These rich and fudgy paleo and vegan brownies are filled with gooey sweet cherries and topped with lots of dark chocolate for a show stopping dessert! Go all out and top with coconut vanilla ice cream for a chocolate cherry brownie sundae! Dairy free, gluten free, refined sugar free, egg free.
I think these brownies speak for themselves! The perfect marriage between the fudgiest dark chocolate brownies and chocolate covered cherries!
And yes of course – made with better for you ingredients! Insane, right?! I could not keep myself away from these brownies and neither could my family members.
It just doesn’t get more delicious. Unless you put a big scoop of ice cream on them to make a chocolate covered cherry fudge brownie sundae. Then it get a WHOLE lot better.
What You Need to Make Chocolate Covered Cherry Fudge Brownies
If you’re into paleo baking already, you probably already have everything you need on hand, maybe with the exception of the cherries! Get all these ingredients on your list:
- pitted cherries (frozen is fine)
- coconut sugar or maple sugar
- tapioca flour or arrowroot
- fresh lemon juice
- fine sea salt
- flaxseed meal
- blanched almond flour
- raw cacao powder
- baking soda
- unsweetened baking chocolate
- almond butter
- pure maple syrup
- coconut oil
- pure vanilla extract
- dark chocolate, or Hu Kitchen gems
How to Make Chocolate Covered Cherry Vegan Brownies
First, prepare the cherry filling. Place the cherries, sugar, tapioca and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and set heat to medium. Bring to a boil, stirring to avoid burning.
Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer and continue to cook and stir 3-5 more minutes until thick and syrupy. Remove from heat to partially cool. While the cherries cool, make the brownie batter.
Prepare the flax eggs – mix 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal with 6 tablespoons water and allow the mixture to sit about 10 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, cacao powder, coconut sugar, baking soda and sea salt and set aside.
In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave in increments of 30 seconds stirring between each one until melted. Add the almond butter and whisk to combine, then stir in the maple syrup, coconut oil, flax eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir well until a thick batter forms. Transfer 2/3 of the batter to the prepared baking pan and spread evenly (it will be thick. Top with the cherry mixture, then the drop the remaining brownie batter all over the top, spreading gently to smooth it without covering the cherries completely.
Bake in the preheated oven for 23-27 minutes or until set in the center. After removing from oven, immediately sprinkle chopped chocolate over the top to melt.
Allow the brownies to cool to room temp before cutting into squares.
Tips for the Fudgiest Paleo Brownies
Getting the fudgiest texture is partially about the recipe, but more about the baking and cooling.
As with all brownies, underbaking just a bit is always better than overbaking. The brownies will be super soft coming out of the oven, but, as long as the center is set, they’re done.
Once you remove from the oven, they need to set COMPLETELY before cutting. Yes, this means waiting longer, but I always prefer to chill the brownies in the fridge or freezer even after they cool to room temperature to bring out a fudgy texture.
Chilling makes them SO much easier to cut into neat squares as well. You can easily make these the day before serving and keep them refrigerated overnight. Cut and serve them the next day. They taste even better the day after, in my opinion!
I hope you’re ready for chocolate covered cherry HEAVEN with these incredible vegan and paleo fudge brownies! Grab your cherries, preheat your oven and let’s go bake these insanely delicious, downright magical brownies 🙂
Chocolate Covered Cherry Fudge Brownies {Paleo, Vegan}
Chocolate Covered Cherry Fudge Brownies
Ingredients
Cherry filling:
- 2 cups sweet pitted cherries (frozen is fine)
- 3 Tbsp coconut sugar or maple sugar
- 2 tsp tapioca flour or arrowroot
- 1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Pinch fine sea salt
Brownie Batter:
- 2 Flax Eggs (2 Tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 6 Tbsp water, allowed to sit for 10 mins)
- 2/3 cup blanched almond flour
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup coconut sugar or maple sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 4 oz baking chocolate unsweetened, cut into pieces
- 1/3 cup almond butter smooth
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut oil refined
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 oz dark chocolate chopped, or Hu kitchen gems
Instructions
Prepare the Cherry Filling:
-
Place the cherries, sugar, tapioca and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and set heat to medium. Bring to a boil, stirring to avoid burning.
-
Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer and continue to cook and stir 3-5 more minutes until thick and syrupy. Remove from heat to partially cool.
Prepare the Brownie Batter:
-
Prepare the flax eggs as described above. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, cacao powder, coconut sugar, baking soda and sea salt. Set aside.
-
In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave in increments of 30 seconds stirring between each one until melted. Add the almond butter and whisk to combine, then stir in the maple syrup, coconut oil, flax eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
-
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir well until a thick brownie batter forms. Transfer 2/3 of the batter to the prepared baking pan and spread evenly (it will be thick. Top with the cherry mixture, then the drop the remaining brownie batter all over the top, spreading gently to smooth it without covering the cherries completely.
-
Bake in the preheated oven for 23-27 minutes or until set in the center. After removing from oven, immediately sprinkle the chopped chocolate or gems over the top.
-
Allow to cool to room temp before cutting into squares. Chilling in the fridge or freezer will bring out a fudgy texture and make them easier to cut as well. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Add a scoop of coconut vanilla ice cream to serve for the BEST brownie sundae!
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo + Vegan Dessert Recipes? Try one of These!
Espresso Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles
Double Dark Chocolate Truffles
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Hi,
I love your recipes and would love to try them with my son, however, he cannot have any almond products. Thoughts on a good substitute? He has to avoid any dairy, gluten, legumes, and tree nuts excluding coconut.
I can’t say for sure, but I think GF oat flour could work for this recipe, perhaps a touch less. For the almond butter, you can sub in any creamy seed butter that works for you, like sunflower butter.
Hi! Can we use regular eggs? So excited to try!!
I’m wondering this too!
Any thoughts on replacing the almond flour and almond butter (nut allergy home) we are ok with dairy! Thanks!
Hi Michele, I love many of your recipes though have recently converted to Keto which is helping with my weight loss.
I can substitute the coconut sugar for monkfruit and thicken the fruit with chia instead of tapioca though seek your suggestion for suitable maple syrup alternative.
Wondering whether I could just increase the sweetness with more monkfruit or whether you chose the syrup for it’s texture. I do have Lo Han Honey Though this would make it ridiculously expensive. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I made it for Valentine’s Day & my family loved it! They said it tasted so good they wouldn’t have guessed it was good for you too.
Can I use regular eggs instead of flaxseed ? If so how many eggs ?
Can I use regular eggs instead of flaxseed? If so Home any for this recipe ?
Unfortunately the taste of the flax was so overwhelming that we couldn’t eat them. I’ll try them again with chicken eggs.
WOW
This is my favorite cake. I will save the recipe to learn how to make this cake.
Can I use regular eggs instead of flaxseed?
If I don’t have arrowroot or tapioca can use cornstarch?
I’ve been making your fudgy peanut butter brownies for some time but wow these might be the new fav!! I had fresh cherries that needed to be used and this recipe was perfect!