Salted-Cashew Orange Cranberry Brownies
These Salted-Cashew Orange Cranberry Brownies are full of vegan awesomeness.
You may have noticed that I recently posted quite a lot of vegan recipes. I admit it - I was a bit skeptical at first, wondering if things would go smoothly.
After all, just making a green salad day after day cannot be at the heart of a vegan diet. And in fact, I was extremely surprised how versatile it is - thanks also to some vegan friends who introduced to a number of ingredients and ideas.
One of my personal favorites among my vegan recipes are these Salted-Cashew Orange Cranberry Brownies I show you today. I'll get to them later.
Before, I would like to share some thoughts about photography. When I started Contentedness Cooking a while ago, I had no real clue about how to make appealing pictures of what I cooked.
Decoration, setting, lighting, and so on was nothing I had given much thought to. I quickly had to realize that this was utterly naive. On the first pictures I took, my food looked like… a brick of something, hardly recognizable. Trust me, you do not want to see that…
OK, after some experimentation, things improved quickly - to a point. I only had a simple point-and-shoot camera. I believe that this was very helpful. After all, what use is the best equipment, if the photographer has no idea what he/she is doing.
Still after a while it turned out the be a severe limitation. Interesting angles, depth of field, sharp closeups… all impossible. So after a while, I decided to upgrade to a DSLR with an reasonable lens. I hope you have noticed that I changed to that camera a couple of posts ago.
Now, with so much more new possibilities to explore, I'm learning again. I can play with depth-of-field, for example, meaning I have to rethink settings, to put something in back- and foregrounds, etc. Anyway, I hope you like the new direction this is taking!
When it comes to the "Salted-Cashew Orange-Cranberry Brownies", I cannot find enough words how awesome they are. Flavors of chocolate and coconut mixed with the fresh and fruity aroma of oranges and cranberries, topped by bites of salted cashews. Simple to make, really, but I was blown away. You will be, too!
Salted-Cashew Orange Cranberry Brownies
Salted-Cashew Orange Cranberry Brownies - simple, delicious, vegan. One of the best desserts you ever tried.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup (80 g) dried cranberries
- 2 cups (250 g) gf flour
- 1 cup (125 g) organic cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt
- ¾ cup (175 g) cashew butter
- ½ cup (120 ml) agave or maple syrup (or more, if you prefer it sweeter)
- juice of three oranges pressed + 1 orange zest
- ¼ cup (60 ml) organic extra virgin coconut oil melted
- ½ cup (100 g) almond yoghurt of choice (I’m going with vanilla)
- 1 Tbs vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract (optional but delicious)
- 5 oz (150 g) at least 70% dark vegan chocolate, divided
- 1 cup (100 g) roasted and salted cashews, divided
- splash oat milk to thin the batter
Instructions
- Preheat oven about 375°F (190°C) and prepare a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Melt 3.5 oz (100 g) of the chocolate in a saucepan or in the microwave.
- In the meantime, juice the oranges and melt the coconut oil.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, orange juice, vanilla and orange extract, coconut oil, melted chocolate, ½ cup (50 g) of the salted cashews, vanilla yoghurt, baking powder and soda, cashew butter, cocoa, cranberries salt and a splash of milk to thin.
- Transfer the batter to the pan, sprinkle with the rest of the salted cashew nuts, break the chocolate into small chunks and sprinkle.
- Bake for 40 minutes, let sit aside for 10 minutes.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 129Total Fat: 4.7gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3.2gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 50mgCarbohydrates: 21.1gFiber: 0.7gSugar: 12.5gProtein: 1.6g










These look + sound so amazing! I can totally relate on the whole learning curve of food photography, it truly is an art form and you only get better with time and develope your own unique style!
Hi Heather, glad you like the Brownies!
Thank you also much for the kind words - it's good to hear some feedback. I feel I'm still learning so much with every picture I take. Not only technical things but also what I like and what will become my personal style. At least, i'm not running out of ideas 😉 And things seem to look quite ok already as they are, so I'm happy 🙂
Wow, these brownies look absolutely delicious! Can't believe they're vegan!
