Guest Post: Healthified Cake Brownies Recipe from @stop4chocolate

Hi!  I’m Lisa from Stop and Smell the Chocolates.  I’m glad to be guest posting for Katie today – she’s so good at encouraging me to stick to my healthy plans!

Last time I was here, she “made” me make up a recipe using coffee.  This time Katie requested a brownie recipe.  She wanted a dark chocolate brownie, cake-like with nuts, but somewhat healthified.  I said, “Good grief woman, do you think I’m a chef or something?”  LOL – OK not really – I said, “Sure thing!”  Then I went and panicked on my own. 

I did come up with a recipe that hubs and I think is pretty tasty!  It’s tough for a fudgy brownie kind of gal to make cake-like brownies, but I did it.  I hope Katie likes them! {Frugal Femina here: They look INCREDIBLE!}

Healthified Cake Brownies

• 1/2 cup organic sugar (evaporated cane juice)
• 1/4 cup organic butter
• 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup Almond milk
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In large saucepan heat sugar, butter, coconut oil, and cocoa powder over medium heat til butter melts, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add espresso powder, vanilla, and egg.  Beat lightly just til combined.  Combine flour, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon.  Add dry ingredients and almond milk alternately to the chocolate mixture, beating after each addition.  Stir in nuts.  Pour batter into greased 8×8-inch baking pan.

Bake in oven 18-20 minutes or til a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on wire rack.  Cut into bars.

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I tried to make these healthier by increasing fiber with whole-wheat flour, using less butter by adding coconut oil, and using almond milk instead of regular milk.  I did try a batch using a dark chocolate bar instead of cocoa powder, but felt that the cocoa powder had the more chocolatey flavor.  I almost used Special Dark cocoa powder until I discovered that it’s just a blend of regular cocoa powder and Dutch (processed with alkali to give a darker color and richer flavor) cocoa powder.  When I saw that the Special Dark and Dutch cocoa powder contained less antioxidants,I decided to stick with the regular cocoa powder- more antioxidants equals more healthified in my opinion. 

I added some espresso powder and cinnamon to enhance the chocolate flavor (not to mention that caffeine has health benefits as does cinnamon!).  Then I had to choose what kind of nuts to use!  I really thought about almonds because they would be different and they are so good for you.  And I thought about pecans because they’re also good for you and delicious with chocolate.  But I went with walnuts because they have Omega-3 (good for you) in them and have recently been recommended as reducing the risk of diabetes.

Um, I am not any kind of health expert or nutritionist so you should research this information and come to your own conclusions!

I hope these brownies will satisfy Katie’s chocolate craving while being healthy enough to keep her Mamavation success going!

Have a chocolatey day – it’s good for you! 

Lisa @ Stop and Smell the Chocolates

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