These Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Brownies are rich and fudgy, perfectly sweet, and covered in a fragrant white chocolate glaze! The perfect healthy dessert!
What is matcha?
Matcha is green tea powder.
I love using matcha in desserts, as it adds a beautiful colour and delicious earthy flavour.
Where can you buy matcha?
You can buy matcha in most supermarkets (in the tea section), local health stores, online or in Asian supermarkets.
Why you’ll love these Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Brownies:
- they’re rich and fudgy
- they’re perfectly sweet
- they have an elegant flavour
- they’re covered in a fragrant white chocolate glaze
- they’re refined sugar free
- they’re grain-free
- they’re paleo
- they’re oil-free
- they’re easy to make
- they keep well for a few days
- they’re perfect for sharing and make excellent edible gifts!
How to make these Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Brownies
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (including measurements and full instructions).
- Place the soaked and drained dates, almond butter and plant-based milk in a food processor or blender.
- Whizz until completely smooth.
- Place the ground almonds and matcha in a glass mixing bowl and mix well.
- Add the puréed date mixture and mix well – add a splash more milk if it’s looking too dry.
- Transfer the batter into a square baking tin.
Tip: Line the tin with greased baking paper to make it easier to remove the brownies after.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Leave to cool completely before drizzling over the glaze.
How to make the white chocolate glaze
- Melt the cacao butter in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.
- Add the plant-based milk and maple syrup and mix well.
- Drizzle it over the brownies using a spoon.
How to decorate these brownies
If you wish to decorate, scatter over freeze-dried strawberries or raspberries, rose petals or desiccated coconut while the glaze is still wet.
How long do these Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Brownies keep for?
These Matcha Brownies keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days – the taste or texture remains unchanged which means they’re great for meal prep and making ahead for entertaining.
Substitutions you can make to this recipe:
- you can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk, rice milk, oat milk etc
- you can replace the almond butter with sunflower seed butter or cashew butter
- you can replace the ground almonds with ground walnuts or ground sunflower seeds
- for a nut-free version, replace the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds, replace the almond butter with sunflower seed butter and use a nut-free plant-based milk
- you can add dried cranberries, desiccated coconut or vegan white chocolate chips to the brownie batter
- instead of the white chocolate glaze, you can top these brownies with strawberry frosting!
More vegan matcha recipes:
- Matcha Overnight Oats
- Matcha Shortbread Cookies
- Matcha Chocolate Truffles
- Matcha Strawberry Cake
- Matcha Baked Donuts
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Brownies
Ingredients
For the brownies:
- 350 g (2 cups) pitted dates soaked overnight in cold water or for 15 minutes in boiling water
- 80 ml (1/3 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 65 g (1/4 cup) almond butter
- 360 g (3 cups) ground almonds (almond meal)
- 3 teaspoons matcha powder to taste
For the white chocolate glaze (optional):
- 30 g (1 oz) cacao butter
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
To decorate (optional):
- Freeze-dried strawberries or raspberries
- Rose petals
- Desiccated coconut
Instructions
For the brownies:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Drain the dates and place in a food processor or blender with the almond milk and almond butter
- Blend until completely smooth, mixing it around a couple of times if necessary
- Place ground almonds and matcha powder in a large bowl and mix well – to ensure it all combines evenly afterwards
- Add the puréed date mixture and mix well – add a splash more milk if it's looking too dry
- Transfer into a baking tin lined with greased baking paper – I used a 23cm/9inch square baking tin
- Bake in oven for around 20 minutes. They should be firm inside but still quite gooey – be careful not to overcook as they will firm up as they cool down
- Leave to cool completely before drizzling over the glaze (if using)
For the white chooclate glaze (optional):
- Melt the cacao butter in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water
- Add the milk and maple syrup and mix well
- Drizzle it over the brownies using a spoon – you will find most of the surface will be covered
- If you wish to decorate, scatter over freeze-dried strawberries or raspberries, rose petals or desiccated coconut while the glaze is still wet
- Leave to cool (or place in fridge) until the glaze has compeltely set before cutting into squares
- Keeps well covered in the fridge for up to a few days
Notes
- For a nut-free version, replace the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds, replace the almond butter with sunflower seed butter and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
- You can add dried cranberries, desiccated coconut or vegan white chocolate chips to the brownie batter.
- Instead of the white chocolate glaze, you can top these brownies with strawberry frosting!
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me, with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Wei @ Red House Spice
What a beautiful idea! Those rose petals make a difference. Will have to give it a try when I have my new oven installed (god knows when!). Have a nice day!
Rhian Williams
Hi Wei! Thank you so much! I hope you really like it if you do try it. Good luck with the oven!
Ann
Hi! Is there any other nut replacement for those who can’t have almonds? Really want to make these but I can’t have almonds 🙁
Cashews, Macadamias and Pecans are all ok for me though. Or GF tapioca starch instead of almond meal?
Rhian Williams
Ground pecan nuts should work as a good replacement!
Anonymous
Made these at the weekend and they were a big hit with my family thank you!
Rhian Williams
Thank you!
Carolina Gaitan
Hi!! I made these today and followed all the steps exactly but they dont look at all like the ones in the photo!
Mines look very brown and not green at all, more like date color! Also, my frosting doesnt blend, i think the cacao butter and the milk wont mix together at all, its completely separated! Could you please tell me what to do in both cases??
Thanks!!
Rhian Williams
Hi Carolina, thank you for your feedback. I’m so sorry about the problems. The colour may depend on the strength of the matcha you used and the colour of your dates. To make them greener you could add more matcha or a tiny pinch of spirulina (which has a very strong green colour compared to matcha so just a bit will give a stronger colour). For the icing, I would suggest heating up all the ingredients together in a pan, which should make them combine nicely. I hope that helps and please let me know how you get on!
Elliott
Hi,
just wondering if this works with less coconut oil?
reluctant to use 4 tbps as that seems like quite a bit of saturated fat…
Otherwise they look good though, will have a go at making them today hopefully!
Rhian Williams
Thank you! Yes you can use less than 4 tablespoons if you prefer, to be honest they would probably work without any coconut oil at all if you’d prefer that!