Avocado Brownies

 I've seen recipes for brownies made with avocado which kinda made me scratch my head.  So cruising through Pinterest last night I remembered I had saved one of those recipes on my "This is making me hungry" board.  I did have enough ripe avocado's to make "avocado brownies" so I put on my apron preheated the oven and went to work.  Now being the artist I am makes it hard for me to follow a recipe which isn't always a good thing to do especially in baking.  In cooking things it's usually not that big of a deal when you change the recipe a bit but in baking it doesn't always work.  But ... since I didn't have some of the ingredients in the recipe I had saved I had to adjust it ... right!?  Well I must say they turned out awesome and since it has avocado in it I claim them "healthy".  And for those who are wondering just like I was ... can you taste the avocado? ... not at all!  Or at least not in my recipe.      

Avocado Brownies

3 eggs

3 small avocados

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla liquid

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cacao powder (sugar free)

Preheat oven to 325.

1. I sprayed a glass pan with Baker's Joy non-stick baking spray.  You can use parchment paper if you like.
2. Mix eggs with the sugar and vanilla liquid
3. I mashed the avocados with a fork until pretty smooth and then mixed it in with the eggs and sugar.
4. In a separate bowl I mixed the cacao powder, the flour, baking powder and the chocolate chips.
5. I then combined the dry ingredients with the wet ones and used a spatula to mix it all together.  Only long enough until combined.  Probably best not to over stir it.  
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and put in oven.  
7. Since I changed the ingredients from the original recipe I had no idea how long these needed to be in the oven so I checked them after 10 minutes and then every 5 minutes.  All together they were in the oven for 25 minutes.  My pan was pretty big so the batter was only about an inch thick before baking.  If you use a smaller pan then the one I used they will need to bake longer.

I put a bit of confectioner sugar on top just for the looks.  

Now I couldn't wait until they had totally cooled off to give them a try.  I read that if you eat them still warm you would be able to taste the avocado ... well I tried a slice when still warm and couldn't taste the avocado at all ... all I tasted was delicious chocolate brownie!  With the ingredients I used they turned out more cake like compared to the gooey brownies.  Maybe if you use 4 small avocados they would turn out more gooey?  I'm not a professional baker, I'm just an artist putting my own twist on baking these brownies!  

Enjoy!  and please let me know if you end up trying my recipe on how they turned out for you.  

 

 

  

No Chocolate ... No Valentine!

YUMMMMMMM!!!

Chocolate mirage?

Who doesn't like chocolate???  I'm sure there are some people that don't care for chocolate ... must say I haven't met too many of them.  Funny thing about chocolate ... I was born and raised in Belgium and moved to the US when I was 18.  When my parents used to come and visit me I always asked them to bring me back Belgium chocolate.  Usually the Cote d'or brand, my favorites are the ones filled with banana cream or the coconut filled bars.  Yummmm.  Back then you couldn't find these in the Bay Area where I used to live.  Now the grocery store where I work carries them so no need to have them shipped from Belgium anymore.  The funny thing is that when I went back to Belgium to visit my family they (usually my dad and my brother) asked me to bring back Hershey's chocolate, they thought that was the cat's miauw!  Everybody thought they were nuts bringing chocolate into the country that's famous for it's own chocolates????  But, they like it.  Just like my dad always liked the Miller Light when he came to visit even though Belgium has sooooooo many breweries and great beer!  Kinda silly isn't it.  Anyway, I was craving chocolate today so I couldn't resist making this treasury.  Enjoy the chocolate!  

Mint chocolate - yummmmmm

Who doesn't love chocolate!  My favorite is marsipan chocolate or mint chocolate, yummmmmm.  Anyway, that's what inspired me to make this treasury ... using the mint chocolate colors. 

OMG - Chocolate heaven!

I love chocolate! Not sure if being from Belgium has anything to do with it (I doubt it!) so I couldn't help myself and made this treasury. Some pretty amazing chocolate artists out there I must say. Check out that cake decorated with vintage buttons! It's all edible! They have some other amazing items in their shop, an entire vintage necklace you can eat. Now I must say, even being a choclaholic I don't know if I could eat that since it's just so pretty! So, enough said you have to check out all these shops I put in this treasury they all have amazing chocolate items eatable or not.

Enjoy! and please SHARE the chocolate!