raw mint chocolate chip slice
A fudgy cacao-almond brownie base, a cool, creamy peppermint cashew filling flecked with crunchy cacao nibs and tinted naturally green, and a glossy dark chocolate topping. It's like mint chocolate chip ice cream in a slice. No baking and no refined sugar, and it's vegan, grain-free, and gluten-free.
Yield: One 8x8 pan, 16 squares · Active: 40 min · Total: 4 hours, mostly setting · Year-round (especially festive at the holidays) · Best eaten: midday or early afternoon
Ingredients
Base
1 cup almonds (or sunflower seeds, for nut-free)
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
3 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 packed cup Medjool dates, pitted
¼ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
½ tsp coconut oil, melted (only if the mixture is dry)
Filling
2 cups cashews, soaked at least 4 hours (or 1 hour in hot water), then drained
1 cup thick coconut cream (with no guar gum)
⅓ cup maple syrup
½ cup coconut oil, melted
Natural green color (choose one; see the note below):
Mint green: 1–2 tsp moringa powder plus ½ tsp matcha
Caffeine-free: 1–2 tsp spirulina powder
3–10 drops food-grade peppermint oil, to taste (start with 3–4)
¼ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
⅓ cup cacao nibs
Topping
⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
¼ cup maple syrup
⅓ cup raw cacao powder
Pinch of Baja Gold sea salt (or ½ tsp, for a salty-chocolate finish)
Optional: 2–3 drops food-grade peppermint oil, for extra-minty fans
Choosing your green: Moringa and matcha make a soft, true mint green, but the matcha adds a little caffeine. Spirulina is caffeine-free and makes a deeper green-teal. Its flavor disappears under the peppermint and coconut. For a vivid sky-blue filling instead, use blue spirulina (phycocyanin) powder on its own.
Method
Make the base. Line an 8x8 pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides. Process the almonds (or sunflower seeds) and coconut flakes to a coarse crumb, then add the cacao, dates, and salt and process until the mixture sticks together when pressed, adding a little coconut oil if it's dry. Press it firmly and evenly into the pan, and freeze 15 minutes.
Make the filling. Make sure your ingredients are at room temperature. Blend the cashews, coconut cream, maple syrup, your green color, and salt in a high-speed blender until completely silky and evenly colored. With the blender running on low, stream in the melted coconut oil.
Add the peppermint. Blend in the peppermint oil 1–2 drops at a time, tasting as you go. It's very potent, and brands vary a lot in strength.
Fold in the cacao nibs by hand. Don't blend them, or they'll grind away into the filling.
Set the filling. Spread it over the base, smooth the top, and freeze 2 hours, until firm.
Make the topping. Whisk the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, cacao, salt, and peppermint oil (if using) until smooth and glossy. Let it cool to room temperature, but still pourable, so it doesn't melt the mint layer.
Top. Pour the chocolate over the frozen filling, tilting the pan to spread it evenly. Freeze 30 minutes, until set.
Slice. Lift the slab out by the parchment and let it sit 5–10 minutes, so the chocolate doesn't crack. Cut it into 16 squares with a sharp knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry between cuts.
Avocado variation: For a lighter, greener filling, use 1 cup soaked cashews plus ½ ripe avocado in place of the 2 cups cashews. Avocado can brown over time, so store this version in the freezer.
Storage: Refrigerated up to 1 week, or frozen up to 2 months (thaw 5 minutes before serving). Coconut oil softens in warm rooms, so serve them chilled.
A note on peppermint oil: Use only essential oil labeled food-grade, and add it a drop or two at a time. One extra drop can overpower the slice.
A note on caffeine: The matcha adds a little caffeine, and the cacao contains theobromine, so these are best earlier in the day. For a caffeine-free filling, use spirulina for the color.
A note on "raw": Every cashew sold has been heat-treated to remove the caustic oil in its shell, and U.S. almonds are pasteurized by law, so "raw" here means no-bake.
Nourishment Notes
Folding in the cacao nibs whole, rather than blending them, is what makes this a "chocolate chip" slice instead of a mint cheesecake. Little crunchy pieces of chocolate against a creamy mint filling is the same contrast that makes mint chocolate chip ice cream so good: the two textures hit your palate one after the other, rather than blending into a single flavor, which keeps each one more vivid. Blending the nibs in would turn the filling a muddy green-brown and lose the whole point of the dessert.
The green color does the work that artificial dye does in conventional mint chocolate chip ice cream. Spirulina has a long history as a traditional food: the Aztecs harvested it from Lake Texcoco, and the Kanembu people still harvest it from the shallow lakes around Lake Chad. Its blue pigment, phycocyanin, is heat-sensitive, which is one reason this dessert is made cold. Moringa, from the leaves of the moringa tree, brings a gentle green, along with vitamins and minerals.
Peppermint oil concentrates the menthol found in fresh mint. Menthol activates the cold-sensing receptors in your mouth, which is what creates mint's cooling sensation, the same reason peppermint tastes cool even in hot tea. Used a drop at a time, the oil gives a clean, consistent mint flavor without the grassiness of fresh leaves, and it pairs beautifully with coconut and chocolate.
Almonds and cashews — vitamin E, magnesium, copper, and zinc.
Sunflower seeds (if using) — vitamin E, selenium, and magnesium.
Medjool dates — potassium, magnesium, and fiber, with natural caramel sweetness.
Raw cacao and cacao nibs — magnesium, iron, flavanols, and theobromine, plus fiber and crunch from the nibs.
Coconut cream, coconut oil, and coconut flakes — lauric acid, a medium-chain fat, plus fiber from the flakes.
Moringa — vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and polyphenols.
Matcha — L-theanine and EGCG, a polyphenol from green tea.
Spirulina — protein, iron, B vitamins, and phycocyanin.
Peppermint — menthol, traditionally used to soothe digestion.
As a circadian treat, these squares land best at midday or in the early afternoon, when your body handles sweets most gracefully in daylight.
For your cycle: The cacao's magnesium makes these a comforting luteal-phase treat, when chocolate cravings often peak, and peppermint is traditionally used to ease bloating.
Sourcing
Almonds — organic and unpasteurized, like Terrasoul's organic Spanish almonds
Sunflower seeds (for nut-free) — organic and raw, kept in the fridge
Cashews — organic (every cashew sold has been heat-treated, even "raw" ones)
Coconut flakes — organic, unsweetened, and sulfite-free
Coconut cream — organic and full-fat, made with just coconut and water, with no guar gum (Native Forest Simple comes in BPA-free cans)
Coconut oil — organic, virgin, and unrefined
Medjool dates — organic, soft, and plump
Raw cacao powder and cacao nibs — organic, and ideally tested for heavy metals
Maple syrup — organic Grade A dark
Moringa powder — organic, and ideally tested for heavy metals
Matcha — organic, ceremonial or culinary grade from Japan, ideally tested for heavy metals
Spirulina or blue spirulina — organic, and third-party tested for heavy metals and microcystins (toxins that can contaminate low-quality spirulina)
Peppermint oil — organic, food-grade peppermint essential oil
Salt — Baja Gold sea salt
— Anna aka Food Marshall