I don’t know about you, but back when i ate flour and sugar – brownies were an all time favourite dessert and or/snack of mine. And I can’t say for sure that if one was placed in front of me right now, that I wouldn’t just eat it anyway – sugar, flour and all!I’ll be the first one to admit, a LOT of healthy dessert recipes taste like cardboard, right?
That’s because we are so used to the flour and sugar loaded traditional brownies filled with ingredients that all taste GOOD. You know those ingredients are bad for you, right? They wreak havoc on your hormones and deplete your energy levels and of course they promote weight gain. Not exactly what we want hey – we just want a BROWNIE!
Here is a brownie that will not only ‘not’ make you fat or sick .. but it will actually improve your health and help you burn fat! How? Well, if you google the benefits of cacao, grass fed butter, free range eggs and macadamias, … you will see what I mean.
Cacao – Raw cacao powder contains more than 300 different chemical compounds and nearly four times the antioxidant power of your average dark chocolate – more than 20 times than that of blueberries. Protein, calcium, carotene, thiamin, riboflavin, magnesium, sulfur, flavonoids, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids are also present. The precise blend of all these elements combined serve to kick in naturally occurring phytochemicals that have incredible benefits throughout the body, such as lowered LDL cholesterol, improved heart function, and reduced cancer risk. http://foodfacts.mercola.com/cacao.html
Grass Fed Butter – contains Vitamin K – one of the most important nutrients in the diet for heart and bone health. It’s a great source of a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate, which helps fight inflammation.
Free Range Eggs – Eggs are a nutrient dense food with a high percentage of vitamins and minerals compared to the amount of energy provided. Why free range? Real free range eggs contain: (than cage eggs)
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
Other tests have shown that pastured eggs have up to six times more essential vitamin D than cage eggs. Free range eggs have also been shown to have far more B vitamins than a cage egg.
Egg yolks are also a known source of lutein and zeaxanthin, but the pale, watery yellow yolks in eggs from caged chickens, fed the waste products of the grain industry, contain very little.
http://www.freeranger.com.au/why-choose-freeranger-eggs.html www.healthambition.com
Macadamias – macadamia nuts contain antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals with significant health-boosting potential. They contain high amounts of vitamin B1 and magnesium, and just one serving nets 58 percent of what you need in manganese and 23 percent of the recommended daily value of thiamin. They are relatively low in carbs and protein (containing two percent per one-ounce serving), high in oleic acid and omega-9 monounsaturated fatty acid, the same fatty acid found in olive oil. In fact, of the 21 grams of fat found in macadamia nuts, only three grams are saturated fat.
http://foodfacts.mercola.com/macadamia.html
These brownies are light, fluffy, delicious, moist and healthy. They are also very very easy to make – all the prep work is done in one pot! That’s a win-win in my book!
RECIPE:
Ingredients:
- 250g unsalted grass fed butter
- 1/2 cup dark choc chips (72% or more)
- Stevia to taste (I use about 4 little scoops of Nirvana Organics or 6 drops of the liquid)
- OPTIONAL 1/4 cup rice malt syrup (leave out for a lower carb count)
- 2 heaped Tbsp. raw cacao powder
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- A few shakes of Himalayan rock salt (pink salt)
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 tsp. aluminium free baking powder
- About 15 macadamias ‘smashed’ (I put them in a ziplock and hit them (gently) with a rolling pin!)
- Desiccated coconut for serving (optional)
Method:
- Preheat oven to a moderate 160C.
- Heat a medium sized saucepan over medium heat.
- Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan, and add rice malt syrup if using and stevia.
- Remove from the heat and stir in cacao and vanilla.
- Add eggs and stir well.
- Add almond meal and baking powder and mix well until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Gently fold macadamias through mixture.
- Pour into a baking tray (the bigger it is, the thinner your brownies will be)
- Bake for about 25 minutes until done.
- Let sit before slicing (this is easier if left in the fridge overnight)
NOTE: When it’s cooking you’ll notice the ‘butter fat’ rising to the surface – this is perfectly normal and it should soak back in. It may also seem a bit ‘crumbly’ when it comes out of the oven, but this is fine too. Just let it ‘set’ a while (if you can!) It is delicious if you leave it overnight in the fridge – simply AMAZING!!! But of course, it’s hard to resist the temptation to eat it warm stright form the oven 🙂
Pics from amazing peeps who tried the recipe:
Natalie: “Finally had one tonight! Omm nom nom!!!!! Thanks Miriam!”
Shelley: “Omg it’s amazing. Couldn’t wait until morning 😂😂. It was amazing 🙌🙌🙌”
OMG!!!
This has to be the best brownie recipe I’ve ever tasted. This will be my go to sweets/desserts dish every time we have guests. Yummy.
I just tried this recipe – it is still warm from the oven. At first I thought there was too much butter as it seemed to be bubbling on the surface as the brownies were cooking, but once out of the oven, it has been absorbed making the cake beautifully moist. I was concerned it might be crumbly but as it cools it is firming up – and it tastes divine!! This will definitely be a hit with my husband when I serve it for dessert tonight. It’s also super easy – very important for me!