Chocolate Brownie - Mokkapala

Healthy, sugar-free chocolate brownie with banana-date frosting (Mokkapala)

Serves 10-12

Ingredients: 

20 dates, pitted

1 cup water

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (omenasose) or sweet potatoes (bataati) steamed and mashed

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup oat flour or whole wheat flour or pastry flour of your choice

1 or 2 tablespoon coffee leftovers

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Frosting ingredients:

4 dates, pitted

1 to 2 tablespoons water (you may replace water with 1-2 spoons of cold strong coffee for stronger coffee flavor)

1 banana

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C degrees. 

2. Prepare the baking dish (10-20cm in size) and the baking paper

3. Add all the 20 pitted dates with 1 cup water into a high-speed blender, and blend until you get a well-pureed texture. 

4. Add the other brownie ingredients and mix until everything is combined well. The batter texture will be quite thick.  5. Pour the batter into the baking dish and distribute it in the dish evenly. 

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center of the brownies comes out clean.

7. Remove brownies from the oven and allow to cool. Start  preparing the frosting while waiting for the brownies to cool completely.

8. Mix the frosting ingredients using a blender or food processor.  9. Cut the whole brownie cake in equal sizes, spread the frosting evenly on top of each, serve, and enjoy. 

Tips:  *For the applesauce, you can buy a sugar-free apple puree. There's a wide variety of applesauce (omenasose) in the shops, all sugar free. If you prefer using other fruits, there are also other pureed options available. You may also opt to go for a more nutritious option using sweet potato (bataati) or pumpkin puree (kurpitsa) prepared in the same way, steamed and mashed with a small amount of water. This is also an excellent way to ensure a healthy and nutritious cake for kids, especially if they are picky when eating vegetables. Please note that the cake will not taste like pumpkin at all. With so much flavors and aroma from vanilla, cocoa, and other ingredients, kids won't even realize there’s pumpkin or sweet potato in it, which makes it even more perfect!