Healthy Salted Chocolate Brownies
I haven’t made healthy sweets for a long time and I’ve really missed having them around the house for a post dinner snack. So last weekend, I gathered my ingredients, my daughter and my courage (because baking with a toddler requires tremendous bravery) and produced a batch of fudgy chocolate brownies that I’m proud enough of to share.
Why are they healthy?
Using coconut flour instead of white flour adds nutritious properties where there would otherwise be empty calories (ie calories derived from food containing little to no nutrients, so you’re eating but not feeding your body). Coconut flour is a low carb flour that is high in protein, fibre and iron.
Raw cacao instead of cocoa powder – cacao is chocolate is its purest, most nutritionally dense form, so you’re adding antioxidants and a number of essential minerals to your brownies. Read more about cacao here.
Coconut sugar instead of cane sugar – coconut sugar ranks lower on the glycemic index than cane sugar, meaning it doesn’t spike your blood sugar levels as much as cane sugar does, causing further cravings for sweets.
*Note: these are not vegan as I used eggs. There are plenty of vegan brownie recipes around – some of which I’ve tried, none of which I feel I’ve perfected yet. This is my go-to brownie recipe and although I’ve tried to veganise it with flax eggs, it was an unmitigated disaster. For those wanting a vegan recipe, I’m still practicing and it’s coming!
Healthy Salted Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/3 cup raw cacao
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 3-4 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp sea salt (don’t leave this out and make sure you put the full tsp in)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees (150 in fan assisted oven).
- Whisk the peanut butter, coconut sugar, eggs, almond milk and coconut oil together.
- In a separate bowl, sift coconut flour, cacao, sea salt and baking powder and stir to combine.
- Add wet ingredients to dry and fold gently until just combined.
- Spoon into a greased brownie pan and cook for 15 minutes in a fan assisted oven (other ovens may take longer) or until just cooked.
- Have fun cleaning up the epic mess!
