I used to be a staunch believer that it was not possible to make a decent tasting healthy treat. This was back in the days when I would attempt to “health-ify” a cake or cookie recipe by using low-fat spread instead of butter, artificial no-calorie sweetner and other modified products. The end product ended up being dry and flavourless, occasionally too sweet, and more often than not would leave that horrible artificial sweetener flavour in your mouth after eating.
These days I am much more in tune with my body, and focused on good nutrition and healthy eating, rather than aiming to reduce calories through using chemically-modified and processed ingredients. I realise that my attempts at making a healthy treat back then probably resulted in an even unhealthier treat in the end.
So enough of that, lets talk about this brownie! Everybody has their ideal type of brownie – some prefer a cakier texture, others need that fudgy centre. Some like walnuts or pecans mixed through, or maybe a berry or caramel swirl (or, my favorite – a salted caramel swirl… drooooool!) For me, the perfect brownie has to be fudgy in the centre, yet crisp on the outside, and unashamedly rich and chocolatey.
There are quite a few “healthy” brownie recipes out there that use a range of whole ingredients and have varying results, but I wanted one as close to a traditional brownie as I could get. I decided to start with Deb’s recipe for Best Cocoa Brownie, which I have made a few times in the past and is a definite crowd-pleaser. I made a few tweaks and the end result was perfect – decadent and fudgy with a deliciously rich chocolate flavour. I didn’t quite nail the crisp top – I’m guessing I may have to use chocolate to achieve that, but it ticked two out of the three boxes, which made it a winner in my eyes.
A few notes on ingredients here – I have used a mix of hazelnut meal and teff flour here. Hazelnut was an obvious choice for me as it goes so beautifully with chocolate, and I wanted to use a nut meal in place of some of the flour to increase the fudgy texture. Teff flour is a gluten-free whole grain, ground to be very fine (hence the fudgier texture) and also has a faint earthy chocolate taste that works perfectly for these brownies. If you cant find teff flour, I assume you could use another flour (coconut may work well here) or more hazelnut meal although I haven’t tried either option myself so I cant confirm this. Also, make sure to use a good quality raw cacao (I use Loving Earth) this really adds to the flavour. I would advise against using standard cocoa, you want the really good, dark raw cacao here to get maximum flavor benefits. I have also added a little coffee to really draw out the rich chocolate taste.
And also a disclaimer – even though this brownie recipe uses less refined ingredients and healthier fats than a traditional brownie recipe – it is still a brownie, and should be consumed as a treat (no “it’s healthy so I can eat the whole thing” excuses here – although once you taste these fudgy little beauties you may struggle to stop at just one!)
The ultimate cacao brownie
Adapted from Best Cocoa Brownies by Smitten Kitchen
140g coconut oil
120g coconut sugar
60g cacao
2 eggs (cold)
40g teff flour
40g hazelnut meal
1 tsp coffee granules
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 170 C || 340 F
Melt coconut oil in a medium sized saucepan over low heat, and then stir in coconut sugar, cacao and coffee. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
Allow to cool slightly, and then add in the eggs one at a time stirring well after each one. Then add the hazelnut meal and teff flour and stir a minute or so until mixture is smooth.
Pour the mixture into a lined 8x8inch pan and bake half an hour (start checking after about 25 minutes – the brownies are done when an inserted knife or skewer comes out almost clean – it should have a slight bit of batter, but not be completely coated).
Allow the brownies to cool in the pan 10 minutes or so, and then remove and cool completely on a cake rack.
Slice into squares and store in a sealed container at room temperature.
Oh YUM!!!!! that sounds like my kind of brownie!!! I love the rich flavour of raw cacao and with hazelnut and coffee!!!! sounds divine!! I will def be making this one :)
Oh do – they are absolutely delicious, you will love them!
I love everything about this recipe! :) You had me at hazelnut then I went over the edge with the coffee. Sounds so delicious. I haven’t tried baking with teff flour. This is probably a good excuse to try it. ;)
Your take on healthy eating is like a mirror image of mine. Instead of looking at calorie counts on labels, I hope folks start looking at the ingredients listed. Real foods trump low-cal chemicals every time!
These brownies are seriously good! (Then again, its pretty hard to go too wrong with chocolate ;) Teff is great I have been experimenting with it in porridge and a few other treats too, delicious! Definitely agree with you on the whole food philosophy – real food wins every time!
These look fabulously fudgy – exactly how I like my brownies! I am yet to try using teff flour – need to get on it!
They are super fudgy with a little chew – perfect! Teff is great, I’ve been experimenting with it quite a bit lately. It pairs beautifully with chocolate :)
Looks absolutely gorgeous, Dearna! Good work on the “whole” brownie. And I love what you say about treats becoming even less healthy when using refined low-fat products or strange processed sweetener substitutes.
Thanks Katie! Whole food brownies are definitely the best!
Oh hey I was like that too. I remember when healthy meant “sucralose, fake butter, artificial thickeners laden sweets to me”… and they would always taste horribly bleeehhh. These brownies, on the other hand, look like soomething I’d love to devour. I’m also a sucker for fudgy centers and crispy edges, and super rich chocolate flavor is my favorite! These are perrrrrrfect <3
Yeah, its so easy to get caught up in thinking all that fake food is better for you! These are perfectly rich, fudgy AND chocolatey, as every good brownie should be :) Thanks Consuelo!
This is so good! Love brownies- one of the best recipes! These look so fudgy!
Thanks Jess – they are super fudgy, as all good brownies should be :)
Hi,
My first batch is in the oven right now!! Can you clarify the first step – Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth? I turned my heat up to medium and stirred for over 5 minutes. The mixture didn’t really ever become smooth. It was kind of gritty and heavy from the sugar. Was the sugar supposed to totally dissolve and end up with a smooth batter? With unhealthy brownie recipes, I would boil and stir the mixture until the sugar totally dissolved. This was not supposed to be done like that, correct?
Thank you!
Hi Karen, glad that you are trying the brownies, you’ll have to let me know what you think. My sugar dissolved at this point and the mixture was quite smooth, however as you are going on to bake the brownies I would think that even if the sugar didn’t dissolve completely for you at this point it would once baked. Good luck – let me know how they turn out :)
They DID turn out really good. I’ve never cooked with a recipe that uses grams instead of cups before so I weighed all the ingredients on this small scale I had and came up with the following. Please let me know if this sounds right:
2/3 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup + 1 tsp coconut sugar
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp cacao (weird, I know but it was not quite a cup ?????)
1/3 cup teff flour
1/3 cup PACKED hazelnut meal
So glad you liked them Karen! Those measurements look about right – I plan to make these again soon, so I’ll test this out and update the recipe accordingly – thank you for that :)
These are exactly what I have been looking for! Thanks for the cup conversions!
I need to make these soon I have all the ingredients but teff flour
Can I use coconut flour and how much of it ?
Or can I use organic unbleached white or whole wheat and how much??
Thank you!
Hi Zara, thanks for stopping by :) Teff flour can be a little hard to find, but you only need a small amount so I’m pretty sure it would work fine if you substituted the same amount with another flour – coconut should work really well here. Or omit the flour completely and double the amount of hazelnut meal (you could also use almond meal here too if it’s easier to find). Let me know how you go :)