Hi Lisa, so glad you like the Brownies. It is really amazing what one can do with vegan ingredients. I only recently started exploring this direction and I keep getting surprised!
These look amazing! I've just been taken off all grains so I wonder if there is a suitable non-grain substitute for the spelt flour?
Hi kay, I would recommend you can use almond, coconut or tapioca flour instead of spelt. Hope that helps, let me know when you try.
Hi Kay, I would recommend you can use almond, coconut or tapioca flour instead of spelt. Hope that helps, let me know when you try.
Absolutely love these, thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Michelle! 🙂
Beautiful photos! I love how moody they are. You're new camera (and photography skills!) are obviously working out quite nicely. I'm also really intrigued by the flavor combinations in these brownies - sounds like they'd be so good together. Bonus points that they're vegan!
Thanks so much, Chrisy! I've been playing around with the photography quite a lot recently, trying different setting, styles etc. that I also like very much, these pictures are still among my favorites. And thinking about the flavors, I feel that I have to make these brownies again very soon 😉
I agree with Chrisy, beautiful photography! Rich and interesting! I used to be so adverse to the whole orange and chocolate combination, but was forced to try a chocolate orange, and was pleasantly surprised! So I'm excited to try this recipe! It seems like it would be great around the holidays too! Thanks!
Thanks, Ariel! I hope you will enjoy these as much as I do! Let me know how it worked.
Absolutely gorgeous photography + styling!
Awesome, Lauren! Glad you like the pictures!
Fun pics...it can be so challenging to know just how to style a photo. It looks like you are well on your way. New blogger toys, be they cameras or kitchen equipment are always so fun!
Thanks for the kind words and stopping by!
AMAZING pix! I see a ton of images but this one I actually and craving now! right up my alley!
Thanks Krayl. Some of my all-time favorites. 🙂
I love this recipes -- such great flavors together! I need to use more cashew butter. Love your photos!
Thanks, Patricia! Glad you like the pictures! There is always some cashew butter in my pantry. 🙂
These look delicious. Like I actually feel like baking delicious! (I'm not a big baker...I usually leave it to my daughter and husband) And the flavors...yum! Your pictures are beautiful too, of course. I feel like there is so much to learn with food photography. I've come a long ways, but I still have a long ways to go. My first ones probably look very similar to what you described of your own. LOL Thanks for sharing this with us at #FoodieFriDIY...I am very glad you stopped over at my Facebook page and introduced me to your blog! I love your recipes! Pinning and sending some other foodie love your way!
Haha, Michelle you have no idea how my first photos looked like. Not only was it with a shoddy camera, I also had no idea or feeling about composition, lighting, and such. The result was really horrible. I kept some of those pictures for comic relief, though. That's not supposed to mean that I think there is nothing to improve - to the contrary.Just as you say, I think I also have a long way to go. But this is also very motivating and a lot of fun to experience.
I very happily stopped by at your #FoodieFriDIY and am thankful that you told me about it. Great idea! And don't tell me you are not a big baker! I had a look at some of your baking recipes and they are gorgeous. So gorgeous that I just had to feature your "Lemon Blueberry Bars" in my weekly "Cozy Sunday - Links and Likes" column. 🙂
Thank you for the feature! I'm going to check it out now. I have tons of baking fails...some pretty funny stories. If you like our party, you might want to consider joining our Facebook community...it's a very supportive group. 🙂
I definitely like the direction your photography (and recipes) are taking! Sign me up for a big plate of these drool-worthy brownies...or even just a few more pics - no, definitely the brownies...See, I just can't decide!
Thanks, Christine for the kind words and for stopping by! 🙂
These look marvelous and beautiful. I love how rich and fudgy they are. I have to try this soon!
Thank you! 🙂 Let me know when you give these a try and how it worked.
What a great flavour combination!
Thank you Lucy, enjoy!
You had me at Salted Cashew....yummy!
Thank you, Chrysta!