It's Easy Being Green Brownies

It's Easy Being Green Brownies I

One of my goals for ReThinkReDefineReDiscover is to find a way to Re-Invent the items we are so familiar with in our lives and try to look at things with new perspectives. For this post, I am Re-Discovering the beloved BROWNIE. First, I must tell you that I LOVE BROWNIES! That being said, it is also important to me that I eat healthfully and serve healthy, delicious foods to my family and friends.  So I asked myself, how can I achieve a happy medium? Could I make yummy, desirable and satisfying brownies that actually have some nutritious ingredients? Most importantly, could I accomplish this solely using ingredients I have sitting in the cupboard and refrigerator already? Turns out…the answer is YES.  I know that some of the ingredients that I use may not already be in your cabinet, but I strongly recommend purchasing the items at your local natural food store, I purchased many of my ingredients from The Vitamin Shoppe www.vitaminshoppe.com. These items make great additions to many meals…and I plan to use them in many future recipes.

 

To begin, I had to raid the cabinets and see which kinds of chocolate were waiting to be made in to dessert. I had some different cocoa powders, sweetened and unsweetened. After looking at the nutrition labels, I decided to go with Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa www.ghirardelli.com. On the back of the canister, there was a great base recipe for traditional brownies (Ghirardelli Award Winning Brownies) that I decided could be modified well for my experiment. Using the already sweetened cocoa powder also allowed me to use less sugar and sweetener in my new recipe. I also had  a big ol’ bag of milk chocolate chips…since I wanted to make sure the brownies were nice and chocolaty, I thought these chips would be a nice addition so I kept them out to add at the end along with some scrumptious white chocolate chips.

I know, this doesn’t sound very nutritious so far…but you cannot have a Brownie without chocolate…and a previous “healthy” brownie experiment using unsweetened natural cocoa nibs was less than successful…and less than chocolaty! Don’t worry the ingredients get better.

How about Nuts and Seeds and Whole Wheat Flour…those are healthy, right? I really don’t like to use all-purpose flour when I know whole wheat flour is so much better for us. Unfortunately, sometimes whole wheat flour can cause a certain density that can take away from the texture of some baked goods. I have found that combining the two usually can have a nice result. I have also taken to replacing some of the flour with ground flax seed and ground hemp seed.  For this recipe I combined 4 Tablespoons of All-Purpose Flour; 4 Tablespoons of Whole Wheat Flour; 1 Tablespoon of Ground Hemp Seed and 1 Tablespoon of Ground Flax Seed.

I Love nuts in my brownies and they can be a great way to integrate the hemp and flax flavors into the brownie. While I was up in the cabinet, I noticed that I had some of my favorites…pecans and pistachios, which are so good for us www.pistachiohealth.com. I decided to keep them out to add with the chocolate chips at the end.

Then it became time to try to creatively replace the most nutritionally stubborn ingredients…SUGAR and OIL. Clearly I needed some, but instead of tossing in a stick of butter and ¾ cup of white sugar I used just 4 Tablespoons of butter and ¼ cup of sugar. I replaced the rest of the butter with 4 Tablespoons of hemp oil. For the rest of the added sweetness, I used 1 Tablespoon of raw honey and 4 tablespoons of Raw Coconut Nectar. Coconut Nectar is an amazing sugar replacement since it is a low glycemic sweetener www.coconutsecret.com. It is made from the sap of coconut trees and has an abundance of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Don’t worry; it has absolutely no coconut flavor at all. I also used 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract. Lastly, Instead of two eggs, I used one egg and replaced the other with 3 tablespoons of egg whites.

The results were delicious! I particularly liked the nuttiness, especially after the brownies cooled completely. My husband and his co-workers enjoyed most of the brownies…they did not last very long. The Brownies do have a strong hemp undertone, which really melds well with the pistachios and creates a certainly distinct and unforgettable flavor. They were also a wonderful texture, not too moist or dry…not too cakelike or dense…actually perfectly brownie-like.  Of Course, the brownies were not actually green in color, but the hemp oil and seeds along with the pistachios add an innate green-ness that calls for them to be considered when naming the brownies. Altogether, I think that these brownies were a success and I will definitely be baking them again. I know they are not nutritionally equivalent to eating a salad, but they are a little better for you and your family than traditional brownies…and will satisfy that yen for sweetness we can all get every now and then. Well, I hope you enjoy them also if you decide to make them. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

¾ cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa powder

4 tbsp. whole wheat flour

4 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. ground hemp seed

1 tbsp. ground flax seed

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. sea salt

1 egg

3 tbsp. egg whites

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup raw coconut nectar

1 tbsp. raw honey

4 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled a little

4 tbsp. hemp oil

1/8 cup pistachio nuts shelled; skinned and chopped (I put them in a plastic zip bag and beat them w/ a rolling pin…but the food processor works well too).

1/8 cup chopped pecans

¾ cup milk chocolate chips

¼ cup white chocolate chips

Instructions:

1-Preheat oven to 350 Degrees (Fahrenheit).  

2-Prepare 8” or 9” square pan by lining with foil and spraying with non-stick cooking spray. I like to leave a little extra foil on the sides so that I can lift the brownies out of the pan more easily.

3- In a medium mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder, flours, hemp & flax seeds, baking powder and sea salt. Stir lightly with a wooden spoon.

4- After the butter has cooled a little from melting, combine the butter, hemp oil, sugar, raw coconut nectar, raw honey and egg products by mixing them together with a fork in a shallow glass bowl (almost like preparing French toast). Remember, if the butter is too hot and the egg is to cold, the butter may start to cook the egg…which can affect your results.

 5-Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir for about a minute or until the dry ingredients are no longer visible. Then add in the nuts and chocolate chips, stirring until they are well integrated into the batter, scraping the bowl occasionally as necessary.

6-Spread batter evenly in to the prepared pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes. The time will vary depending on the size and type of the pan you use. I usually use a toothpick to check for doneness when the brownies start to look ready. If the toothpick comes out dry and clean, I know they are ready. If the edges start to look dark, they are probably a little well done.

7-Cool on a wire rack for a minute and the remove from pan using foil handles. Lay on a flat heat resistant surface and pre-cut gently into servings. I like to use a pizza cutter to cut my brownies. It works wonderfully. Return the warm brownies and foil back to the wire rack so that they can complete the cooling process…since they are better after they have cooled.