Low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies made using dates to sweeten, providing a delicious rich brownie recipe with only a fraction of the sugar of most brownie recipes. These delicious brownies make a great treat if you're cutting out refined sugar or if you simply want to reduce your sugar intake without foregoing some delicious baked treats! Time to get baking!

Low Sugar Dark Chocolate Spelt Brownies

Gavin Wren Baking, No Added Sugar, Recipes, Spelt & ancient grains

Today’s recipe is low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies, a rich and dark recipe sweetened with dates instead of mountains of refined sugar. Cakes with no refined sugar can present challenges to the baker, because sugar gives structure to cakes as it’s a solid once cooled. Luckily brownies are all the better for being thick, squidgy and gooey, which are boxes these spelt brownies comprehensively tick. Whether you’re simply wanting to cut down on your sugar intake, or are seeking to cut out refined sugar completely, these beauties are the ones for you.

Low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies made using dates to sweeten, providing a delicious rich brownie recipe with only a fraction of the sugar of most brownie recipes. These delicious brownies make a great treat if you're cutting out refined sugar or if you simply want to reduce your sugar intake without foregoing some delicious baked treats! Time to get baking!

The Message.

The world is obsessed with sugar. Everyone’s talking about it. There are those who love the white powder, lacing their tea with “milk and three, love” and vocally decrying any suggestions of cutting down or taxation of the sweet stuff as nanny state bollocks. At the other end of the scale we have those who cut it out completely. Well, not completely, because sugar occurs naturally within all kinds produce, so you’ll never be rid of it, but you can stop adding extra sugar to things, which is what ‘cutting out sugar’ really means.

It’s incredibly easy to compare sugar addiction to cocaine, both white powders, both seemingly addictive, but there’s no need because it’s too obvious. It’s the first thing we get hooked on as we venture into our lives, most kids are addicted to the rush of sugar before they can vocalise how they actually feel about it. Give a load of pre-school kids a decent kick of sugar and they’ll be bouncing off the ceiling more quickly than the crowd at Class-A fuelled rave.

Just think about it, is it right to give kids something that obviously twists their consciousness? Is it a good thing to give something to kids which obviously gets them off their heads? Most adults have witnessed the utter mania which ensues at a kids Birthday party once they get their hit. It’s incredible, they all go utterly, utterly insane. No wonder people grow up to be thrill seekers and addicts when they get such a comprehensive hedonistic schooling from a young age.

Low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies made using dates to sweeten, providing a delicious rich brownie recipe with only a fraction of the sugar of most brownie recipes. These delicious brownies make a great treat if you're cutting out refined sugar or if you simply want to reduce your sugar intake without foregoing some delicious baked treats! Time to get baking!

Here To Stay.

As I pointed out, sugar is here to stay, we can’t avoid it completely because it exists in so many natural substances, it’s integral to food and it does us no harm in many ways. The problem comes with overconsumption, overuse, general indulgence and gluttony. If you spend some time studying chocolate brownie recipes online, you’ll see something quite amazing. The recipes are often about 30% added sugar, on top of all the chocolate that’s in there to start with. The first time I made them a few years ago I was amazed at how simple and also how utterly sugar laden they were.

My opinion is that cutting down sugar intake is A Good Thing, regardless of whether you’re a regular supersize meal customer or just have an occasional afternoon tea cake. However you look at it, cutting down sugar intake is good for you. The most simple way to do this is to make things with less sugar. It’s flabaraghastingly obvious and simple to boot. You’ll probably find that supermarkets and food producers are actively trying to reduce sugar content already, product modification is occurring behind closed doors and you’ll never be aware of it unless you’re privy to the recipes.

Low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies made using dates to sweeten, providing a delicious rich brownie recipe with only a fraction of the sugar of most brownie recipes. These delicious brownies make a great treat if you're cutting out refined sugar or if you simply want to reduce your sugar intake without foregoing some delicious baked treats! Time to get baking!

Low Sugar Diets.

You can take part at home as well. You can simply reduce the amount of sugar you add to a recipe when baking. I’ll wager you can cut 10% sugar out of almost any cake recipe and not notice the difference. It’ll still taste lovely, it won’t suddenly come out savoury or taste like bread, it’ll still give you the hit you’ve been craving. Or you can really go for it and cut right back with recipes like these spelt brownies, using dates to provide the sweetness, amongst a squidgy mass of rich, dark, nutty chocolate brownie. With recipes like these spelt brownies it’s simply juggling the impact, they’re dark, rich and sweet, rather than sweet, dark and rich.

By cutting back on sugar you’re not going to miss out on anything, well, apart from Type 2 Diabetes. Joking aside, you’re not going to miss out on a vast epicurean swathe of life, you’re simply going to experience a different part of it. So why not dive in and give the low sugar path a try?

Low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies made using dates to sweeten, providing a delicious rich brownie recipe with only a fraction of the sugar of most brownie recipes. These delicious brownies make a great treat if you're cutting out refined sugar or if you simply want to reduce your sugar intake without foregoing some delicious baked treats! Time to get baking!

Low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies made using dates to sweeten, providing a delicious rich brownie recipe with only a fraction of the sugar of most brownie recipes. These delicious brownies make a great treat if you're cutting out refined sugar or if you simply want to reduce your sugar intake without foregoing some delicious baked treats! Time to get baking!

Low Sugar Dark Chocolate Spelt Brownies

By

Serves 10-12

Uses a 9” square baking tin and two mixing bowls

PDF recipe card to download or print

Ingredients

125g flour
40g cocoa powder
60g walnuts, roughly chopped
2 large eggs
1 very ripe banana
160g greek yoghurt
120g groundnut oil
130ml milk (You can use soya, oat, goat, almond etc)
100g 70% cocoa dark chocolate
200g dates, pitted and roughly chopped

Directions

125g flour
40g cocoa powder
60g walnuts, roughly chopped
2 large eggs
1 very ripe banana
160g greek yoghurt
120g groundnut oil
130ml milk (You can use soya, oat, goat, almond etc)
100g 70% cocoa dark chocolate
200g dates, pitted and roughly chopped

Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350ºF, 177ºC, 157ºC. For more info about oven temperatures, read my free guide, here.

Grease a square 9″ baking tin, or you can use two standard loaf tins.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl, then add the chopped walnuts.

Melt the chocolate. You can do this by microwaving it in a plastic bowl, short bursts at a time, or in a ‘bain marie’, which is a glass bowl placed over a saucepan of boiling water – the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until they’re a bit ‘frothy’. Add the banana and continue whisking until it’s mixed in with the egg. Add the yoghurt and whisk a bit more, add the oil and milk, whisking still, then finally pour in the melted chocolate, still whisking.

Add the liquids to the flour bowl and mix it through well, before stirring in the chopped dates.

Pour the mixture into your cake tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the brownie.

Remove from the oven and leave for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Low sugar dark chocolate spelt brownies made using dates to sweeten, providing a delicious rich brownie recipe with only a fraction of the sugar of most brownie recipes. These delicious brownies make a great treat if you're cutting out refined sugar or if you simply want to reduce your sugar intake without foregoing some delicious baked treats! Time to get baking!

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