A couple weeks ago, I was crabby and having a bad day and wanted a brownie. I posted so on Facebook and a friend of mine sent me a link to the recipe for some flourless brownies (Click here for the original recipe from Ambitious Kitchen). I didn’t make them then because I was too lazy, but I made them yesterday and man am I glad I did because…YUM.
I tweaked the recipe a bit, because I’m not concerned with being vegan, so I added an egg. I also used crunchy peanut butter because I like nuts and dark chocolate chunks because I didn’t have any chips but I had a big bar of very dark chocolate.
These definitely taste like dark chocolate, so if that isn’t your thing, you’ll probably want to add some more honey and maybe a small extra ripe banana or some dates for some extra sweetness. But I liked them just the way they turned out.
Flourless Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
1/2 cup crunchy all-natural peanut butter (smooth would work fine too, or any nut butter for that matter)
1/4 cup raw honey (maple syrup would also work – again if you want it sweeter, maybe go up to a 1/3 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg (optional – I think without the egg, they’d end up a little fudgier, like the original recipe – mine were a little more cake-like)
1/2 cup all-natural (no sugar added) applesauce
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dark chocolate chunks (I used a few squares from a very dark chocolate bar, chopped up. Dark chocolate chips, or regular chips would work to, whatever you like – or omit them all together.)
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. You could make these in a 8x8in pan or do what I did and make them into individual muffins – for me, it made 6 good sized muffins.
-Mix together peanut butter, honey, vanilla, egg and apple sauce until smooth.
-Add cocoa, baking soda and salt – stir slowly until well mixed. (I ended up with cocoa powder all over myself, so take my word for it, stir slowly!)
-Fold in chocolate chunks.
-Pour into greased pan of your choice. My muffins took about 15 min. If you use the egg, you’ll want to make sure they’re cooked through, check with a toothpick – if it comes out clean, you’re good to go.
-Allow to cool a bit before digging in.
-Enjoy!