These paleo & vegan peppermint frosted brownies are so rich and delicious, a perfect healthy holiday recipe! Gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar-free, these paleo & vegan peppermint frosted brownies will surprise everyone with just how indulgent they are! Bound to become a new favorite paleo holiday recipe or vegan holiday recipe!
I have this addiction, but I really don’t hide it. We’ve talked about my (potentially unhealthy) relationship to caramel and my commitment to the rich, heady sauce as the best sweet out there. But as soon as December rolls around, I drop caramel like last year’s iPhone and cozy right up to my main squeeze come winter: Peppermint + chocolate.
If you’ve been a reader for a while, you’ve no doubt noticed my obsession with the pairing, from my… are you ready for this? Paleo gluten-free peppermint cookies with peppermint, paleo peppermint Oreos, paleo iced peppermint mocha, paleo peppermint hot chocolate, vegan chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting, peppermint layer brownies, spiked peppermint hot chocolate, and my spiked hot chocolate mix with homemade peppermint marshmallows gift kit. Holy moly, the love is so real.
The strange thing is that I don’t actually love chocolate on its own or peppermint on its own – especially the latter. And, I know, I know about the chocolate thing, but see above ^ My one, true love is caramel. And my husband O, of course. Is it coincidence that I married a man who, when I met him, his best friend teased him with the nickname “Caramel Thunder”? You decide… So when Sprouts challenged us to make a delish holiday treat using goodies from their bulk bins, I knew what was calling my name: a gluten-free, dairy-free, healthier version of my peppermint layer brownies that skimp absolutely nowhere on richness and flavor. In fact, these paleo & vegan peppermint frosted brownies might be like 300 times richer than the original version. You’ve been warned!
I started the treats off with a super rich and fudgy brownie, spiked with a bit of peppermint extract, then topped it all off with a simple peppermint chocolate ganache, made super creamy with a bit of coconut cream. I found almond meal and ground flaxseed in the bulk bins at Sprouts, and my new friend over at Recipes to Nourish told me there’s bulk cocoa at her store! I highly recommend grabbing a few scoops of these ingredients the next time you’re at Sprouts and making these paleo & vegan peppermint frosted brownies STAT. Sprouts arranged a super fun cookie exchange among a few of their favorite bloggers, and I received beet-chocolate crinkle cookies from Recipes to Nourish that were so good and so interesting! You’ve definitely got to check them out over at the Sprouts recipe site. So these paleo & vegan peppermint frosted brownies are definitely how I’m celebrating National Cookie Day, thanks to Sprouts! How are you celebrating?
