Nothing beats a proper, dense and chocolaty brownie, however I do have a figure to keep (snigger)… I think I can do with a relatively low(er) fat brownie recipe. This recipe is taken from BBC Good Food website and it’s by Angela Nilsen. It contains no butter but mayonnaise for replacement. Now, before you gasp with a “what the…”, I urge you to keep an open mind. You will NOT taste the mayonnaise in your brownies and I suppose it just gives them the moist texture.
Look! It’s even got the cracked brownie top! Here’s how to do it:
Ingredients:
- 85g dark chocolate , 70% cocoa solids, chopped into small pieces
- 85g plain flour
- 25g cocoa powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 50g light muscovado sugar
- ½ tsp coffee granules
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 100g mayonnaise (I used Hellman’s)
Method:
- Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Pour enough water into a small pan to one-third fill it. Bring to the boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Put the chopped chocolate into a large bowl that will fit snugly over the pan without touching the water. Sit the pan over the water (still off the heat) and leave the chocolate to melt slowly for a few mins, stirring occasionally until it has melted http://healthsavy.com/product/diclofenac/ evenly. Remove the bowl from the pan, then let the chocolate cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, lightly oil and base-line a 19cm square cake tin that is 5cm deep. Combine the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Using a wooden spoon, stir both the sugars into the cooled chocolate with the coffee, vanilla and buttermilk. Stir in 1 tbsp warm water. Break and beat in the egg, then stir in the mayonnaise just until smooth and glossy. Sift over the flour and cocoa mix, then gently fold in with a spatula without overmixing.
- Pour the mixture into the tin, then gently and evenly spread it into the corners. Bake for 30 mins. When a skewer is inserted into the middle, it should come out with just a few moist crumbs sticking to it. If cooked too long, the mix will dry out; not long enough and it can sink. Leave in the tin until completely cold, then loosen the sides with a round-bladed knife. Turn out onto a board, peel off the lining paper and cut into 12 squares.
So there you are. And again, I’m not saying this is healthy (far from it), or contains zero percent fat. Just remember you are indeed looking at a cake recipe. Enjoy! (with moderation!)
surely the butter would be healthier than the mayo??? all that oil? or just use a mild oil instead there must be better ways to do it!
Hi, if we compare the same amount of butter and mayo, mayo is less fattening than butter. Healthier or not I’m not going to go into details, so I can only comment on the calories respective. 100g of butter contains roughly 730 calories, whereas Hellman’s light mayo contains 270 calories. I’m always on the hunt for tasty healthy brownies 🙂 let me know if you found one! x
Hi, thanks for the recipe. It looks delicious but the mayo just puts me off totally. It’s a good idea for reducing calories but the idea makes me feel a bit queasy. Hellman’s mayo contains Canola Oil, Water, Liquid Whole Egg, Vinegar, Liquid Yolk, Salt, Sugar, Spices, Concentrated Lemon Juice and Calcium Disodium Edta (Maintains Flavour), so I personally would just use canola oil. However, that is very hard to come by here and expensive, so I tried your recipe with 1 tablesppon of olive oil. The brownies were not amazing but also not bad.. So second attempt I used creme fraiche instead of buttermilk because I can’t find buttermilk in any shop here in Italy and I only used egg white, not the yolk. I whisked 1 egg whites until fluffy and mixed that into the dry ingredients. The brownies came out super chewy but I found them very sweet. On my third attempt I did the egg white whisk again, yoghurt, not creme fraiche and I put 75g muscovado sugar and 25g fructose, which caramelised during baking . The brownies were heavenly and healthy enough. Thanks for the inspiration!
Wow Carrie, I love your substitution ideas! I will have to try that myself sometime soon. Glad you gave it a go anyway and improved further! x