The best Paleo brownies ever!

Warning!! These are super moist yummy brownies.  There are many recipes out there claiming to be the best Paleo brownie and I'm pretty sure I've tried most of them.  This recipe is not only the best, but it is nut free, dairy free and gluten free. It can be easily adjusted to be vegan as well. It packs in 3 grams of fiber for one piece and only 15 carbs!

A friend of mine recently sent me a recipe for fudgy brownies. It utilized almond butter which my palate has not quite adjusted to yet.  More importantly though, I'm making these for my kids as I generally don't crave sweets other than fruit anymore. I figure if I can get Brayden to eat his sweets Paleo, then I'll be off to a good start in transforming him.  On to the recipe.

I decided to use sunflower seeds as I wanted to make them nut free for purposes of taking them to school and possibly bringing them to my nephew next weekend who has a nut allergy. I was so excited at how great these turned out.  Here it is:

Paleo Brownie Bar

1 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
2 eggs, tempered (optional, see below)
1/2 cup canned coconut milk, room temperature or warmed 10 seconds
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/3-1/2 cup of carob or cocoa powder (I used carob powder)
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar (*this is key to a rich caramel flavor and can be found at Whole Foods)
Optional add ins: chocolate chips, shredded coconuts, nuts, dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease an 8x8 pan with coconut oil or line with parchment paper.
In your food processor, ground the sunflower seeds until thickened about 3 minutes.  Stir in the coconut oil until smooth. (You could alternatively use sunflower seed butter from the jar). Add your tempered eggs (microwave for 10 seconds), milk, vanilla, and salt.  Stir until smooth. Add cocoa, sugar and any add ins.
Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool before cutting.

To make these vegan, increase the sunflower seeds by 1/2 cup. They will be chewier than this version.  I prefer eggs in mine.  The reason you have to temper your eggs and warm your milk is because of the coconut oil.  You can mix a different oil with your sunflower seeds to skip the warming part or if you use the jar version of sunflower seed butter then you can skip it.

Let me know what you think.  I'm having trouble not eating the whole pan!