Strawberry Santa Hat Brownies

If you are looking for a super cute Christmas dessert that the kids will not only love eating, but making too, then give these Strawberry Santa Hat Brownies a try. Just a few ingredients are needed to make these raw Christmas brownies and then top them with yogurt and strawberries to make Santa hats. Perfect for a Christmas party.

Strawberry topped brownies on a wooden serving board with Christmas decorations in the background.

As soon as Halloween is gone, we start thinking about delicious festive treats. These Christmas brownies couldn't be any more perfect with their little Santa hats on.

A simple raw blended mix of almonds, dates, cocoa, honey and festive spices rolled into balls and then topped with yogurt and a strawberry Santa hat. Kids will LOVE making and eating these.

Are you are looking for some other ways to get kids involved in the kitchen this Christmas? Try our Christmas Rice Krispie Treats, Christmas Popcorn or Cinnamon Flapjacks.

Jump to:

Why you will love them
Ingredients needed
How to make Santa Hat Brownies - Step by step
Health benefits
Santa Brownie Flavours
What to serve with Santa Hat Brownies
Frequently Asked Questions
Extra tips
More Christmas desserts
Recipe
Feedback

Why you will love them

A healthy Christmas snack - There are just 115 calories per Santa hat brownie and they are packed full of natural ingredients.
Raw - There is no cooking involved in there, as everything is just blended up and mixed together.
Vegan option - You can easily make a vegan version of these by swapping honey for maple syrup and using a plant based yogurt on top.
Fun for kids to eat and make - Kids will love making these and getting their hands all messy rolling them up.
Perfect for a Christmas party - Instead of serving up the usual dessert, put these on a pretty board with some decorations. Your guests will love it!

Ingredients needed

Almonds - These are what make this a protein packed and filling snack. You could swap them some another nut like cashews or peanuts. It needs to be something that blends well, so anything you would usually find as a nut butter. You could use a mixture too, or even use seeds.
Cocoa powder - This is what gives it all the chocolatey flavour. We used unsweetened and try to use the best quality that you can, as you really will be able to taste the difference.
Dates - To give it some natural sweetness, and also the stickiness, we used pitted dates. You could use raisins instead, but it doesn't have the same consistency, and tends to fall apart a bit more.
Honey - To give it some extra sweetness, we added a good quality honey. You could swap it for maple syrup if you wanted to keep these vegan.
Water - This loosens the mixture up a little to make it more mouldable. You only need a tiny bit though.
Strawberries - This is what makes up more of the actual Santa hat. Try to use even sized strawberries so they all look the same.
Yogurt - This makes the lining and the bobble of the hat. We used 0% Greek yogurt. You could use a plant based yogurt if you wanted to keep these vegan.

A full ingredients list with measurements is in the recipe card below.

How to make Santa Hat Brownies - Step by step

One: Blend the almonds until the are a fine flour texture. Add the cocoa powder and dates and blend until they are well chopped up.

A metal mixing bowl full of ground almonds, chopped dates and cocoa powder.

Two: Tip the mixture into a bowl with the honey and water.

Three: Mix well.

A metal mixing bowl with raw brownie mixture in it.

Four: Using your hands, make the mixture in to 12 balls. Press the balls down a little to make a flatter top. Add a teaspoon of yogurt to each ball.

Nine raw brownie balls, all topped with yogurt, on a wooden board.

Five: Add a strawberry and then a little more yogurt for the bobble of the hat.

A raw brownie ball topped with yogurt and a strawberry.

Health benefits

Instead of using the standard buttery and sugary brownie as a base (which you could of course do), we used a raw brownie mixture that uses natural ingredients like nuts and dried fruit.

Despite nuts being high in fat, they are low in carbs, and a great source of several nutrients, including vitamin E, magnesium, and selenium. Nuts also contain antioxidants known as polyphenols. These are have been shown to protect your cells and “bad” LDL cholesterol from damage caused by free radicals.

Dates are a great source of fibre, which can benefit your digestive health by preventing constipation. It promotes regular bowel movements by contributing to the formation of stool.

We also just added a little extra sweetness with some honey, which also helps to bind everything together. But these are much less sweet than a more traditional baked brownie.

Santa Brownie Flavours

The great thing about these Santa Hat Brownies is how easy they are to adapt - you can add any of your favourite flavours to the brownie base. Peppermint extract will give it a really festive flavour, or you could use orange extract as chocolate and orange go so well together.

We used a little bit of ginger to give these some festive flavour, but you could use a mix of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

What to serve with Santa Hat Brownies

Looking for a nice warming drink to serve with these strawberry Santas? Why not try our Chai Tea Latte, Oat Milk Hot Chocolate, Cinnamon Coffee, Slow Cooker Mulled Wine or Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate?

Raw chocolate brownies topped with a strawberry to make it look like a Santa hat.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to store Santa hat brownies.

The brownies themselves would stay fresh in the fridge for about 5 days if you made extra of those (roll them in to balls for little raw snack bars), but it is the yogurt that wouldn't say fresh as long.
If you have made up the full Santa hat brownies, then they will be good in the fridge for about 48 hours.

Can you freeze Santa hat brownies?

No, we wouldn't recommend freezing these.

Are Santa hat brownies gluten free?

Yes, these are gluten free. Just be careful that there isn't any cross contamination.

Extra tips

• We used almonds to make the base of these strawberry Santa hat brownies, but you could use a mixture of other nuts like cashews and walnuts.
• Make flavoured brownies by adding peppermint or orange extract or ground ginger when you add the water.
• These brownies will keep in the fridge for 2 days.
• To make these vegan, use maple syrup instead of honey and use a vegan yogurt.
• If you want to make these a little more indulgent then you could use whipped cream instead of yogurt, or even white chocolate ganache.
• You could just cut out circles of regular brownies if you didn't want to rather than raw brownies.
• You could put little marshmallows on top of the strawberry Santa hats.

More Christmas desserts

If you’ve tried these Santa Hat Brownies, let us know how you got on in the comments below.
Tag us in your creations on Instagram @hungryhealthyhappy - Use the hashtag #hungryhealthyhappy too.

Recipe