I finally did it. I finally succumbed.
I don’t mean that I decided to throw caution to the wind and use all of my savings to fill my no-pets-allowed rental apartment with puppies of all shapes and size. Puppies as far as the eye can see! Magical adorable long-lashed toilet-trained fluffy excitable puppies!
If only.
No, what I mean is that after a good year or more of dreaming up new flavours of raw vegan treats/truffles/a-rose-by-any-other-name-would-smell-as-sweet creations, I finally bit the proverbial tasty bullet and made some chocolate balls.
After all, if the nut and cacao nib pairing worked so well in my chocolate granola with cherries and almonds, how could I deny these ingredients the chance to star in some raw vegan brownie bites?
So I mixed and matched, blended and whirled, rolled and taste-tested, and came up with something that I think you’ll love just as much, if not more, than I do. Behold: a batch of nutty-sweet-cacao-nib-crunchy-rich-decadent raw vegan chocolate brownie bites.
Perfect to get you through the 3pm workday misery-slump, perfect for dessert, perfect for morning tea alongside coffee. Heck, these are even perfect for breakfast, served alongside a frosty fruit smoothie (my current favourite is my strawberry rose cherry smoothie).
Enjoy, fellow deliciousness-lovers. I made these just for you.
Raw Vegan Chocolate Brownie Bites
Makes 15 – 20, depending on the size you roll them.
- 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans (My parents and I both prefer pecans, but walnuts definitely work)
- 1/4 cup almonds or cashews (mix and match to find your perfect pairing)
- 1 cup Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 2 tb cacao powder (raw if that’s important to you, but normal is fine)
- 2 tb raw cacao nibs
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the nuts until finely chopped.
- Add in the dates, vanilla, salt, and cacao powder, and pulse until everything is incorporated and the mixture sticks together when pressed between your fingers. (Depending on how soft your dates are, you may need to throw in a few more to get to this stage.)
- Tip in the cacao nibs, and pulse briefly to combine.
- Roll into balls and store in the fridge or freezer, or share with family and friends and eat all in one go. If that’s not love, what is?
Sending these through to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Ella’s Potluck Party, because that’s what I do when I make balls.
Oh yes. Ohhh, yes. These would make any day better.
I totally called them “chocolate balls” once in the text just for you.
Mmmm, you keep popping up in my Reader right around morning tea time … I think I’m going to have to start ignoring you until my lunch break, your posts keep making me hungry!
(P.S. with public holidays and time off coming up over the next six weeks I see granola and all sorts of home made goodness in my future – yay
)
Oh yes, long weekends are made for baking! And I’m sure time off would be too, if I could just convince myself to take some…
Teehee! I do constantly change the timing of my posts, but right now I am on an 11am kick
Yeah, I kind of reached the point where it was either take some time out or quit – I decided a week off was the more sensible option of the two …
Good woman. Take care of yourself, okay?
Mmm…I could go for something chocolatey and poppable right about now too.
STAY AWAY FROM THE CHOCOLATE LSD ALAYNA.
haha!
I was going to go with heroin, but I think that’s more an injectable creation?! Darn my lack of drug knowledge!
I just finished making brownie batter energy balls, which are basically just like this, but I have a rule that they are ONLY FOR BIKING AND RUNNING. YOU MUST RUN HANNAH.
(Not really)
Bahahahaha! Oh, I just laughed so hard I cried a little.
Yay! More balls! I like.
Who doesn’t like balls?
It was inevitable – as the queen of the raw vegan balls – it was only a matter of time until chocolate crept into your repertoire – though I guess orange is even less likely to appear! These look like my sort of balls!
I thought you’d like these, Johanna! Never let it be said I don’t pay attention when you constantly say “I think this would be good with chocolate chips added” about my recipes
Teehee! The only way orange raw vegan balls would show up here is if someone paid me to make them and I had a clothespin over my nose the whole time.
Is it wrong that the title of this post made me shiver – actually shiver – with excitement? Oh how you grab my heart! And these look delicious, the carob nibs and pecans (it would have to be pecans I’m afraid, not walnuts) would take my haphazard almond-date-carob combinations to a completely new level. Thank you
Thank you for your wonderful soul-affirming comment, my dear friend! I am in fact planning a carob version myself, as I prefer carob to cocoa in my raw treats. And yes, always pecans! Walnuts are only to be used when the other option is pine nuts
Oh, yum. You realise I’m going to have to make these immediately, don’t you?
That’s the general goal
I want some now. They look great. I bet they taste good too.
Definitely some good odds there.
Yes! Yes yes yes. AND I just went and got myself a new stash of nibs. (Nibs. hehe never gets old… nibs and balls. HA).
Hey there, sweet BALLS, show us your NIBS.
That’s it, young lady. Time to wash out your mouth with soap! THERE ARE CHILDREN PRESENT.
Your love of puppies seems as great as mine. Puppies are adorable little goofballs!
You had me at chocolate
Thanks for another wonderful recipe Hannah 
I have recently been dreaming of puppy ownership again. I’m not kidding when I say that a puppy is the only reason I can see for eventually buying my own place. Oh, that and never having rental inspections again…
Aww you made these just for us? *flutters eyelashes*
Anything for you, Spay Lady.
I made your cookie dough balls last week, but added a hefty amount of chopped up chocolate and mixed it quite well so that the whole ballsy affair became very chocolated. Delicious. I’m ready for another go!
