Greetings! :)
I must show you something I found on my run today…
*gulp.
It was on the ground.
Below a tree.
It wasn’t alone.
They used to be green.
Now they are red and orange.
I stopped in my tracks and mumbled a word I will not repeat on the blog. I did a quick mental date check (Aug. 26th, 27th thereabouts??) and decided that this tree was clearly confused!!!!
Friends, this is a classic case of early-onset molting. If trees molted that is…
Despite this shocking scene, I managed to have a great run! I have only run once in the past week so my legs were definitely rusty, but it didn’t take that long to get into the groove.
I am currently looking at a half marathon, 10k, and 5k race in the next couple of weeks, but I can’t decide what distance I want to do! Votes? :)
Oh do I have a treat for you on this lovely Friday evening….
Tonight I was looking through my Sweet Freedom cookbook and I came across a recipe for Ultra Fudgy Brownies.
Ultra.
Fudgy.
Brownies.
We are visiting family this weekend and I promised to bring dessert!
The truth is, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about brownies since I had that amazing flat brownie at Karyn’s Cooked in Chicago….
I rest my case.
Brownies it was.
Ultra Fudgy Brownies
Adapted from Sweet Freedom.
Ingredients:
- 1 small avocado (1/4 cup packed)
- 1 cup Sucanat (brown sugar might work?)
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil (reduced from 1/4 cup)
- 1 tbsp ground chia seeds (or ground flax)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp organic dark roasted coffee or instant
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 1/4 cup whole grain spelt flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8” pan with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, gently smash the avocado with a fork to break apart. Using a hand mixer, process the avocado until smooth. Add the Sucanat, maple syrup, oil, chia, vanilla extract, and coffee and mix until smooth. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the spelt flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low or stir by hand until just mixed. Stir in chocolate chips. Dump the mixture onto the baking pan. Dip your spatula in cold water and smooth out. The batter will be VERY THICK (see pictures below), so not to worry. It was difficult for me to spread out so I finally just threw my hands in cold water and smoothed it out with my hands. It worked much better this way. Once smooth, place in oven and cook for 20-25 minutes and no more. You will look at the batter and think that there is no way it will cook in that amount of time, but trust me it does. Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes. Pop in the freezer for about 30 minutes to set and firm. Remove from pan and cut with a pizza slicer. Serves 9-12.
This batter was thick and luxurious!
And very hard to spread…
But trust me on this one…it was worth the effort.
Check out how thick that batter is!
I reduced the oil from 1/4 cup to 2 tbsp so that probably thickened it up a bit. I didn’t miss the oil though…they were just perfect to me.
I ended up wetting my hands and diving in. Sometimes you gotta get dirrrty in the kitchen!
Ah, much better.
After baking 25 minutes, cooling, and setting in freezer:
Get rollin’.
I used a 9 inch pan because I was going for that flat brownie look. They turned out great!
9 large squares…
Mmmm.
I had to try one of course. ;)
I could only have 1/2 of one because I need 8 for our get together and I saved the other half for Eric! :)
Verdict = IN THE VAULT.
Seriously amazing brownies. Good work Ricki!
I’m dreaming of having these with some banana soft serve or vegan coconut ice cream.
How do you like your brownies? Thick, gooey, soft, dense, crisp, chunky, smooth, doughy, cake-like, rich, all of the above?
To me the perfect brownie is gooey, but not too gooey. It also has to be dense, but not sickly sweet and over powering. These brownies fit the bill.
Well, we are off for the night. I will see you in the morning. :) Enjoy your evening.
I’m so glad you liked these! They are one of my favorite recipes in the book. :) I am amazed (a) that you could eat only half of one and (b) that you could create such a stack of those brownies w/o anything falling!! ;) Oh, and that leaf? Expletive!
Oh geez. Oh geez. These look perfect! And I don’t even like brownies that much..but I don’t think there’d be any problem devouring these. Whenever I d oeat brownies, they usually have to be more cake like than anything..so many of them are really fudgy and super super sweet- I just can’t stomach it. :/
Those brownies are the epitome of what a good brownie is to me. Dense, chewy and moist…….yum!!!
Those brownies are the epitome of what a good brownie is to me. Dense, chewy and moist…….yum!!!
Thick, gooey ALL THE WAY!!
Your poor tree is sooo confused!!!
I know it needs an intervention!
This is so strange. “I was just thinking, hmmm I want to bake something. I wonder if Angela has any new baking recipes up?” And there it was, too sweet recipes back to back!
