“if unsure, add tahini” – I bumped into this sentence somewhere (cannot remember where) and must say that I totally agree with it: I don’t think there are many dishes or ingredients tahini wouldn’t fit into – one sauce really fits all. I always have a tahini jar at home and I use it almost every day: I love it on top of bread, in smoothies or with oatgurt and berries, on top of porridge, in dressings and marinades, with apple slides or carrot sticks, and of course, in baking.

This recipe was created for Urtekram, and oh boy was I happy when I heard they would love me to create a recipe for tahini! The only challenge here was really to make up my mind about the recipe, ’cause of tahini’s versatility.

This time the idea of tahini brownies won, and to make things even sweeter, I decided to make a tahini caramel sauce to decorate the brownies. And I almost couldn’t wait for the result myself! These gluten free vegan brownies turned out beautiful, sweet and dark, and were almost calling for lovely pistachios, that I used for decoration.

The brownies are perfectly moist as well – thanks to the zucchini hidden inside of the dough. There is smooth and creamy peanut butter, coconut milk and banana as well, so no eggs needed – these lovely treats are suitable for vegans too!

In addition to the lovely taste of tahini (oh yes, I must admit, I’m addicted) this seed spread is packed with nutrients and goodness. If you think tahini has a bitter taste, I do have god news for you: Urtekram’s tahini is made from sesame seeds that contains low amounts of bitter substances, so the taste is soft and nice. And you can really taste it!

These gluten free vegan brownies are nice and moist, and they stay together easily, especially if you let them be for a while after taking them out from the oven – this way the flavor will deepen a bit as well, so waiting is really worth it!

Enjoy, Tuulia xx

Gluten free vegan chocolate brownies with tahini-caramel and pistachios

approx 12 pieces

dry ingredients:
2 dl almont flour
0,5 dl oat flour
1,5 dl dark chocolate powder
0,5 tsp salt
0,5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla powder

wet ingredients:
0,75 dl maple syrup
0,5 dl creamy coconut milk
3 rkl smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp tahini
1 ripe banana
1/2 of a medium sized zuccini

a bit of virgin coconut oil

tahini caramel:
8 soft medjool-dates
2 tbsp tahini
0,2-04 dl water (depending on how moist the dates are)
(salt, if the tahini doesn’t have salt)

for decoration: pistachios

1. Heat the oven to 175 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together.

2. Dice the zucchini and put all the we ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth.

3. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones.

4. Use parchment paper inside of a pan and and oil it slightly. Set a side for a moment.

5. Prepare tahini caramel: put all the ingredients into a blender. Add only a bit of water to start with, then add more when needed. The tahini caramel should be soft, sweet and “spread like”. Spread the caramel of top of brownies.

6. Bake more or less for 40 minutes – the time depends on how thick the brownies are, so watch the brownies a bit while they’re baking.

7. Grind coarsely the pistachios (hull them if needed, of course) and decorate the brownies. Enjoy! ✨

This recipe was created for Urtekram Finland.