Don't Say Never Trust A Skinny Cook: Healthier Brownies*

This is a bit of a different recipe to normal. It's sweet not savoury. These brownies are not perfectly healthy but they are better for you than my other brownies, although that might be in part because they are so rich that you only need a tiny piece to satisfy you! I received some flavoured icing sugars and cocoa powder from Sugar and Crumbs, a family run company that provides 'convenience without compromise' with 24 naturally flavoured icing sugars and 5 cocoa powders. They sent me coconut icing sugar, cherry Bakewell flavour and cherry cocoa powder in return for a review and recipes. Well, I leapt at the chance to try out their products as I've been coveting them ever since I tried the icings at last year's Cake and Bake Show. This recipe uses their cherry cocoa powder but would work with any of their cocoa powders (chilli, coconut, lime and orange).

I always make brownies by melting chocolate and butter in a bain marie so I was very dubious about using cocoa powder instead but the theory of it reducing the amount of fat and sugar in the bake - as lovely as chocolate is, it's not exactly light in those two ingredients! However, the sugar has to be kept fairly high in order to make the brownies soft and cracked on top. I have looked at so many healthy brownie recipes which involved kidney beans, beetroot or some other odd ingredient that I didn't want in my baked treats so I started looking at recipes involving greek yogurt and sour cream. I thought they sounded great but as the sleet came down this morning I changed my mind and used yogurt instead! The only thing is, my fridge just had raspberry and passionfruit yogurt in it! I suggest you use plain or vanilla flavoured low-fat yogurt instead. Also, why do people put oil in brownies?

Healthier Brownies Recipe

Oven at 150˚ (yes, I know that's low but it stops it from burning)

Use a big rectangular pan, as they're so rich it's better to have a larger, thinner brownie

Ingredients

135g caster sugar

75g butter (I used lurpak light to make it slightly healthier again)

2 eggs

150g self raising flour

80g cherry cocoa powder

140g low fat yogurt

Method

Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Beat in the 2 eggs until it's all been incorporated.

Stir in the flour and cocoa powder, you might not be able to mix it all in but that's fine.

Add the yogurt and you should now be able to combine everything.

Spread the batter into your brownie pan, making sure it reaches the corners.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or so - you don't want it to be too runny when you take it out as it doesn't continue to cook as much as my other brownies - I had to pop mine back in the oven before I could cut them!

When cool cut into small squares and enjoy.

My next post is also about Sugar and Crumbs' icing sugars and their theme of Mother's Day - it involves cocktails so make sure to check back on Wednesday!