I use my lovely (usually willing) family as my taste-testers for many of my recipes. Because I don’t really have a sweet tooth (truth!), I like to get their opinion to see if my lightened up versions of baked recipe classics like brownies, banana bread, etc., live up to a taste standard with the originals they’ve tried. So recently when I had a LOT of dates left to use from my Cacao Protein Energy Balls recipe, I decided to try something new – a brownie that they would NEVER guess the secret ingredient for!

The last time I tried a ‘sweet’ dessert recipe with avocado, it was…an interesting experiment. I attempted avocado chocolate mousse in my pre-blogger days – there are limited witnesses to my ‘creation’, but let’s just say it went down in history as a bit of a recipe bomb, tasting more avocado than anything else! So this is the first recipe I’ve tried since that hilarious (in hindsight…) mousse – and guess what? My family (and friends!) loved these, and couldn’t get enough! Which was ideal obviously – mostly because it stopped me eating the entire batch on my own!

Recipe (Makes 16 Brownies)

Ingredients

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 tbsp (melted) coconut oil or cacao butter
• 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• 3 tbsp cacao nibs (or small extra dark chocolate chips – go 70% or higher!)
• Flesh of 1 whole ripe avocado
• 100g of oats, blended into flour
• 200g pitted dates (Approximately 20 Medjool dates)
• 150ml of milk of choice
• Optional Extras: Feel free to add extras like

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C (fan oven). Line a square 1-2 inch deep baking dish with greaseproof paper or greased tinfoil.
2. Soak the dates in just boiled water for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients – oat flour, baking soda, 2 tbsp of the cacao nibs (save 1 tbsp for toppings!), cacao powder and cinnamon. Stir to combine.
4. Slice the avocado in half, remove the stone, and scoop out the flesh, then slice it into chunks to make blending easier.
5. In a blender cup or food processor, add the wet ingredients (soaked dates, avocado, milk, coconut oil and honey, and blend until, well, blended! You should have a mixture green in colour, with flecks of the dates in it.
6. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir until you have a brownie batter.
7. When the oven is ready, pour the batter into the baking dish and pop the dish in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Check the brownies at 35 minutes by sticking a fork in – if it comes out 95% clean you’re sorted, but if not, and the top of the brownies looks okay (i.e. not burning), pop the dish back in for another 5 minutes.
8. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before slicing up and serving!

Enjoy guys! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family, friends and I did – @theirishbalance on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x