Cappello Brownies Recipe: plant-based, whole-food, gluten-free, sugar-free
Note: if you like things super-sweet you’ll want to increase the date count.
And if you don’t have dates: just sub in whatever sugar you do like.
Getting off the processed-food and sugar train is an important step if you’re moving toward health, because refined sugars:
degrade your microbiome (<—which controls your whole health),
are tied to depression
disrupt the proper functioning of your endothelium (“The endothelium is directly involved in peripheral vascular disease, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, insulin resistance, chronic kidney failure, tumor growth, metastasis, venous thrombosis, and severe viral infectious diseases. Dysfunction of the vascular endothelium is thus a hallmark of human diseases.”)
exacerbate ADHD symptoms
are addictive
None of that sounds ideal, right?
How do I know if my go-to baked good is bad for me? Does it have refined flour, refined sugar, dairy, or eggs? If so, it is clinically, categorically proven to be bad for you.
Why? Refined sugar consumption is tied to cardiovascular disease (which is the #1 cause of death in America and much of the globe) and all of the diseases I listed above, refined flour consumption is also tied to cardiovascular disease (among other diseases), dairy & eggs are increasing your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and are environmentally harmful.
On the healthy flip-side, these brownies are whole-food plant-based: the only diet clinically proven to be the optimal diet for humans, and proven to reverse and prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Added bonus? It tastes like a delicious, fudgy oreo cookie and is full of:
nutrient-dense black beans
heart-healthy fiber from the whole-oat flour and beans
no refined sugars, just good old fashioned, whole-food fiber-filled fruit sugars (like dates —which are packed with minerals and vitamins— and bananas, which are full of health as well)
plant-based proteins and fats, so you’re paying the earth back with kindness and not participating in animal agriculture that is dooming us all with its environmental impact.
No time like the present to move forward toward taste, better health, and planetary health, eh? <3
Everything you need for a batch of Cappello Brownies: oatflour (you can make this in a blender with whole oats, that’s what we do), baking powder, oatmilk, dates, banana, vanilla, salt, black beans, cocoa powder or cacao powder (per your preference).
Get all your dry ingredients into a big ol’ mixing bowl and mix them together.
Add the pitted dates to a mixer. We do 5 dates because we don’t like things super sweet.
If you’re used to the Standard American level of sweetness, maybe up the dates to 6 or 7.
Add one banana or a cup of banana (this was from the freezer, so I melted it first), the oatmilk, vanilla, and salt.
Blend until all those dates have been well pulverized (this takes several minutes) and you’ll have this super sweet, tasty batter.
Add your beans to the blender and then mix it all up.
(Why not do this before? It crowds the blender and doesn’t allow all those dates to fully puree. You are better off doing it as advised, and I have learned the hard way that cutting corners makes a mess and an ill-distributed batter.)
Super serious brownie mixer. :-)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold with a spoon. This part is fun for kiddos and a good arm workout.
Add to your favorite 8x8 pan (we use this old 9x7).
Optional: sprinkled hemp hearts on top for added omegas.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. (I check on it at 15, but it usually needs a few more minutes)
Voila!
Tastes like a fudgy oreo.
Eat plain, or serve with a little cashew cream and/or peanut butter.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
