Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Brownie recipe (with carrot and spinach!!!!)

I had to make these to believe it - there is a total of 1 cup of spinach and carrot puree in this recipe, and you can't taste it! I made a simple cocoa frosting to put on top, which only added to the scrumptuous-ness. Hey, if you're gonna make brownies, might as well have some veggies in them, right?!

To make the purees:
  • Carrot: steam carrots until soft. Puree in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy. Add water if needed. Can freeze in 1/2 cup portions - and this is an easy add-to-pancakes or french toast for an extra boost of nutrition.
  • Spinach: steam spinach until wilted, only about 1-2minutes. Puree in blender/food processor until smooth and creamy. I like adding this to scrambled eggs or things like meatloaf or meatballs.
(from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld)

Ingredients:
  • 3 oz. semisweet chocolate
  • 1/2 cup carrot puree
  • 1/2 cup spinach puree
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 T butter or margarine
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 3/4 cup oat flour, or all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray (or I used my Pampered Chef medium stonewear pan)
  2. Melt the chocolate in a double broiler or over a very low flame (I put a small pyrex glass dish over simmering water in my saucepan on the stove - it works perfect)
  3. In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, purees, sugar, cocoa, butter and vanilla and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.
  4. Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon
  5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35-40 minutes (don't over-cook!). Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars. *It's important to let them cool before eating, it's not until they're completely cool that the spinach flavor totally disappears*.
Enjoy! You really need to give it a try :)

6 comments:

IF said...

Cool recipe!! I tagged you, check out my blog for details!

Kelly said...

Looks yummy! Thanks for sharing!

deborah said...

Hmm! That looks like an interesting recipe! I wonder how it would work to replace the sugar with a different sweetener like honey or agave.

Amanda said...

I don't know about the honey - I know that taste can overpower certain things, so IDK! But if you try it, please LMK!

Karen said...

Oh - I should not have read this!! I am so hungry and these sound so good!! I wonder if I have everything to make them this morning??

Amanda said...

So, has anyone else made them? :-) They were really good. I felt better chowing down on them b/c of the spinach and carrots LOL!