I’ve discovered that it’s really fun to sneak vegetables and other healthy things into desserts and then wait until people have started eating to tell them the secret ingredient. Like this recipe for chocolate mousse - you’d never guess it’s made from avocado! But my latest veggie sneak attack was when I served these delicious zucchini-filled brownies to my Chicas Brillantes group. They actually turned out more like a delicious moist chocolate cake so I’m planning to lessen the baking powder to see if I can get a more dense and fudgy result. But regardless, these were delicious and I now have a great semi-healthy chocolate cake/cakey brownies recipe!
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1 egg
1 cup finely-shredded zucchini
1 t vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips
2-3 T milk or water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or over low heat if using an olla horno). In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, zucchini and vanilla, and fold until well-mixed. Add dry ingredients in small batches, folding in flour mixture until a thick dough forms. Add milk/water as needed to help batter come together. Batter will be thick. Fold in chocolate chips. In a greased 9×9-inch pan, pour in batter and spread in an even layer. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (or more like 40 in an olla horno if over very low heat) or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!
Baking with my olla horno: there is a hole in the middle to let the hot air circulate so it's like a combo bundt pan/dutch oven
And sorry, no finished pictures of the brownies. The entire batch was devoured in about 2 minutes by my girls group!
