Chocolate and date brownies

I'm not sure why I keep baking 'free from' things, I mean I'm not intolerant of any ingredients but it seems to keep happening and today I made flourless (gluten free) chocolate and date brownies.  I based my recipe on this jaimeoliver.com one http://www.jamieoliver.com/news-and-features/features/purely-fruit-sweetened-brownies/ yet I made mine slightly differently

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate
200g pitted dates
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g chopped nuts (optional)
1tsp honey (optional)

The first thing on the list is to soak the pitted dates (and make sure that they are in fact pitted because nobody wants stones in their brownies) to do this place the dates in a cup of water for about half an hour. This allows the dates to swell up and absorb the water. It also makes grinding them down easier.

I used my Bamix (shameless plugging right there) to grind my dates but you can just whack then into the food processor and get the same results. 

Once you are happy with the texture of the dates move on to the chocolate. The JamieOliver.com recipe suggests that you also grind the chocolate yet I disagree so I melted it over a Bain Marie 

Once melted add the baking powder, vanilla and coconut oil. If like me you own coconut oil in a bottle it is very hard to get out as the oil is solid at room temperature. To get around this I placed the bottle in the pan of hot water (the heat was switched off) and watched as the oil melted.

Once the mixture has cooled I ground down some walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts until they were in small pieces yet still large enough to add a crunchy texture to the brownies . Add the nuts, honey and eggs before transferring to a greased baking tray and bake for 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Even with the addition of a little honey these brownies are not very sweet and would therefore go very well with ice cream or a nice cup of tea.