Following on from my Chocolate Orange Coconut Bites last week, I’m on a bit of a chocolate orange rampage at the moment! The flavours just go so well together, just ask Terry and Dawn French! You can use orange peel in this, or you could just use the wild orange essential oil. I used doTERRA wild orange in the bake itself, then topped with orange peel. The essential oil is concentrated enough that a few drops really give it that zesty orange kick.

My other brownie recipes use dates to give them the gooeyness, but I decided to try something a little different to make these more affordable, as organic medjool dates are super expensive. Thankfully these came out just as delicious and the bicarb does such a good job in giving them the crunchy outer coating while still keeping the inside nice and fudgey.

As usual, they are free from gluten, dairy, refined sugar and eggs, and are fully vegan.

Ingredients

1 tbsp ground flax seeds
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
Pinch Himalayan salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup almond or oat milk
7 drops doTERRA wild orange essential oil
zest of half an orange (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 170* and line and grease a square brownie baking tray.

In a small bowl or cup, mix the ground flax with 4 tbsp water. Mix and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

In a larger bowl, mix the buckwheat flour, bicarb, cacao, salt and coconut palm sugar.

Now add in the coconut oil and milk and mix, then add in the flax mix until fully incorporated.

Next add the wild orange drops and the orange peel if using, and mix well.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tray and bake for around 20-25 minutes. The top should be a little crunchy but the inside still soft.

Leave in the tray until fully cooled. This is essential otherwise it will all fall apart. Once cool, top with the orange zest, if using, cut into squares and store in an airtight container.

Love & health,
Lauren