On topic – I like my brownies to have a thin crisp on the outside and be dense and slightly gooey on the inside. And I like for my brownies to be intensely chocolatey without being too sweet. MMMMMM.
I can’t wait to try these!
I love fudgey brownies and can’t wait to try these, but I’m not sure they’d make it into the oven. That batter looks soooo tempting!
Those look pretty yummy!
I think you should go with the 10k. Simply because it’s in the middle. :)
the brownies look so yummy…. must give it a try.. enjoy your weekend
Hi Angela! I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now and am really loving it (especially when you post brownie recipes)! My vote is for a 5k race… short and sweet, but you can run all out and really test your speed.
Chewy all the way. OMG drool.
Chocolate porn, Angela.. Pure, unadulterated chocolate porn. And yeah you bet I’ll be making these ASAP! Thank you!
These look SO good. I can’t believe that you used avocado and it still worked out well! By the way – aren’t there 8 tablespoons in a cup? So… 2 tablespoons would be EQUAL to 1/4 cup? I don’t know, that’s what I’ve learned!
There are 16 tbsp in a cup and 4 in a 1/4 cup. :) I’m surprised by the avocado too! But the pictures sure make me want to try it!
Oh sorry, my bad! I was thinking of how a stick of butter has eight tablespoons… and a stick of butter is half a cup, right? :P Sorry!
You got it! That always gets me too. I feel like a stick should equal 1 cup. :)
I’m new to following blogs and that leaf made me think that I was somehow viewing an old post or something! I can’t believe you saw that today!
I would say go for the 10k since you’re looking to do it in a couple weeks. It’s smart to set obtainable goals. I am hoping to do a 10 mile run in April which will be a year after I had my baby (she’s 4.5 months old). I’ve been able to get up to 4 miles so far, but am at a slow 11 minute mile right now. Hopefully I’m not being too overzealous! Its hard to find the time to go for a longer run, so I guess I need to start speeding up!
I used to like my brownies thick with big chunks of chocolate and a delicious flaky top. No dry edges for me, give me the gooey center! But now, I’ve been trying to lose the baby weight and I lean toward healthier versions – thin, fudgy and not very sweet at all (I’ve noticed texture is more important to me). I made some the other day with only 2 tbsp of oil like this recipe and then with applesauce, carob powder, cocoa powder and brown rice syrup for sweetener. I never would have thought to use avocado. I can’t wait to try it!
(Sorry for the long post – apparently I’m still learning how all this works!)
mmm carob powder would be a nice addition, could possibly reduce the sweetener too
I’m technically trained for all 3 race distances…ive been training for the half…running several times a week and doing a long run each week, just in case I want to run the sept 6th one. it would be my 4th half marathon. Ive done one 10k and havent done a 5k yet. I might end up doing a half and a 5k..
I may try a variation with the carob and I’ll let you know if it turns out. I’m also wondering if cacao nibs could replace the chocolate chips to make it even healthier (idea from your glo cakes).
Huuumm. If you’re trained for all three then I say go for the half marathon! I can live vicariously through you then… I wanted to do a half after I did the 10 mile last year, but then decided to start a family and didn’t run any races while I was pregnant. :) I would definitely do the 5k too since you haven’t done one yet. It’ll be fun to see how fast you can do it!
By the way, I absolutely love the way your focus is about living a healthy life and having fun doing it, rather than about deprivation like so many of us get into when we want to lose weight (I’m guilty). Focusing on eating for the purpose of fueling our bodies and feeling good, rather than for our appearance, makes maintaining a healthy weight easy and fun!
Thank you!
Hmmm, avocados in brownies, eh? I wouldn’t have thought of it, but I’ll have to try it after looking at those yummy brownies! Definitely with the banana soft-serve. Speaking of which, my daughter is addicted to the banana soft-serve, I have to make it with her breakfast every morning!
I won’t vote for which race you should do, because I’m sure you would do amazingly well at whatever you set your mind to! Have a great weekend! :)
I like my brownies slightly undercooked and super fudgy! Those look great.
I think you should do the 10k.
Oh. My. Stars. Those look phenomenal! I’ve been looking for a good brownie recipe, this certainly fits the bill. I guess I know what I’m baking next now!
I’m practically drooling! Haha Those look so so so good.
I like my brownies dense and fudgey. :) Maybe I’ll make some of yours!
I always hold my breath when I see pictures of your glorious treats all stacked up totem pole style. Imagine if they fell: THE HORROR!!!
i hold my breath too!
Apple pie burritos and now BROWNIES!! Angela, can I just take up residence in your kitchen?!
Ha, in all seriousness, thanks for the recipes–I’ll be making these very soon!