Brownie on a Date

What better way to impress the one you love on Valentine’s than a homemade no-bake chocolate brownie? Watch my brownie – it is going on a date!

This cool brownie is on a sweet date. It’s so totally cool; it has spurned the heat of being baked but had a hot desire to be refrigerated instead. The date is delightfully sweet, as is proper for medjool dates, otherwise known as Judean dates. A date palm was a symbol of the ancient Kingdom of Judea, as well as a symbol of beauty, elegance, and grace, and as such, it is mentioned in The Song of Songs. The name Tamar means date palm, tall, graceful, and sweet, as King David’s beautiful daughter Tamar. 

I think my little cool brownie got very lucky with a date like that! Even better, chocolate served as the love potion, to bind them into one. As My Own Rule of Desserts #1 states, It’s not dessert, if it’s not chocolate.

I got the idea from an amazing blog called Chocolate Covered Katie and sent my little brownie on a date by tweaking her recipe and crafting my own path. Naturally, the main ingredients are chocolate, i.e. unsweetened cocoa powder, and dates. My brownie is a little nuts, just as I am, so walnuts are practically indispensable. To dress up for this adventure, vanilla extract, cinnamon, soy milk, and a dash of salt come to the rescue.

Eager to start, all my ingredients jumped into a food processor in no particular order. All I had to do was to press the button. It took no more than a minute to mist the pan, when they were ready for next steps: spreading, flattening, pressing down, and making the top even.

You can’t blame my little brownie for a tiny drink on a date, right? A sprinkle of good Cuban rum never hurt anybody. Relax, little brownie, more good things are coming!

A bit of oil, to make everything go smooth, some Blue Agave, to sweeten things up even more, a touch of vanilla, and of course, more cocoa powder. Not for nothing, My Own Rule of Dessert #2 is: The more chocolate, the better!

Chill out, little brownie, you just got smothered in chocolate glaze. Now you have to wait for at least a couple of hours. Into refrigerator you go!

Little brownie is in love! He is calling his date “my little cupcake.”

Who am I to disillusion others? Let’s round off one corner and top it off with a monster-size raspberry.

There! A perfectly cool, very chocolaty and sweet, Brownie on a Date. I can go have a cup of tea. What’s a blueberry doing there? That’s raspberry’s friend, just playing an independent observer.

INGREDIENTS

Brownie base:

• 10 oz (2 1/2 cups) pitted dates (preferably medjool)
• 1 1/2 cup walnuts
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup soy or coconut milk (rice milk is too thin, and almond milk goes better with almonds instead of walnuts)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Dash of cinnamon
• Dash of salt
• 1 tablespoon rum or brandy

Glaze:

• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup agave
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Raspberries to garnish

PROCEDURE

• Place all brownie dough ingredients in food processor, pulse until well blended.
• Lightly mist square pan with oil.
• Transfer dough mixture to pan, spread evenly, press down, flatten, even the top.
• Sprinkle rum or brandy evenly over dough.
• Prepare glaze by mixing all glaze ingredients thoroughly until smooth.
• Generously cover dough with glaze, cover, refrigerate for at least two hours.
• Garnish with raspberries before serving.

Enjoy!