We are sweet tooths in this house and trying to make everything gluten and dairy free for my little miss means rethinking some of our sweet treats. My go to chocolate recipe is chocolate brownie so I’ll be working on that one to get the butter out and a gluten free flour in too. I found this recipe in 4 Ingredients, doubled it and realised it wasn’t sweet enough for me. Like I said, sweet tooths. So added some maple syrup and voila – deliciously sweet chocolately peanut buttery slice that almost got demolished in a whole afternoon! This recipe is gluten and dairy free, great for vegans, not great for lunchboxes so save it for home time because of the nuts and super easy.
chocolate slice (gluten + dairy free)
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this recipe is adapted from Energy Bars in 4 Ingredients Gluten free lactose free
Recipe type: gluten free, dairy free
Serves: 12
What you'll need
- 1 cup crunchy peanut butter or any nut butter would do
- 250g/2 cups pitted dates
- 3 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 3-4 Tbs cocoa or cacao powder
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in your thermomix and process on speed 6 for about 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl once in between.
- You could also just process in a food processor.
- If you don't have one then finely chop the dates and combine with the other ingredients.
- Press the mixture into a lined square or lamington tin or a silicone form and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Slice and serve
This looks so delicious! It would go down so well right now. Unfortunately its a no go with the peanuts for us (though I love them!). But we can have almonds. Maybe I could substitute them for the peanuts?
oh absolutely! cashews, macadamias, almonds would be great in it! I love dates and almonds together anyway. This was just nice to have a treat because I was a big gung ho on the super healthy last week but realise that its about putting the time in to work out what we can all eat and enjoy
You should be able to swap butter for coconut oil
that’s a good idea! thank you! will try
In my half asleep state (its late here in the UK) I read that as “added some maple syrup and VODKA! Think I need to go to bed! Looks yummy!
vodka! what have you got on your mind right now:)
funny
No idea especially as virtually teetotal since having kids!
Thanks Corrie this looks delicious I have the biggest sweet tooth I know this as my dentist tells me oops! I will try this love your recipes!
yes! ahem, I might be on regular visits with my dentist but coffee is more my problem
Hi corrie,
I swap butter for Nuttlex to make my baking dairy free. Good luck!
yep do that with my cookies and love it:)
This is great corrie. If you make sure the peanut butter is natural (no added sugar) and swapped maple syrup for rice malt syrup (from Coles, made from brown rice, is sugar free and my kids think it tastes the same as honey!) the recipe would be sugar free too!
there you go! this is quite new to me. I’ve never tried rice malt syrup, might have to add that to the shopping list Thank you! you learn something new every day
Yes it’s all new to me too! I love rice malt syrup in my tea and coffee, as well as on gluten free pancakes and toast, in baking as a substitute for sugar or maple syrup or agave. I also add it to smoothies and homemade ice blocks for my kids. Sarah Wilson includes it in many of her recipes on her websites and books.
Hi, I would like to try the rice malt syrup. What aisle of Coles would I find it please. I have never heard of it, thanks.
It’s in the Health food aisle (or ask a Coles-person – they should be happy to help… )
Thanks Kylie!
I’m a sweet tooth too and lately I’ve been trying to make healthier sweet treats.
In the Feb issue of Women’s Weekly there’s a section on gluten-free baking. I saw it and thought of you.
x
yes, got it! looks good and must try a few things from it!
Corrie – I have made something similar to this, using a mixture of seeds instead of nuts. It works well. You may need more sweetener, as seeds can be bitter sometimes…
mmmm seeds, yum! will have to try!
I love Nuttelex as a dairy-free butter substitute. Such a great flavour!
it’s really good in cookies!!! and on vegemite toast:)
I am going to add this recipe to this week’s treat line-up, using sunflower seed butter. Our favorite gluten-free, nut-free, seed-free and dairy free brownies made with TM:
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2013/08/gooey-flourless-fudge-brownies-with.html
I think that you will like this recipe a lot, also uses dates for sweetness. I have been enjoying the use of dates instead of sugar in sweet treats.
Have you ever used agave syrup/nectar, Corrie? So sweet & you only need a little bit. I think it would be better to use than maple syrup as I’m sure agave doesn’t have as distinct of taste as maple.
ohhh had a bad experience with the old agave, made some cupcakes that called for quite a bit of it! no one would eat it! not even the kids
I second the use of rice malt syrup, it is super versatile and cheap too ($3.60 a jar at my Coles). I made this tonight using rice malt syrup and sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter… Yum!!!! Thank you
Just made this but substituted one cup of the dates for a mix of cranberries and apricots – the mix tastes nice – I think the kids will love it in their lunchbox tomorrow – thanks Corrie
This looks great corrie! Since it cannot go in lunch boxes though i do not think it will last the day because i would nibble at it too much.
A question about the whole nut free school policy – does it include sesame? Maybe you or your readers know. I see a lot of school lunch box friendly recipes that have tahini in it but i thought this would have been a no no. Are seed ok? Anyone have any thoughts?
You could use organic rice malt syrup instead of maple syrup. Also, organic but butter. That’ll make it healthier. Less guilt 😉
This recipe looks fabulous! I’ve used Golden Syrup in recipes replacing honey or maple syrup as it has a lower sugar rate. But reading above all I want to do now is try rice malt syrup!