The last time I posted was 5 days ago. There’s a reason for my absence. I spent all week in Philadelphia at the Healthy Living Summit living it up with some great friends. I learned and did so many things in Philly that I can’t wait to share. But not yet. I got home late last night and my head(and bedroom floor) are currently a mess.

One thing I can share is this brownie recipe. Like the almond flour brownie recipe, I baked these and packed them up to bring to Philly and share with bloggers. Most of all I was excited to share these with Cynthia, who also has food allergies(gluten, soy, almond, hazelnut, refined sugar, and dairy). I didn’t have a recipe that avoided all of those allergens, so I made one up and said a little prayer. At first I worried they came out too cakey for my preference, but one taste and I was sold. The only question remaining was how would other people like them.

The response to these was overwhelming. As soon as I tweeted out, the brownies started selling like hotcakes(but way better because they’re brownies, duh). Cynthia really enjoyed them, as did Meghann, Julie, and too many other bloggers to count. I don’t care how good food tastes; nothing feels as good as sharing it with others. 

If you’re baking for someone with a peanut or tree nut allergy, sunflower seed butter makes a great substitute for peanut butter.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients(makes 16 brownies):

• 4.5oz unsweetened baking chocolate(I used Scharffen Berger because it’s soy-free)
• 1 3/4 cups maple syrup, divided
• 1 cup unsweetened peanut butter, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour(I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all purpose flour)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup water

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt the chocolate and whisk in 1 1/4 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup peanut butter. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the baking powder, salt, flour, and cocoa powder. Whisk in 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of water.
4. Mix the chocolate-peanut butter mixture into flour and eggs until completely combines. Pour this into a greased 8×8 baking pan. If the batter is too thick to pour, add extra water until it’s runny but still thick.
5. Make the peanut butter part by whisking together the remaining maple syrup, peanut butter, and egg.
6. Pour the peanut butter mixture on top of the brownies and lightly swirl the two batters together a couple times, making sure not to over mix them.
7. Bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool completely before cutting.

Make sure to share these after making them. That way they’ll taste all the better.

Saturday night we had a special dinner with family friends. For one weekend all 8 of us were around before starting vacations and school again; one of is even spending a year studying at Oxford(no, it’s not me; yes, I’m jealous). That called for cake. I had been wanting to make this recipe for a while and wanted to wait until just the right celebration. Everyone loved it, although when I told them the frosting involved avocado you would have thought I told them my own hair was in it. They started eating it again 2 seconds later when they remembered how good it was and decided you couldn’t taste the avocado.

I actually made this cake for Father’s Day last year and featured it as a guest post on Gena’s blog. Since then I’d completely forgotten about it and had to go look it up to remember how to make it. Now that I remembered, I kind of wish I could forget again. The ones that we didn’t give away didn’t last long in this house. It’s hard to say no to a piece of cake, and even harder when you can tell yourself it’s “healthy” because it has fruits and nuts in it.

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake {Raw/Vegan}

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(makes 5 2×3-inch frosted cakes):

• 2 cups hazelnuts
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder, divided
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
• 1 medium avocado
• Crushed hazelnuts for garnish

Method:

1. Pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor until finely ground into a flour
2. Add in the dates, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, and 1/4 cup maple syrup and process until it forms into a thick dough that sticks together.
3. Lay the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to about 3/4-inch thickness.
4. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into either 8 or 10 equal sized rectangles. If there’s excess dough you can form it into a ball, roll it out, and cut again.
5. Make the frosting by blending together the remaining maple syrup, cocoa powder, and the meat from the avocado until it’s uniform in color and texture. Taste it and adjust the sweetness if need be.
6. Spread about 2 tablespoons of frosting over half of the cakes. Layer with another slice and spread an equal amount of frosting on top of that piece.
7. Garnish with crushed hazelnuts.

These took from start to finish about 20 minutes to make, maybe a little more than that because I was distracted. Even so these are much quicker to make than traditional cake and certainly have all the show-stopping qualities.