Meet Amy + her Velvet Underground Hazelnut Brownies

I’m excited to have Amy from Velvet Underground Cafe here this week to write a guest post.

I’m totally in love with all that she’s doing with Velvet Underground (it’s a must-stop when you’re here in Whistler) from the food, to the vibe, to the fun clothes and local product zone. I’ll let her introduce her rad self.

“Hello hooked on plants family!

My name’s Amy and I’m the owner and founder of Velvet Underground in Whistler BC.

We are a plant-based cafe, a second hand and vintage clothing store, and we are obsessed with reducing our environmental footprint on this beautiful planet. We consider ourselves a community, and a movement more than a store.

I even had pet cows and sheep but I just hadn’t made the connection that those same animals I loved I was also eating! It’s a weird feeling to think back to those times and try and understand my mentality around-consuming animal products.

Like many, I thought, it is what we as humans are supposed to eat.

And I get it, in some cultures – in snowy arctic climates – where vegetation is limited, they probably did need to eat meat and animal products, but in this day and age we can walk into any store and buy whatever our heart desires year-round!

I realized that we have the ability to thrive on a plant-based diet, so bit by bit the pennies started dropping.

Another huge deal breaker for me was the environmental impact animal agriculture has on the planet.

That was the first thing that started to really open my mind up to this more conscious way of living. I was interested in the environmental aspect of minimizing the demand of fast fashion and instead consciously choosing second-hand everything in all my shopping habits.

The vegan thing was a natural progression from that.

It was a slow process though, all though I’ve been vegetarian and about 80% vegan for around 5 years I only became fully vegan about 2 years ago, and I haven’t looked back!

Through my cafe, I get so much joy from inspiring others to make the change and seeing how stoked they are to learn that they can have everything they would ever want to eat but made VEGAN!

It’s actually so great! 2020, what a time to be vegan!  

So in light of that, I wanted to share this recipe from our cafe. It’s one of my faves because it’s super chocolate-y, and decadent, uses up the nut meal we have as a bi-product from making fresh nut milk, and tastes like a real ‘treat yo-self’ kinda dessert!

Heat it up with berries and coco whip to really pimp it out!”

Check out 80/20 Plants for all the plant eating help.

HAZELNUT BROWNIES

Makes 12 brownies

INGREDIENTS

½ cup (8 tsp) chia blended and mixed with just enough water to make a gel

4 cups nut pulp (we use the leftover hazelnut and almond from our nut milk but you can sub regular almond meal for a similar result)

1 cup (100g) dutch cocoa

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup (170g) dark chocolate (we use east van roasters couverture dark chocolate)

½ cup of coconut milk

1/2 cup (125g) of coconut oil, melted

2 cups date puree: make this by soaking dried dates in warm water for half an hour or more, then blend

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup (170g) chopped hazelnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt the coconut oil and chocolate together separately in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water

2. Assemble all other ingredients together in a large bowl, then mix in the melted chocolate and coconut oil together

4. Transfer to a 10 x 8 (ish) baking dish tin (lined with baking paper)

5. Bake at 350 F for 50 minutes

6. Let cool and put in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight so it can easily be cut. Then enjoy!