Raw Vegan Carob Brownies with Maple Syrup Avocado Icing

The nutty, rich, caroby-chocolatey, caramel-esque, maple-swooning, tinglingly-smoothly-silky-on-top, dense-yet-succumbingly-sweet-below, fills-your-senses-with-glee flavour of this raw vegan brownie with carob maple avocado icing is simply the best. Better than all the rest. Better than anyone, anyone I ever met.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (70g) pecans
• 1/3 cup (40g) almonds
• 1 cup (150g) medjool dates, pitted
• 1/3 cup (30g) carob powder (or cocoa)
• 1 avocado (mine was equal to 140g avocado flesh)
• 40ml (2 tb) maple syrup
• 30ml (16g) carob powder (or cocoa)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Combine pecans, almonds, dates, and the 1/3 cup of carob powder in a food processor and process until the mixture is finely chopped and well combined (or “looks like potting soil”). Pat this into an 20cm (8inch) square pan. (To be honest, mine only took up about 3/4 of the tin. Just pat it out to the thickness you want.)

2. Clean the food processor to ensure no stray nut fragments get in your icing. Then scoop in your avocado, maple syrup, the 30ml extra of carob powder, pinch of salt, and cinnamon. Process until smooth, thick, and luscious. Adjust to taste with more maple syrup or carob, if needed (this may depend on how big your avocado is).

3. Spread the icing over the brownie base, then put in the freezer for about an hour to set before cutting into squares. Store in the freezer, but try to take each brownie out of the freezer for about 15 minutes before you eat it. The flavours come through best when the brownie (and icing) have been able to thaw a bit.