt flakes 2 Tbsp cacao butter

(melted)

Serving suggestions

Coconut or cashew ice cream (make your own — see my jelly tip bars recipe on bite.co.nz) Sea salt flakes

1 Make the base. In a food processor, blend brazil nuts into a coarse flour — it should have texture to it and the odd chunk of nut, like a coarse couscous. Place in a bowl and mix with the cacao powder and salt. Set aside. 2 Using the food processor, blend the dates into approximately 5mm chunks. Add the avocado and vanilla and blend again until combined and there are no chunks of avocado to be seen. Add the brazil nut and cacao mixture and pulse until combined — be careful not to over-mix, you just want the mixture to be coming together and still retain some of the texture from the nuts. 3 Line a 20cm slice tin with plastic wrap. Press ¾ of the base mixture into the tin. Make long, tunnel-like indents lengthways in the brownie with a spoon or your hands, so that the fudge sets in the tunnels (doing this will give you pockets of thicker chocolate fudge rather than a thin layer across the whole thing). 4 Place all the chocolate fudge ingredients except the coconut oil or cacao butter in a food processor. Process until very smooth. Add coconut oil or cacao butter while the food processor is running until completely combined into the mixture. 5 Fill the tunnels with the fudge using a spoon or piping bag. Cover with the remaining base mixture — making sure you can’t see any of the fudge. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4–6 hours. This will keep in the fridge for up to a week. 6 For the caramel sauce, rinse the soaked cashews under running water and drain well. Place them in a blender with the maple syrup, vanilla and salt. Blend until smooth then, while the blender is running, add the melted cacao butter. Will keep in the fridge for around 7 days. 7 To serve, remove the brownie from the fridge and cut into approximately 15 square slices. Top slices with a scoop of coconut ice cream, a drizzle of caramel sauce and a pinch of sea salt flakes.