Healthy Vegan Nutella Brownies

These healthy vegan Nutella brownies are fudgy, gooey, and so delicious! Made with sweet potato, they’re completely paleo and gluten free as well!

I have to say, I’ll probably be making these healthy vegan Nutella brownies for the next few months or so…actually probably forever. I’m quite obsessed with Nutella, and these vegan paleo Nutella brownies just blow my mind!

I just can’t get over the fact that they’re completely flourless, refined sugar free, grain free (so that means they’re also gluten free!), dairy free, and more, and yet they taste out of this world.

I told you, friends. Magic does exist, and it’s in the form of healthy Nutella brownies!

How these healthy vegan Nutella brownies originated

Well, it all started with the original Paleo brownies! These have been a staple in the Banana Diaries repertoire for quite some time now, and it’s what inspired me to expand into the Paleo cookie skillet, the Paleo donuts, etc.

Sweet potato is just an all-around great ingredient. So I was trying to think of some ideas for my next brownie creation and I just remembered as a kid, I was obsessed with Nutella!

Now, for those who don’t know (I actually met someone in college who had no idea what Nutella was so I feel like I need to go into this haha!), Nutella originated in Italy and is a blend of hazelnuts and chocolate (and a few other choice ingredients, but in these, we’re sticking with high quality!).

I made a Paleo vegan Nutella that I used for these brownies, but I’ve also experimented using Artisana Organics’ hazelnut cacao spread, and they came out just as amazing. For those that are strictly following a Paleo diet, I’m not sure if that hazelnut cacao spread is technically considered Paleo, but hey, if you don’t follow labels (like me!), don’t sweat it! Use whatever you feel best with 🙂 Like with all of my recipes, these paleo vegan Nutella brownies are no exception: it’s all about what makes you feel good! I don’t want you to think you need any one ingredient.

So back to the story: I experimented with some vegan Nutella in place of my typical coconut butter, and wow! Mind was blown. Like these healthy Nutella brownies are the best dang thing since sliced bread.

We should probably actually have Betty White test that out, since she was around when sliced bread came out so I feel like her opinion would be best here haha! I’d be curious to hear what she thinks! 😉

Now onto the ingredients of these amazing and flourless brownies filled with Nutella goodness!

Vegan Nutella Brownies Ingredients

Sweet potato: naturally, we’re going with a sweet potato again because I just can’t be stopped! In all honesty, that’s what makes these paleo Nutella brownies so dang good! Really all of my paleo recipes for that matter. The sweet potato is king! I’ll share some tips and tricks for how I get mine just right down below, so stay tuned!

Vegan Nutella: so for this, I actually have a Paleo vegan Nutella recipe! If you want it to be a little bit sweeter, just add about 1/3 cup while making the Nutella. If you want to save some time and just purchase a vegan Nutella, by all means go for it! My favorite is by Artisana Organics, it’s their Hazelnut Cacao butter, and it’s insane. Made with coconut sugar, and just so dang good!

Flax eggs: now, if you’re not completely concerned with making these healthy Nutella brownies vegan, you can just swap in eggs at a 1:1 ratio. But I actually do really like how these turned out with the flax eggs. All you need to do is mix ground flax seed with a little water, let it sit for a minute or two, and ta-da! You have a ground flaxseed egg 🙂

Coconut flour: since these paleo Nutella brownies are full of some pretty gooey ingredients (*cough* sweet potato and vegan Nutella *cough*), coconut flour is a great paleo and grain free flour to soak up some of that extra moisture. These flourless brownies don’t even look, taste, or feel like they’re flourless, thanks to the coconut flour!

Cacao powder: well, you need a little extra chocolate in there, don’t ya?! My tip is always the same here- go for the highest quality cacao powder because that’ll give you the most nutrients and the most flavor! Also, go for cacao over cocoa. I find it’s a richer flavor, since cocoa is heated, so my opinion is that it loses its flavor punch.

Tips and tricks for these healthy Nutella brownies

So the first major tip for these flourless brownies is perfecting the sweet potato. You really want to make sure that the sweet potato caramelizes and becomes super soft.

In order to do so, please do not boil or steam it. You will not caramelize the natural sugars in the sweet potato that way. Baking is the best way to go here, and roasting it whole too!

Bake your sweet potato (large, so about 12 ounces or around 8″) at 375F beforehand. About an hour to an hour and 15 minutes should do. Once it’s done, let it cool before removing the skin. If you’re making this sweet potato the night before you make your healthy Nutella brownies, you can place the sweet potato in the fridge. This will create some amazing resistant starch!

However, you can also just bake the sweet potato a few hours before you make the brownies. Just be sure that it’s not piping hot going into your food processor!

That leads me to my second major tip. You guessed it, the food processor! Mine has become my best friend in the kitchen. It saves me loads of arm work and really purees the sweet potato so the brownies don’t come out stringy.

The food processor will really help make sure that all of the ingredients are well mixed for these Paleo Nutella brownies. Then there are no mishaps when it comes to baking them.

Third major tip is for maximizing the flavor of course! These flourless brownies are fantastic mixed into homemade ice cream, nice cream (banana ice cream), or just on their own, drizzled with a little extra Nutella (go big or go home). You can try to store them in the fridge for a week or the freezer for a month, but let’s be honest: these won’t last you that long haha!

They sure as heck didn’t in my place! I hope you love these vegan Nutella brownies as much as I do! Would love to hear what you think in the comments below, and happy baking!

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