CHOCOLATE CAROB BROWNIES

 
 

I’ve been making wholefood, gluten-free brownies for years - one of the brilliant things about chocolate or cocoa (along with some fat and a sweetener) is that you can transform nearly any vegetable, bean or grain, or combination, into something deliciously chocolate and satisfying. 

When Chef Lixi, the Executive Chef at Sha Wellness in Spain joined us at our residence to demo a recipe for the kids I hovered closely because I love chocolate (and my kids!) but I didn’t know I’d be so impressed by the result. Like me, at Sha, they have experimented with carob powder as a caffeine free alternative that is also less bitter and therefore needs less sweetening to make it delicious. The base of these brownies is a mix of cooked sweet potato, almond flour and rice flour making it lovely and nutritious and along with cranberries, raspberries and walnuts, real chocolate joins the topping to give you the full chocolate experience. The result is almost fudgy in texture and taste - wonderfully chewy as a brownie should be. There are more ingredients with this recipe than I normally faff about with in my day to day cooking but here is a pro chef’s take on creating a wholefood, gluten-free, refined sugar free patisserie that is absolutely restaurant worthy and one to offer to friends and family who might usually turn their nose up to a ‘healthy’ dessert with veggies in!

I’ve modified the recipe slightly and added in the option of making them as we did, into mini muffins which I think is my favourite way to eat brownies now. And, as Chef Lixi says, use this as a base and experiment with ingredient swaps such as cooked parsnips in place of the sweet potato, pumpkin seeds in place of, or in addition to, the walnuts, and why not try with raisins too?!

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Peel and cut the sweet potato into cubes, place on a baking tray over parchment paper and cook for 20 minutes or until soft.

3. Combine the remaining ingredients except for the walnuts.

4. Once cooked, add the sweet potato and mix well.

5.  Stir in the chopped walnut, mixing gently with a spatula - or just save for the toppings if you like.

6. Pour the mixture into a greased baking tray approximately 8” X 8”, depending how thick or thin you want your brownies, lined with parchment paper or into 12 mini muffin cases.

7. Top with an assortment of your toppings of choice - push the cranberries in well so that they don’t burn and if using freeze dried raspberries save to add at the end for best colour.

7. Bake at 180°C for approximately 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean - less time for mini muffins - we did 30 mins for the ones pictured.

8. Remove from the oven and push in broken or whole raspberry pieces while still warm, then allow to cool before cutting into six squares (if you’ve used a baking tray) or removing from the muffin cases and serving.

INGREDIENTS 

165g cooked sweet potato

100g rice flour

45g almond flour

25g carob flour

½ tsp baking powder 

Pinch of salt 

75g sunflower oil (try EVO or coconut oil)

150g maple syrup 

60g rice milk (or almond milk)

0.5 g vanilla scraped from a pod (or use 1 tsp vanilla extract)

50g chopped walnuts


Optional toppings:

We used semi dried cranberries, freeze dried raspberries and really good dark chocolate broken into pieces as well as more chopped walnuts

East by West tip:
Remember to push your toppings into the batter a bit so that they don’t burn in the oven - especially important for anything with a high sugar content for example the dried cranberries. And save the dried raspberries for decorating as soon as they come out of the oven (while the top is still a bit soft) otherwise they lose their colour!

This recipe deserves to be experimented with! Next up I’ll be trying cooked parsnip instead of the sweet potato, pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts and raisins instead of cranberries!

 
 
Jasmine Hemsley