Santa Hat Brownies

It's December!

Which means...Christmas.

The one word that brings pure joy to everything and anything!

Don't know if you can tell but I kind of like Christmas.

This is my first Christmas recipe of the year. Can I get a woop woop? No, still too soon?

Buzz off, Scrooge.

This year I am going to be releasing "12 Recipes of Christmas" videos showing you how to make seasonal treats to get you in the festive mood! That means 12 videos of pure healthy Christmas fun. I'll be releasing a few videos a week, showing you how to make all kinds of flavourful and festive bites.

Once school is out for the year, days need filling for energetic little ones! All the Christmas treats that I have ready for you to bake up are simple to make and perfect for kids so to keep them busy in the kitchen this year, whip up some of these fun festive treats.

So let's get our Christmas on and celebrate the season with these Santa Hat Brownies!

If these are not the most adorable healthy Christmas treats going round, then I don't know what is!

I keep seeing these Santa hat Brownies all over Pinterest. Just too cute for words. After doing some investigating, turns out they might be good to look at but not so good for you! Heavy on the butter, sugar and even the strawberries were oozing with whipped cream. Don't get me wrong, it's all about a balance and it's not wrong to indulge once in a while but I know that I could make these lighter and healthier without having to sacrifice on taste. If I do say so myself - mission very much accomplished. These squidgy rich chocolate brownies are sure to hit the spot and I'm sure Santa Claus himself would be happy digging into these on Christmas Eve whilst doing the rounds!

Now enough talking, time to get baking...

Ingredients

For the brownies...

2 ripe bananas

8 pitted Medjool dates

115g warmed almond butter

50g cacao powder

150ml maple syrup

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional - just wanted to make it a little Christmassy!)

50g halved walnuts

For the Santa Hats....

Strawberries

Coconut Yoghurt (I used COYO - my absolute favourite brand of coconut yoghurt! Swear I'm not getting paid to say that. I genuinely just love it with all my heart)

(Could also use whipped cashew cream which is super easy to make using overnight soaked cashews blended up in a food processor)

Method

For the brownies...

1. Preheat your oven to 180C

2. Heat the almond butter in a pan for 3-4 minutes to warm it through and chop up the bananas

3. Put all the ingredients apart from the walnuts into a food processor or blend them up using a NutriBullet or smoothie maker

4. Pour into a baking tray lined with parchment paper and then sprinkle the walnuts on top

5. Heat in the oven for about 30-35 minutes

For the Santa Hats...

Pretty self explanatory! Chop up the strawberries in half and sandwich some yoghurt in between. Pop a little dot on the top to make the most adorable little hat your eyes have ever seen!

Then put the hats on top of the brownies and show how clever you are to all your friends.

If the shape isn't funky (who even says that word anymore?) enough for you then release the inner child and go mad. Use cookie cutters to make fun Christmas shapes, create mini Christmas puddings with cashew buttercream on top, make it into one giant brownie and serve it as a cake or just add some . Wait, too far. Ignore that last one.

The possibilities are endless.

Also if you want to up the Christmas-ness then add some cranberries, spices and sprinkle some desiccated coconut on top to make it look like snow!