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 am absolutely making those brownies, they are perfect for my gluten free little girl and I love that they don’t have any refined sugar and some avocado too! I like my brownies dense and fudgy, these look like just the ticket!
Is that the trick for cutting up brownies, to put them in the freezer. Because every time I make healthy brownies they get all crummy and messy when I cut them, and then they aren’t nice and pretty.
Angela! I know you don’t even know me, but you have totally ruined my life! First the Green Monsters, then the Banana Soft Serve, now these brownies! How can I ever go back to life without these wonders?? I tested this brownie recipe tonight and my husband and I agree we can no longer live without making these our go-to treat whenever we need to bring dessert anywhere. Thanks for adding to the list of foods I can’t live without :)
Those look sooo good, especially since I’m dying for some chocolate right now!! I have NONE in my house. I like the corner brownies, with a crispy edge, but soft inside :-)
Those fudgy brownies look amazingggggggg! Once i get a better mastery of the kitchen, that is something I will definitely have to try : )
I’ll admit that the leaf concept was a little foreign to me… we don’t really have seasons in Florida! :P But that is so pretty!
Oh my goodness, I saw red leaves today too! I swear the trees turn earlier every year. It’s already getting cooler where I live. Feels like early fall already. Cross those fingers to hope winter holds off.
Are you reading my tweets??? I so wanted brownies last night but the recipe I saw had too much Earth balance and sugar that I decided to go with 1 TBSP of peanut butter. This recipe looks GREAT! Thanks for posting this. I will be making this tomorrow. Have a good night!
oh my good golly. YUM, YUM, YUM.
I love love love Sweet Freedom. I just received my copy recently, and want to make so many things it :)
Those brownies look delicious. I love corner pieces and edge pieces of brownies. Which works out well because my husband and his family like the middle. Love your food photography skills by the way!
I like my brownies as gooey as possible!!!
Those look great! I have been craving brownies for about 4 months now … and anytime I have one, and crave more!!!
Oh man, they look fantastic! I like my brownies dense and soft, with that crunchy sheen on top. The flat brownie technique sounds perfect for that!
Those brownies look fantastic! Definitely book marked the recipe. Thanks. :)
Holigamoli!! they look awesome!! *runs off to the kitchen to whip some up!* i like my brownies in a perfect world, kinda crispy on the outside and thick and doughy and claggy on the inside.
Drool. That is all I have to say.
Ohhhhh my goodness. You’re killing me. These look SO good!! I just had a fabulous idea too…. what if you were to make these brownies, chop them into smaller chunks, stir them into banana soft serve, then freeze the whole thing for a bit…. it would be like a DQ Blizzard, but BETTER!!!
Gorgeous brownies!!! They look delicious, fudgy and oh so chocolatey :)
Believe it or not, I’m actually *not* a huge fan of chocolate :/ I LOVE desserts, but chocolate…not so much! But when it comes to brownies – I’ll make an exception if they’re super gooey…like, gooey to the point where you wonder if they were actually baked, haha! Oh, and being topped with ice cream/banana soft serve certainly wouldn’t hurt ;)
we’ve got yellowing leaves in our yard now too, but i’m quite excited! i love autumn time <3
brownies oh my, those look amazing. i like a good dark fudgy brownie, myself :)
YUM! These brownies look amazing! I love brownies that are crispy and hard on the edges but gooey in the middle. . . usually the corner pieces :)