Healthy Valentine's Day Brownies (GF)

Win some *BROWNIE POINTS* this Valentine's Day with these amazingly delicious and beautiful brownies! These Healthy Valentine's Day Brownies are delicious, romantic, and secretly healthy too! They scream LOVE!

The heart shaped strawberries make them perfect for Valentine's Day; they are clearly not just-any-regular-day brownies. This is important, so your sweetie will know you planned ahead.

To make the heart shapes is super easy: cut the stem out with two diagonal slits toward the center; this creates the top of the heart. Then, cut the strawberry into a 3 - 5 lengthwise slices. Take a slice, and trim off a bit of the sides, forming a "V" at the bottom. Voila! Unclear? Watch my stories on Instagram for a full tutorial with video!

The other thing, besides the adorable hearts, that makes these brownies so special is the nutritional profile! Give your loved one the gift of GOOD HEALTH, in addition to delicious brownies.

These guys are packed with anti-oxidants from the cacao, satisfying fiber from the oat flour, essential amino acids from the cashew butter, etc. Not to mention they are totally allergen friendly: refined sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, egg free option!

Healthy Valentine's Day Brownies
By The Granola Diaries

Ingredients

WET

¼ C drippy cashew butter or almond butter
½ C maple syrup (sub: ¼ C Molasses, ¼ C Maple Syrup)
¼ C coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs (or 1 egg + 1 egg yolk for fudgier + denser brownies)
- Sub for vegan: 2 tablespoon ground flax + 6 tablespoon warm water

DRY

½ C + 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
½ C Oat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Big handful of chocolate chips

TOPPING

Handful of strawberries, cut in chunks and hearts
For the drizzle:
¼ C coconut oil, melted
¼ C cocoa powder
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup

Recipe

Preheat oven to 325 and line an 8x8" brownie pan with parchment paper. Combine all the wet ingredients together in a bowl until combined.
Sift in the dry ingredients, and stir to combine everything. Fold in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into brownie pan, top with a few cut up strawberry chunks. Bake for 17 - 20 min (depends how "gooey" you like the brownies).
Let the brownies cool slightly, top with heart shaped strawberries. Mix the drizzle ingredients together and drizzle over the whole thing. Put in the fridge for an hour to firm up and allow the brownies to become super fudgy.
If you love this recipe, please leave a comment below, or SHOW ME on Instagram or Facebook using #thegranoladiaries! I love knowing that people are enjoying my recipes! ?

NOTES:

It's helpful to use a whisk for the wet ingredients to ensure the brownies are clump free.
You can serve the brownies warms out of the oven, but they are even better after being refrigerated for some time, or the next day.