Chocolate Brownie Pockets

Look out world, these gluten-free, refined sugar-free, raw chocolate brownie pockets are really something to shout about!

I am indebted to thisrawsomeveganlife for the recipe for the chocolate brownie ‘pockets’ – hers are filled with coconut cream and have a different topping. I loved the idea of food pockets, so I thought, why not put my chocolate pudding in these? And top them with my favorite crunchy goodies?

And so this recipe was born.

Makes 10 ‘pockets’

You will need:

A coffee grinder (if grinding the cashews yourself, you can also grind them in a blender)
A blender or hand blender (for the pudding)

Ingredients for the chocolate brownie pockets

2 cups/260g cashews, ground (grind into flour in blender, coffee grinder or food processor)
Scant 1 cup/120g ground flaxseed (grind 2/3 cup/120g)
½ cup/50g (raw) chocolate or carob powder (or standard unsweetened cocoa powder if you’re not that bothered about everything being raw)
6 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Two pinches of salt

Ingredients for the chocolate pudding

¼ cup/30g cashew nuts, soaked at least 30 minutes, reserving the soak water if needed
2 large bananas
2 tablespoons water (if needed for blending)
5 soaked, pitted dates (Medjool are best), 2 tablespoons xylitol, or a small dash of stevia
2 tablespoons raw chocolate powder
2 tablespoons raw carob powder
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for the crunchy topping

2 tablespoons each of cacao nibs (bits of cocoa beans, very tasty), goji berries, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds (or any combo of seeds, nuts and/or dried fruit that you like)

How you do it

For the brownie pockets, mix ground cashews with the remaining pocket ingredients to get a ‘dough’. Take ¼ cup scoop of the mixture at a time and press into a tartlet shape, using flexible moulds if you have them (the easiest to use are silicone moulds). Put tartlets in the fridge for an hour or more so they firm up.

Scoop your chosen pudding into the cookie pockets just before serving. Mix your crunchy topping ingredients in a bowl, sprinkle a spoonful over each ‘pocket’ and enjoy!

Rocking Raw Chef tips

Cacao and carob powders are pretty much interchangeable in recipes, so you can use all cacao or all carob if you like, it depends on your taste (and cacao does contain a bit of caffeine).
You could make smaller, ‘baby’ pockets – just use smaller moulds. You could make different shapes as well. Or just flatten out the dough like cookies, and dollop the pudding and topping on top.
Any leftover pockets (ha!) will keep for at least 5 days in the refrigerator, as long as you haven’t filled them with the pudding.
Both the pockets and the pudding can be frozen, so feel free to make large batches (yes you can freeze a lot of raw food dishes, how about that!)

Want to see me in action?

I make a lot of recipes and share more tips at my YouTube channel – do check it out if you like videos that are slightly wacky…!

Enjoy your Chocolate Brownie Pockets!

And of course, let me know what you think in the comments!