With Halloween coming up it would only be right for me to post a themed recipe wouldn’t it?! We had a mini party with some friends the weekend before the 31st and we were hosting it, so creating some spooky treats was a given. Using pumpkin within a super easy vegan and gluten-free brownie mixture, the black topping is created thanks to activated charcoal and black tahini – if they are too unusual for you, feel free to just add black food colouring, if you don’t like the distinct taste of tahini I’d also recommend this! I didn’t have time to pipe anything properly but I thought the freeze-dried berries would add a pop of colour, while the edible eyes were the perfect finishing and fun touch to these trick’or’treat goodies.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil (I used The Coconut Company)
- 3 tablespoons dairy-free margarine (I used Flora)
- 100g dark chocolate, broken up into chunks (I used Montezuma’s)
- 100g mashed pumpkin
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150g gluten-free flour (I used Dove’s Farm)
- 100g coconut sugar (I used The Coconut Company)
- 30g cacao or cocoa powder (I used Bioglan)
- 2 tablespoons ground chia seeds or flaxseed (I used Linwoods)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
For the frosting:
- 200g Quark or coconut yogurt
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup (I used Indigo Herbs)
- 2 tablespoon black tahini (I used Indigo Herbs)
- 1 teaspoon activated charcoal (I used Kiki Health)
- Edible eyes
- Freeze-dried raspberries (I used Lio Licious)
Get making!
- Preheat the oven to 180c and grease and line a tin (I used 9x9in).
- Gently melt the chocolate, coconut oil and margarine then set aside for 5 minutes.
- Place the mashed pumpkin, melted chocolate mixture and vanilla into a blender (I used my Ninja Kitchen Nutri Ninja) and whizz up to combine.
- Add in the flour, coconut sugar, cacao or cocoa powder, chia or flaxseed, spices and baking powder. Whizz again to form quite a thick gooey batter.
- Spread this into your tin evenly and bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin then cut into 9-12 brownies.
- Meanwhile beat together the yogurt, maple syrup, tahini and charcoal and keep in the fridge until needed.
- Once the brownies have cooled, remove from the tin and place on a board. Spoon over some of the frosting to cover then add some edible eyes and freeze-dried berries – now enjoy!
