These kind of taste like those brownie bites you buy in the plastic container from the store. I spent awhile procrastinating the other day and reading up about the raw diet and blogs by raw foodies. I find it super interesting though not something I would do myself. I especially like the way people have ‘hacked’ non-raw foodstuffs out of raw ingredients (is that the correct usage of the word ‘hack’? It’s a verb, right?)
Anyway, let’s throw this together real fast. I’m going to Turkey and Greece with my two best friends from college this afternoon (as of me writing this, so I’m probably in Turkey/Greece as of you reading this), and I still need to finish packing. Luckily, this post will be short and making these brownie bites takes maybe 90 seconds. More if you’re like me and had trouble opening the package of dates.
I wonder if the raw food diet is popular in North Carolina. Probably not, despite the capitol’s name.
Also I did this because it is HOT IN CHICAGO and I didn’t want to turn on an oven. Brownies are totally baked goods and hence this fits in this blog.
Food processors are wonderful! Pulse your pecans til they’re real fine:
What if you named your bag of pecans “mickey”? Then you could sing: Oh mickey you so fine, you so fine you blow my mind hey mickey!
Next add your dates. I had trouble measuring out a “cup” of dates but I think 10-12 is the right number. Don’t forget to de-pit them!
I pity da fool who hasn’t tried dates
Man mickey is pretty fly. Check out all of his dates!
Pulse that until it’s gloopy (maybe 40 seconds). I paused before that and looked and it wasn’t gloopy yet (you want the dates to be crushed enough that the mixture sticks to itself).
They’re great candidates: these dates are known for their can-do attitude and stick-to-ittiveness.
Now add your cocoa powder, shredded coconut, salt, and sweetener if you’re using it. This happened the last time I wanted to make chocolate cake: realized that I have no cocoa powder at home (d’oh) so I used hot chocolate mix and didn’t add sweetener. It’s probably not actually raw since I used the mix and it’s been processed, but close enough. It’s like when I made those “vegan” cookies and used butter (but I did not feed them to any vegans). These brownie bites did not get fed to any raw foodists.
Yo dog I heard you were making brownies. I dig it. Whirred. (it sounds like word get it get it???)
This gets pulsed for another 30 seconds, until it smells and looks chocolatey brown. Then scoop them out by tablespoons, dip them in cocoa powder, and toss ’em in the fridge. They’re pretty crumbly/hard to handle so you could also put them in the fridge for an hour first and then shape them. It worked out OK and they were a hit at the dinner party!
Sorry no close up, but here’s a picture of me with my new haircut.
Recipe from The Rawtarian:
1 c pecans
1 c dates
5 TB cocoa powder
4 TB shredded coconut
2 TB honey (I didn’t use this because of the cocoa powder thing. Also my coconut was sweetened whoops)
1/4 tsp sea salt
Process pecans until crumbly. Add dates, and process until sticky. Then add everything else and process for awhile, until chocolatey. Scoop with a tablespoon, roll in cocoa powder or powdered sugar, and put on a plate in the fridge for an hour.
This made something like 16 brownie bites, which I ended up cutting in half because they were so rich. The website says it makes six small servings, which makes me think vegans eat a LOT.
Baking and Math 
It’s because vegans need to eat a lot since vegan food has no calories in it. Also, honey isn’t strictly vegan…
Yeah it’s supposed to be “raw honey” for raw foodists and agave syrup for vegans