Mocha Slice - Sugar free, Vegan

I'll add photos when this is fully set, but having has a couple of sneaky tastes, I am not leaving any opportunity to forget to blog this.

Credits first!  I LOVE The Iron You - his recipes are fabulous, and have been an enormous source of inspiration since I cut out all sugar (actually anything that invokes an insulin response in the body) and increased leafy green vege consumption 12 months ago. No, TIYs recipes are not typically insulin-inducing-sweetener free, but I've had a lot of practice at substituting now, and usually there's only 1 or 2 subs I need to make from his recipes.  This one became, as you'll see, a rather different beast to what it started out as!

When I saw TIYs Fudgy No Bake Brownies recipe this week, I set to adapting it.  However, when I went to start making the slice I realised I didn't have enough pecans, and had no walnuts.  But I did have hazlenuts.  I'd already decided that cacao butter was going to play a part in replacing the dates, but wasn't yet decided on what to use to add a bit more wetness.  Then I thought "mmm, hazelnuts + coffee"!  So my fudgy brownie became instead a mocha slice.  And knowing how much I hate reading recipe preamble on blogs (sorry TIY - I usually skip most of it!), here's the recipe....

Ingredients

Brownie/Slice
60g xylitol
10 drops of stevia extract
3 T cacao butter - melted
1 C pecans
1/2 C hazelnuts
6 T cacao powder
1 nespresso ristretto shot of khazan - I HATE this coffee, and have been trying to find recipes to use it in for ages! YAY!  (substitute with 25ml shot of coffee.  Of if you must use instant powder, but YUCK! Sorry, severe prejudice against instant coffee.)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t vanilla essence

Frosting
5 T cacao powder
3 T xylitol powder (I blast mine in the dry container of my vitamix for a few seconds to powder it)
6 drops stevia extract
1 T warm water
2 T coconut oil - melted
1/4 t vanilla extract.

Directions

Slice

Line a small slice tray with baking paper.
Put nuts, xylitol, salt and cacao powder in a food processor and blitz until kind of crumby consistency.
Add the melted cacao butter, stevia, coffee & vanilla extract and blitz until well combined.
Press evenly in to prepared slice tray.
Pop in the fridge to begin setting while you prepare the frosting.

Frosting
Mix all ingredients until smooth (I used a whisk - and in hindsight, I would have done well to have sifted the lumps out of both my xylitol powder (which has been sitting in a jar - if I'd powdered it right now it would have been fine) and the cacao powder.
Spread over the slice with a spatula.
Return to the fridge for a couple of hours to set.


As I mentioned - I had a sneaky taste before I put it back in the fridge. Oh my word!!! LOVE! :)