Healthy Chocolate Brownies
I’m always ready to try another recipe for healthy brownies. You may have already tried my Black Bean Brownies and Flourless Brownies which were quite satisfying.
This time I started with a recipe from chelseasmessyapron.com, but I changed it a bit. Firstly, I didn’t have any coconut oil or coconut sugar at home, so I used sunflower oil and dark brown cane sugar (Muscoado) instead. Secondly, I replaced chocolate frosting with vegan chocolate ganache which, in my opinion, is unbeatable.
When I took a first bite, these brownies seemed a bit bitter. That is not surprising when you have in mind that there was 3/4 cup (130 g) dark chocolate chips melted in the batter, another 3/4 cup (130 g) dark chocolate chips sitrred into the batter and 2 oz (56 g) in the frosting. Alltogether it is 6.5 oz (186 g) dark chocolate per 8×8 inch pan. So, next time I would definitely omit stirring choolate chips to the batter.
With oatmeal instead of flour, no eggs and a possibility to substitute dairy Greek yogurt with vegan yogurt, this is a decent every day fudgy Healthy Chocolate Brownies recipe.
In 8th grade, my middle school’s concert bands planned a four-day field trip to Disneyland. Our band director scheduled a performance for us inside of the theme park, but for the remainder of our two days in Anaheim, we raced around Disneyland to fit in all of our favorite rides.
For each of the eight-hour bus rides from our Northern California town and back, the chaperones packed plenty of VHS tapes to keep us occupied. Of course, knowing our destination… Most of those movies were Disney-themed, like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King!
During the last half hour of our Sunday drive, one chaperone popped in The Lion King 1 ½. Since my friends and I hadn’t seen it, we were bummed when the bus pulled into the middle school parking lot… So we decided to meet up at my house the next weekend to watch the rest!
That afternoon, my mom picked up pizzas from our favorite restaurant, and I whipped up a batch of boxed mix brownies (each of my friends had a sweet tooth as big as mine!). Before settling into the family room and pressing play, we grabbed paper plates to serve ourselves lunch.
Ingredients
Chocolate Ganache:
Instructions
Make the Ganache:
Putting it together:
Recipe Notes
*Notes: Nutrition information is calculated for 16 brownies without ganache.
This time I started with a recipe from chelseasmessyapron.com, but I changed it a bit. Firstly, I didn’t have any coconut oil or coconut sugar at home, so I used sunflower oil and dark brown cane sugar (Muscoado) instead. Secondly, I replaced chocolate frosting with vegan chocolate ganache which, in my opinion, is unbeatable.
When I took a first bite, these brownies seemed a bit bitter. That is not surprising when you have in mind that there was 3/4 cup (130 g) dark chocolate chips melted in the batter, another 3/4 cup (130 g) dark chocolate chips sitrred into the batter and 2 oz (56 g) in the frosting. Alltogether it is 6.5 oz (186 g) dark chocolate per 8×8 inch pan. So, next time I would definitely omit stirring choolate chips to the batter.
With oatmeal instead of flour, no eggs and a possibility to substitute dairy Greek yogurt with vegan yogurt, this is a decent every day fudgy Healthy Chocolate Brownies recipe.
In 8th grade, my middle school’s concert bands planned a four-day field trip to Disneyland. Our band director scheduled a performance for us inside of the theme park, but for the remainder of our two days in Anaheim, we raced around Disneyland to fit in all of our favorite rides.
For each of the eight-hour bus rides from our Northern California town and back, the chaperones packed plenty of VHS tapes to keep us occupied. Of course, knowing our destination… Most of those movies were Disney-themed, like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King!
During the last half hour of our Sunday drive, one chaperone popped in The Lion King 1 ½. Since my friends and I hadn’t seen it, we were bummed when the bus pulled into the middle school parking lot… So we decided to meet up at my house the next weekend to watch the rest!
That afternoon, my mom picked up pizzas from our favorite restaurant, and I whipped up a batch of boxed mix brownies (each of my friends had a sweet tooth as big as mine!). Before settling into the family room and pressing play, we grabbed paper plates to serve ourselves lunch.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup almond flour or oat four*
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ½ cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped (4 oz)
- 2 TBS butter or coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup Vanilla Greek yogurt**
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ to ½ cup chocolate chips to mix in
Chocolate Ganache:
- ½ cup 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup heavy cream or coconut cream, or half & half
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees grease a 9x9” baking pan and set aside.
- Mix almond flour, cocoa powder and sea salt in a small bowl; set aside.
- Melt chocolate & coconut oil/butter together in the microwave. Mix until completely melted.
- Mix in sugar, Greek yogurt and vanilla.
- Mix in eggs, one at a time until the batter is completely smooth.
- Add dry ingredients, whisk until just incorporated.
- Add chocolate chips!
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the top is just barely set and the edges are slightly pulling away from the sides of the pan. (20 = gooier brownies)
- When brownies are finished baking, place the pan on a wire rack and cool.
Make the Ganache:
- While the brownies are baking, make the ganache.
- Add heavy cream to a small saucepan and warm over medium-high heat until it just begins to bubble. Do NOT let it boil.
- Turn off heat and whisk in chopped chocolate and vanilla until the mixture is dark and smooth.
- Remove from warm burner and let cool slightly. The ganache thickens as it cools.
Putting it together:
- Once the ganache is slightly cooled, pour it over your cooling brownies.
- Let the ganache firm up at room temperature or place in the refrigerator to speed up the process.
- Remove from refrigerator, cut and serve at room temperature, or serve cold!
Recipe Notes
- *I prefer almond flour because it yields an even fudgier brownie. I have used both flours with great success! **Please do not try using regular yogurt. The thickness of Greek yogurt makes these brownies fudgy and chewy. I tried regular yogurt and was not happy with the results. Store in the refrigerator and warm in the microwave for 15 seconds to restore the fresh-from-the-oven taste!
*Notes: Nutrition information is calculated for 16 brownies without ganache.