Healthy Brownies: Not a Joke

24 brownies
Total cost: NY $9.34
Cost per brownie: NY $0.39

Seriously?

Seriously.

Seriously?!?

Well, mostly.


This recipe comes from Dave Lieberman and Anahad O’Connor’s new book, 10 Things You Need to Eat.* We were intrigued by the “Chocolate Avocado Brownie” recipe, and wanted to give it a shot. Which we have now done, twice, the first as written and the second with some tweaks for pricing and taste. The recipe for our tweaked version appears below. The resulting product is chocolate-y and palatable and doesn’t taste at all of avocados, but it’s not really what I think of when I think Brownie. It’s more what I think of when I think Lightly Sweet Chewy Chocolate Bread. (What, I do that frequently, don't you?) Stirring in some chocolate chips might make these more brownie-esque, although of course that takes away from the “healthy”.


I think these are worth making if you’re interested in a sweet chocolate snack, but I wouldn’t serve them as dessert. Not to ratchet your expectations too far downwards: make no mistake, we ate all of these and enjoyed them! Just know that what you’re biting into is going to be more like a chocolate Luna or granola bar type thing than it is a decadent chocolate dessert. If you try these—and I know you can’t wait after a build up like that—please let us know what you think, and if you come up with any adaptations of your own!

Ingredients

• ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour (NY $0.13)
• ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa (NY $0.51)
• ½ teaspoon salt (staple)
• 1/2 cup almonds (NY $1.17)
• ½ cup walnuts (NY $0.99)
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (NY $2.99)
• ½ canola oil (NY $0.42)
• 1 large ripe Hass avocado (NY $1.50)
• 6 eggs (NY $0.93)
• ½ cup granulated sugar (NY $0.28)
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (NY $0.42)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 glass baking dish with parchment and grease.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa and salt in a mixing bowl.


In your food processor, grind nuts until roughly chopped. Careful, this will go quick. Be sure not to overdo it, you want your nuts to be hunks in the finished brownies, not turn into nut meal. Stir chopped nuts into flour mixture.

Add the chocolate to the food processor in pieces, and pulse until coarsely chopped. Stir into flour nut mixture.


Wipe out the food processor bowl, then add the oil, avocado, eggs and sugar and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides to make sure that all the avocado hunks are whipped smooth. Now you've got yourself some unappetizing greenish goop. Don't worry, I promise this is going to turn out OK. And if you don't trust me, trust Dave Lieberman.

So, take the leap of faith and, using a spatula, transfer your greenish goop into the chocolate flour mixture. Gently fold together until combined.


Pour the batter (doesn't look green any more, now does it?) into the baking dish. Bake for approx. 30-35 minutes, until the center is just set. Let cool before slicing. Take a bite, and tell us what you think!

Adapted from 10 Things You Need to Eat


* Full disclosure: we got a review copy of this book free when the LBUH attended a promotional event for Dave Lieberman. In the viewpoint of the FTC when we, as amateur bloggers, get something for free, our independent judgment and any ethics we might possess go flying right out the window, we dance around our kitchen maniacally cheering “Free! Free! Free! Let us go shill for it unreservedly and in direct violation of our own honest feelings about the item in question!” and rush off to the computer to tell you to go out and buy it immediately because it will complete your life, make you taller, thinner, grow your hair back and imbue you with the ability to fly. Unless, of course, we are forced to tell you the readers about it, in which case you, the readers, are to think “Aha! They were given this item to review for FREE! Accordingly, this item cannot possibly possess all of these positive attributes extolled by these blatantly biased and uncritical bloggers! In fact, it will probably make me less fulfilled, shorter, fatter, and balder, though I suspect it will still give me the ability to fly!”

In short, the new FTC blog guidelines don’t really give bloggers or their readers much credit at all and, although I understand their goals and am aware of the bad sites out there they are trying to curtail, I find them both somewhat offensive and also vague enough that they don’t give much actual guidance. Or, for other, sharper, smarter words, see: Janet Reid’s FTC Compliance Notice. When you read reviews of this same cookbook in a magazine, you can be sure the reviewer didn’t run off and buy a copy, but the FTC doesn’t think that they need to tell you about it. Yet because I am not Gwyneth Paltrow, more's the pity, I apparently do.

Additionally, please see the note about our Amazon store that we have added to our "About REC(ession)IPES" section.


Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving

Calories 183.5	Vitamin A 1.8 %	Iron 7.1 %
Total Fat 11.2 g	Vitamin B-12 2.1 %	Magnesium 7.3 %
Cholesterol 53.1 mg	Vitamin B-6 2.8 %	Manganese 15.4 %
Sodium 68.9 mg	Vitamin C 1.1 %	Niacin 2.5 %
Potassium 149.7 mg	Vitamin D 1.6 %	Phosphorus 6.9 %
Total Carbohydrate 19.8 g	Vitamin E 11.2 %	Riboflavin 6.9 %
Fiber 2.2 g	Calcium 2.8 %	Selenium 8.9 %
Sugars 5.7 g	Copper 8.1 %	Thiamin 2.4 %
Protein 3.6 g	Folate 3.8 %	Zinc 3.5 %