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| Avocado with their healthier fats replace butter in this recipe. |
Until recently I did not know you could use avocado to replace butter in a baking recipe. When I saw the following recipe I had two avocados in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so it was perfect. I tried it out for the first time.
Avocados have fewer calories than the same amount of butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, peanut butter, almond butter, olive oil, coconut oil. An added bonus is they are nutrient-rich, containing over 20 vitamins and minerals.
I like that the brownies call for maple syrup (something made in my very own back yard), rather than refined cane sugar. Our brownies were not overly sweet, but we don't mind that either.
Double Chocolate Avocado Brownies - inspired by this recipe.
1 large avocado
1/2 cup mashed banana or unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup Nova Scotia maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup unsweetened organic fair trade cocoa powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8x8” baking dish.
- Mash avocado, banana, maple syrup, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk in eggs. Add coconut flour, cocoa powder, sea salt, and baking soda until combined.
- Pour mixture into the greased baking dish and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for about 25 minutes.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool (if you can wait), and enjoy!
Nutrients per brownie: Calories: 150; Total Fat: 5.2g Saturated Fat: 1.1g; Cholesterol: 60mg; Carbohydrate: 22.3g; Dietary Fiber: 4.9g; Sugars: 13.4g; Protein: 4.3g
Great info about the avocado as fat source. I use a lot of cold pressed coconut and olive oil, but it's always best to use something that is completely unprocessed. Who knew! Thanks. D
ReplyDeleteI would love to live somewhere I could grow an avocado tree. And walnut trees. Coconut palms would be great, too. I would have to go south, way, way south.
DeleteI'm bookmarking this to make. Banana and chocolate go well together and I like that this is a reduced sweet tasting brownie.
ReplyDeleteI love maple syrup and use it as often as I can in recipes that call for some kind of sugar. I cut the sweetness in all my recipes because I prefer to taste other ingredients vs sugar. I find sugar drowns other favors and just overwhelms me. A splash of maple syrup in oatmeal is divine!
Love it! You get to eat local maple syrup! I just got some today. It is from Quebec, thank you Canada! (Though I regret it has to be transported so far.) We have many nut trees here in the south, U.S. especially pecans. But you have cranberries or maybe you call them mossberries. I would love to grow those! Fresh and raw are best with as little sugar as I can get by with.
A side trip...
A few years ago, someone made some cranberry dip that I just love. It has the strangest combination of ingredients; cranberries, jalapeño, green onions, lemon juice, cilantro and sugar. I know, weird. If I would have read the recipe, I would not have made it. I just tried it not knowing what was in it. It's on my list of top 3 favorite foods!
The recipe calls for a lot of sugar, I use much less. You chop all that up and spread it on top of cream cheese in a pie dish and eat with rice crackers. The people I've made it for either love it or really don't like it at all, mostly they love it.
I eagerly wait and watch for fresh cranberries to arrive in stores in late October. I make that dip 2 or 3 times a month until the cranberries are gone. But this year I've noticed frozen cranberries are still being sold, so I'm making it with frozen ones which is just about as good! Anyway, Canada and northern U.S. keep growing those little red berries!