Double chocolate fudge brownies with caramel sauce

Tam West

This is whole foods decadence at its best. A double chocolate brownie topped with coconut icecream, 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 icecream 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.

For the base

3 ¼ cups	Brazil nuts (Main)
1 ¼ cups	Cacao powder (Main)
1 pinch	Sea salt flakes
2 cups	Pitted dates (Main)
1 ½	Avocados (Main)
2 tsp	Vanilla extract

For the chocolate fudge

2 large	Avocados, ripe
¾ cup	Cacao powder (Main)
⅓ cup	Almond milk, + 1 Tbsp
⅓ cup	Sweetener, (organic maple syrup, coconut nectar or raw agave)
3 Tbsp	Raw almond butter (Main)
½ tsp	Vanilla extract
1 pinch	Sea salt
2 Tbsp	Cacao butter, melted, or coconut oil

For the caramel sauce

½ cup	Cashew nuts, soaked for 2-4 hours (Main)
½ cup	Maple syrup, organic, or coconut nector (Main)
½ tsp	Vanilla extract
1 pinch	Sea salt flakes
2 cups	Cacao butter, melted (Main)

Directions

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 length ways 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 inthe 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 icecream, a drizzle of caramel sauce and a pinch of sea salt flakes.

Serving suggestions

• Coconut or cashew icecream (make your own — see myjelly tip recipe)
• Sea salt flakes