Because I’ve been getting quite a lot of requests lately for healthy dessert recipes and because I had a pound of organic prunes that needed to be used up, I decided I would develop a gluten free prune cake recipe.
After a string of successful and not so successful prune cake experiments, I had a different, yet satisfactory result: Chocolate Prune Bars. All in all these are basically fudgey prune brownies. Whatever they’re called, I like ’em.
In fact, as I drove home from a lunch in Denver this afternoon, I was thinking about eating one of these little Paleo/primal friendly treats. Prunes or no prunes, a chocolate dessert recipe is a chocolate dessert recipe, and when it’s an easy dessert recipe that tastes good too? Well there’s nothing better than that! I walked in the door grabbed a chocolate prune bar and it was as good as I had recalled.
So here I am sharing it with you all. And don’t be afraid of prunes, they’re just another dried fruit, and are actually the dried version of European plums.
Chocolate Prune Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup prunes, pitted
- ½ cup apple juice
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon stevia
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoons cacao powder
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place prunes and apple juice in a saucepan over medium heat
- Gently simmer for 10-15 minutes until just a little apple juice remains and prunes are plump
- Meanwhile, pulse eggs, oil, vanilla and stevia in a food processor
- Pulse in coconut sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking soda
- Remove prune mixture from heat and place in food processor, then pulse until combined
- Pulse in chocolate chips (they may melt a bit due to prune mixture)
- Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking dish
- Pour mixture into baking dish
- Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes
- Cool and serve
If you want to make this dessert into a chocolate prune cake, bake it up in a , which should work just fine. I tried this in one of my test batches, though can’t recall how long I baked it for so if you do so please leave a comment for all of us with your baking time.
Now, a brief commentary on the ingredients in this recipe. You will notice that rather than agave, I have chosen coconut sugar as the sweetener for this recipe (if you do want to make it with agave, feel free, however I’m not sure how much it would need, or if it would actually work as I haven’t tried it myself). I also used coconut oil (of which I am a huge fan) rather than my staple grapeseed oil (feel free to experiment with your oil of choice).
Finally, a little bit about prunes, or “dried plums” as they are often now referred to. Prunes are a very tasty and healthy food, full of unique phytonutrient antioxidants, potassium and soluble fiber. So don’t be shy, grab yourself some prunes, or try to hide them in this deliciously chocolatey dessert and fool your children, big and small.
More healthy recipes with prunes:
–Chocolate Prune Truffles
–Fruit Pudding
–Roasted Chicken with Olives and Prunes
What are your feelings when it comes to prunes? Like? Dislike? Or don’t care? Leave a comment below with your prune history.
Carol Allen says
Love it! Added 1/3 Cup of Oats to batter and added 1/3 Cup of Chocolate Chips to top when it came out of oven. Fudgey & Delicious!
Elana says
Thanks Carol!
Debbie says
I made these today using 2tbsp honey instead of the sugars and put in a handful of sour dried cherries. They are delicious, quite a soft texture and the children (4 and 7) ate their “brownies” without a hint of suspicion
Elana says
Thanks Debbie!
Amber D says
Can you freeze these?
Elana says
Amber, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Gaby says
I froze them and they were delicious!
Elana says
Gaby, thanks so much for your comment :-)
Sam says
I substituted the sugar for the same amount of honey, left out the stevia and it still turned out sweet enough for me. Though doing so made the mixture quite runny so I added in 1 tbsp of coconut flour to thicken it up. These were delicious!! Will definitely be making this again
Elana says
Sam, thanks for your comment and so glad you liked it!
LW says
I’m going to make these tonight and add dates….and no sugar. I think dried fruit is sweet enough. will let you know.
Elana says
LW thanks!
Shannon Whaites says
My son has a dairy allergy (what can I sub for chocolate chunks? marshmallow might melt too right but it’s made of who knows what?), and my son being a picky toddler doesn’t like chocolate yet (ideas to sub for cacao powder? I was thinking graham crumbs maybe..?) Thx!
Elana says
Hi Shannon, I haven’t tried making these without chocolate so not sure what would work instead. If you do experiment please let us know how it goes. Here’s are some kid-friendly that your son might like:
https://elanaspantry.com/10-great-snack-recipes-for-picky-eaters/
Enjoy!
Elana
Tiffany says
I just made these tonight. The flavor is great but they turned out “spongey” I was expecting thick, fudgy.
How should the texture be?
I felt like it had to do with the eggs, I might take out some whites next time.
Elana says
Hi Tiffany, thanks for your comment! Yes, because of the prunes and the fiber they contain, this recipe does turn out a bit spongy. If you are looking for a fluffy chocolate recipe try my Paleo Birthday Cake:
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-birthday-cake/
Enjoy!
Elana
Kellie says
If i don’t have apple juice, is it okay to do just water?
Helen says
These are so delicious, thank you for the amazing recipe!
savannah says
is it necessary to add the sugar at all?
thanks!
Doneva Galina says
Just oe thing – are these fresh prunes or dried ones? Thanks!
Sam says
Prunes are dried plums. So it would be dried.