Primal/Paleo Brownies

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Serious chocolate lovers, this one’s for your. Dark chocolate + cacao powder deliver an intense dark chocolate flavor that puts these brownies over the top. Sweetened with dates and made with just a half cup of almond flour, these aren’t chewy, overly sweet brownies. Rather, they have pure bittersweet chocolate flavor and smooth truffle-like richness, thanks to butter and eggs.

Choosing chocolate that has at least 70% cacao (but ideally, closer to the 85% range) for this recipe means you’ll enjoy brownies that are rich with antioxidants. Combining the melted dark chocolate with cacao powder boosts the antioxidant level even higher. So, relish every bite of these divine morsels. Primal brownies are so chocolately and so rich, even the most fanatical chocolate lover will be satisfied by a small square.

Servings: 16 brownies

Time in the Kitchen: 25 minutes, plus 20 minutes to bake

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter (120 g)
• 6 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (170 g)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
• 10 pitted dates (86 g)
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup finely ground almond flour (45 g)
• 2 tablespoons cacao powder (12 g)
• ¼ teaspoon salt, plus sea salt to sprinkle on top (1.2 ml)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º F/177º C.

Line the bottom of an 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper.

Grease the parchment paper with butter.

In a small saucepan over very low heat, begin to melt the butter. When the butter is halfway melted, add the chocolate, stirring until melted and smooth. Turn off the heat right when the chocolate is melted, so it doesn’t burn. Stir in vanilla. Set aside to cool.

Cover dates with hot water and let soak 3 to 5 minutes. Drain water from dates. Blend the dates a food processor to chop up into small pieces. Stop and scrape down the sides once or twice.

In a small bowl, whisk together almond flour, cacao powder and salt so there are no lumps. Add to the food processor and blend with the dates for about one minute. During this time, a smooth paste will form, and then the paste will into a ball of smooth dough.

Use a spatula to push the ball of dough down flat, and spread it evenly around the bottom of the food processor bowl.

Add butter and chocolate mixture. Blend until very smooth.

Add eggs, pulsing to combine.

Use a spatula to scrape the batter into the prepared 8×8 pan. Sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on top.

Bake 20 minutes.

Cool completely before removing from pan.

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