A soft chocolate sponge topped with a fudgey, rich chocolate layer finished off with a nutty, crunchy granola topping = what dreams are made of. Honestly one of my favourite bakes to date, you wouldn’t guess that this dream snack / dessert / treat is actually made up of pretty good ingredients – dates, sweet potato, oats, cacao and nut butter – plus it can easily be vegan-friendly and dairy-free depending on what milk, granola and chocolate you use you use.
For even extra indulgence feel free to add chocolate chunks into the base mixture, or change up the nut butter in the filling (hazelnut would work amazingly)…that’s one of the fun bits of baking, adapting a recipe to suit your favourite flavours. It’s best eaten within a few days which I’m sure won’t be a problem!
Ingredients:
For the base layer –
- 150g oat flour (I used Buy Wholefoods Online oat flour)
- 100g ground almonds or almond flour (I used Buy Wholefoods Online almond flour)
- 100g coconut or date sugar (I used Buy Wholefoods Online date sugar)
- 4 tablespoons cacao or cocoa powder (I used Bioglan)
- 3 tablespoons flaxseed/linseed mix (I used Yum & Yay)
- 75ml maple syrup
- 200ml milk of choice (I used Qwrkee Pea M’lk)
For the middle chocolate layer –
- 100g dates, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes (I used Whitworths)
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled, chopped and cooked
- 2 tablespoons cacao or cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (I used Pic’s)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- Pinch of salt
For the topping –
- 20g your favourite granola (I used Rollagranola Awesome Almond)
- Handful dark chocolate chips (can be vegan)
Get making!
- Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a loaf tin.
- First make the bottom layer: Mix together the flour, almonds, cacao or cocoa powder, sugar and baking powder in a bowl.
- Whisk together the flaxseed and water in a small bowl or cup and leave for 5 minutes to thicken then mix in the maple syrup and milk.
- Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix together to form a batter. Spread over into the loaf tin evenly then set aside.
- Next add the soaked dates to a blender or food processor (I use my Ninja Kitchen) with the sweet potato, cacao/cocoa powder, nut butter, maple syrup and salt and whizz up until quite thick and smooth. Spread this over the base then sprinkle over the granola and chocolate chips in an even layer to cover.
- Bake for 40 minutes (cover with tin foil halfway) until firm. Leave to cool completely in the tin then remove and slice up. Enjoy!
