There comes a time, where we need to take 5 mins out of our busy day and have a cup of tea to regroup and re-energise. It’s always nice to have something to nibble on, and this Chocolate Date loaf is the perfect little snack.
WHY IS THIS HEALTHY?
- This recipe is very low in fat as it uses yoghurt instead of butter.
- It does not use refined sugar. Rather, the dates are used to sweeten the mixture which have the added benefit of fibre. Natvia (an all natural sweetener can be usedhttp://natvia.com.au/) or you could choose a low GI sugar such as Coconut Sugar or Rapidura
- You can see that no chocolate is used in this recipe, which is normally a source of fat and sugar. To give the loaf a rich chocolate taste, cocoa is used instead and is high in potassium.
- The only naughty-ish ingredient is the white flour, but you can use wholemeal and just add approx. ¼ of a cup extra of water to the mixture
- To create a gluten free version, replace the flour with almond meal
Recipe
- ¼ C low fat yoghurt
- ¼ cup pureed dates (see below for recipe)
- 8 teaspoons Coconut, Rapidura, brown sugar or Nativa
- 1 egg white
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- 1 cup sifted flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees
To make the date puree:
- Place 2 cups of pitted dates (available at all supermarkets normally in the baking aisle) in a saucepan with 2 cups of water.
- Heat on medium until the dates are soft and water almost evaporated.
- Mash with a potato masher or fork until smooth.
To make the loaf
- In a bowl, beat yoghurt, pureed dates, Natvia or sugar, egg white and vanilla until mixed ( you will see lumps of dates but that is ok).
- To this, sift in the flour, cocoa, and baking powder.
- Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Pour into a greased loaf pan, or ramekins (will require shorter cooking time).
- Bake for approximately 45 mins.
- Allow to cool before slicing.
- Using wholemeal flour. Thankyou Vanessa Getliffe
Yummo
Yum! Love new healthy ideas for lunch boxes. Thanks!
it truly is delicious and worth a try! Hope you like it!
Thanks Imelda! This one is great for a lunchbox snack! And it’s easy to make as well! It also freezes well, if you wanted to make a big batch to save time!
I love things that freeze. We are a small family, but I like to have home-baked things for lunch-boxes, to minimise over-sugared, over-processed and over-packed stuff, so baking that freezes well is a winner in our house!
I haven’t tried, but I’m quite sure you could use this mixture as a muffin mixture to the make them even more easily portable! Worth a try!
This sounds delicious but what is Natvia? I’ve come to you via Marinatingonline and am glad I did! 🙂
Hi there, thanks for stopping by! Natvia is an all natural sugar supbstitute with almost zero calories. They are an Australian country but are branching out into the overseas market and I think they are now in the USA and asia. Here is a link to their facebook page for you to have alook at..I highly recommend! http://www.facebook.com/#!/natvianaturalsweetener
Thank you. I’ll be able to find something similar I’m sure. 🙂
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