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.
Erica Dinner says
Msde these on Saturday, very yummy
Samantha Moore says
Diagnosis: delicious!
Samantha Moore says
Got these in the oven right now.
Frieda says
Thanks for another great recipe, Elana. I’ve been looking for some new school lunch box treats. I’ll try this one for sure. I love prunes. They always make me think of my Grandma and the wonderful prune cake she made.
jillian says
i use nu naturals liquid stevia… is this powdered or liquid and does it matter? thanks
margaret bobb says
Hi Elana!
First, let me say that your website has been a Godsend! I don’t usually comment on blogs, but seeing as you live “just down the road” from me, you seem almost like a neighbor. I live in Longmont. Anyway, I love your blog, and I’m trying to go Paleo, or an specific carbohydrate diet version thereof… As for prunes, I LOVE prunes. I used to snack on them, and I cannot remember why I stopped. These bars look fabulous, and I will put them in my save file. Thanks!
The Newlywed Chefs says
I’ve never been the biggest fan of prunes, but these look too good to pass up! Thanks for the recipe.
Karen Serkland says
I’ll try these soon. They look delicious and I just read an article about a study done using prunes on http://www.naturecity.com/blog titled “Daily Consumption of Prunes May Help Improve Bone Health.”
Thank you, Elana, for another great idea.
Sonshinejudi says
This sounds great…I was just thinking about using prunes instead of dates in a recipe such as this when i spied this recipe!! I really want a prune spice cake recipe if you can make one…thanks and God bless you Elana.
Dianne says
The best dessert I ever ate was in Russia, consisting of two or three nut meringue layers, filled with a prune filling, and served with vanilla sauce and chocolate sauce. Wish I could replicate it. Prunes make excellent desserts!