Healthy Eating: Fudgy Brownies
Jul. 9th, 2009 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unforthThe next offering in my recipes is one for fudgy brownies, inspired by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
milbrcrsan and galiyah who got me thinking about healthy brownies. As usual, I tracked down a recipe already reduced and made more healthy, and then used lower cal ingredients.
Fudgy Brownies
From Cooking Light
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon hot water
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (optional)
I used splenda, egg substitute, half-cal butter, and whole wheat flour. I didn't use powdered sugar.
Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°.
Place sugar and eggs in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until thick and pale (about 5 minutes). Combine hot water and coffee granules, stirring until coffee granules dissolve. Add coffee mixture, butter, and vanilla extract to sugar mixture; beat at low speed until combined.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture, stirring just until moist (batter will be thick).
Spread batter into an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 325° for 23 minutes or until brownies spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Garnish brownies with powdered sugar, if desired.
A few notes on this. Try as I might I couldn't get my Splenda/Egg Substitute mixture to thicken in the same way that real sugar and eggs would have. This certainly had an impact on my final product. Also, I'm always pretty lazy about the "mix the dry ingredients separately and then add them thing" so I just dumped them right in. :) I divided this into 8 portions, but it could have been as many as 16 and still given you decent sized brownies.
Calories: 65 calories for 1 brownie when divided into 8 portions.
Overall, these turned out solidly average. They're not amazing, and the coffee taste is noticable, and because of the laziness and changes I made, they didn't really get cakelike, but instead played pretty dense - but that wasn't really a bad thing, they were pretty fudgy in a good way. All in all, I don't think I'd make them again, not because they were bad, but because I'd like to try other recipes in an attempt to find ones that are better. Still, if you want a healthy brownie, you can't beat the calories - they ended up so low that I almost don't believe I did it right, but I've checked like three times, and that's everything...
milbrcrsan and galiyah who got me thinking about healthy brownies. As usual, I tracked down a recipe already reduced and made more healthy, and then used lower cal ingredients.Fudgy Brownies
From Cooking Light
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon hot water
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (optional)
I used splenda, egg substitute, half-cal butter, and whole wheat flour. I didn't use powdered sugar.
Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°.
Place sugar and eggs in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until thick and pale (about 5 minutes). Combine hot water and coffee granules, stirring until coffee granules dissolve. Add coffee mixture, butter, and vanilla extract to sugar mixture; beat at low speed until combined.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture, stirring just until moist (batter will be thick).
Spread batter into an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 325° for 23 minutes or until brownies spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Garnish brownies with powdered sugar, if desired.
A few notes on this. Try as I might I couldn't get my Splenda/Egg Substitute mixture to thicken in the same way that real sugar and eggs would have. This certainly had an impact on my final product. Also, I'm always pretty lazy about the "mix the dry ingredients separately and then add them thing" so I just dumped them right in. :) I divided this into 8 portions, but it could have been as many as 16 and still given you decent sized brownies.
Calories: 65 calories for 1 brownie when divided into 8 portions.
Overall, these turned out solidly average. They're not amazing, and the coffee taste is noticable, and because of the laziness and changes I made, they didn't really get cakelike, but instead played pretty dense - but that wasn't really a bad thing, they were pretty fudgy in a good way. All in all, I don't think I'd make them again, not because they were bad, but because I'd like to try other recipes in an attempt to find ones that are better. Still, if you want a healthy brownie, you can't beat the calories - they ended up so low that I almost don't believe I did it right, but I've checked like three times, and that's everything...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-10 06:52 am (UTC)I can't believe that's only 65 calories for just one brownie! Holy cow! Though, I'm kind of sad that the coffee taste still came out...that makes me a little nervous since I'm not too keen on coffee. I'll need to check out the recipe a bit more when I'm actually awake. :p
Oh, and one question - are real eggs that bad?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-10 12:36 pm (UTC)The coffee flavor wasn't too bad, really, just noticeable. I HATE coffee and I found it acceptable - and it occurred to me that very tasty things could be done with this recipe if flavored coffees were used.
No, real eggs really aren't that bad - and I switch between using them and not using them - but at least with the desserts I'm cooking, I'm really just trying to reduce the cal as much as possible, so fake eggs it is...(or, rather, 99% real egg product)...
no subject
Date: 2009-07-10 06:10 pm (UTC)...Bauahahaha! I can control minds! Bauahaha...*clears throat* :p
no subject
Date: 2009-07-10 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-11 12:13 pm (UTC)