You make me think I could like puppies too!! As long as they never turned into dogs, I’d be cool:P
Teehee, whereas I prefer my Anzac biscuit version of that recipe, which doesn’t have any chocolate
You keep the cat, I’ll keep the dog. Together, we can start building our own menagerie.
Oh Hannah, you and your balls! :p I have to say, they do look ever so scrumptious and healthy.
Must. Resist. Joke. About. These. Being. The. Only. Balls. I. Know.
An instant classic. I really don’t think you can go wrong with the raw chocolate, date, and nut combination, and these seem to prove another success. I should really have healthier treats like these around, so I don’t just dive into the straight chocolate bars!
*laughs* I’m wondering if I should be embarrassed that I still eat half a block of chocolate on the days I eat these?
…Nah.
I will indeed make these …… when Love Chunks’ Lurgy leaves me and my taste buds have returned.
Oh, you poor thing! I can’t stand it when sickness takes away the food-joy in life. Get better soon!
I’m surprised chocolate hasn’t come up earlier! But do sound perfect for that 3pm slump…
…and puppies! I have a friend who’s dream is to open a ‘free-range cattery’ in Hong Kong where the cats can…roam free and people deprived of cute fluffiness can pet them.
When you think about how I generally don’t like chocolate in any form but straight chocolate, it makes sense
Your friend’s idea is awesome, if you switch cats for puppies. But then again, I’ve always been a dog person
As amazing as these brownie bites look (hells yes!)…I kinda wish you did buy all those puppies. Reminds me of bridesmaids – have you seen it? “I took 9…I took 9″.
Heidi xo
Bahaha! Yes! Melissa McCarthy makes that movie (I don’t think either of the best friends come across as particularly worthy of best friend-dom, in truth. But it’s still hilarious
)
I would love to snack with these bites, they look perfect
Damn, my lack of a food processor strikes again!!! However S did do some kitchen cupboard reorganisation so maybe I can sneak one in when he isn’t looking.
On a side note, now I want a house full of puppies.
The kitchen fairies put it there! The kitchen fairies put it there!
TOILET-TRAINED puppies, mind you.
Are these what you made for me for Christmas? Dang they were delish…. I actually sat at my desk and ate the entire tub. Soooooooo good!
No, you got the chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, which are made almost completely different ingredients
But I’d be happy to make these for you anytime 
xo
Quarter past 2 on a Wednesday… I could use one of these right about now!
Ten to seven on Wednesday… me too
Hello. Sorry I have not commented in ages. I haven’t even made it on to reading any cool blogs in what feels like a lifetime. Having a bad night so I came here for your sunshine. Turns out today’s sunshine is in the form of these delicious food thingys above (my head doesn’t do fancy make sense words at the moment…not sure if that is the concussion I have had or just my usual lack of brain). Anyway, I did have some uneducated questions…what is cacao powder? I take it that it is something different to cocoa powder. Where does one get something so fancy?
I might go eat some chocolate after downing the lemon drink M has made me. Hmmm, lemon and chocolate sounds quite nice.
PS Sorry for the state of this writing…I’m not sure where I left my brain
Hello beautiful lady! I was just thinking of you yesterday. I’d like to think my mind drew you here with magical powers, except I don’t want to think that my mind gave you a bad night. BEGONE BAD NIGHTS SAY I.
Oh yes, cacao powder = cocoa powder. I think cacao is perhaps what we say when it’s raw? But I used normal cocoa powder, so I think that was more just about my mind being on the cacao track due to the cacao nibs
Potayto, potahto!
I have, in fact, had nice lemon chocolate. Also awful lemon chocolate, but that was from Target in America so I should’ve known better than to buy it in the first place.
P.S. Nothing you write is a sorry state. Only a wonderful state. Hope you’re well and I’m always here if you want to leave your brain somewhere in an email! (That made no sense.)
mmmmm chocolate brownie bites sound so good! ps – i had no idea your family had dietary restrictions. no wonder you love making so many allergy friendly food
Oh really? I talk about it all the time
Yep, it’s been a life of making things to suit various allergies! In truth, I find it harder to bake “normal” things now 
I house-sat for a couple once whose whippet had had nine puppies seven weeks previously and it’s the scene I pictured when I read your bit about puppies – you’d kneel down and they’d just swarm up you, it was so adorable. Tricky job getting out of the door, but still
and I don’t think I need to tell you how amazingly mouthwatering these look; I just need Lent to hurry up and end!
I think I just stopped breathing for a moment, imagining that puppy paradise. You lucky thing! (In my mind, I’m ignoring the inevitable messes and anxieties that come with taking care of puppies…) Ah, Lent! I’d completely forgotten about that
Oooooohhhh nice!
This recipe looks so delicious, but can I swap out the dates for raisins instead? Not a big fan of dates. I’m wondering if this will ruin the texture of the brownies.
Thank you Jasmine! Raisins should certainly work here; I’ve never used them myself as I don’t much like raisins (just as you don’t like dates; we’re like yin and yang), but all I would recommend is just keep an eye on the texture and just add enough raisins to allow the mixture to clump together
And do let me know how it works out!
Oh wow, these look fantastic. Definitely on my to do list…
Made these for my birthday! Thank you so much Hannah!
Oh Tammy, that gives me such joy!! Yay!
ooooooooohhh yumm!
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Any chance you could Fedex me a couple right now? I’ve got a cup of tea here that is just crying out for an accompaniment!
I’ve got a better idea; I’ll deliver them personally in my private jet!
Just as soon as someone buys me a private jet…
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