Recipe Wednesday - Chocolate Brownies

I made these for Valentine's Day and they were pretty darn good! I got the original recipe from Oprah and tried to make it a little more healthy. In hindsight, I probably could have reduced the butter and maybe used a little unsweetened applesauce or peanut butter. Next time!

Chocolate Brownies

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chocolate whey protein powder (about 2 scoops)
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 oz dark chocolate (60% or greater - I used 70%), coarsely chopped
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup Splenda (or other sweetener, or sugar)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8 x 8" glass baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, protein powder, cocoa powder, salt and cinnamon.

3. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter together while stirring occasionally. You can make your own double boiler by placing a medium or large metal bowl over a medium sauce pan on the stove filled with a couple inches of boiling water. When completely melted, remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature (about 20 minutes).

4. Add eggs to the chocolate-butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not overmix. Add vanilla and ginger and whisk just a couple times.

5. Sprinkle dry ingredients into the wet and fold in with a spatula until just combined.

6. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs. The butter will bubble up as it's baking, but the brownies are not greasy. Cool completely before cutting and serving. (Good luck with that - I didn't make it!)


Makes 16 brownies, each with approximately:

141 calories
3.6g protein
9.8g fat
10.5g carbs
1.5g fiber

I got the grand idea to add carob chips to the batter to make the brownies chocolate chippy. Except I forgot to add them to the batter. So I just put them on top. Mistake. All they did was melt and I don't think they really added anything to the brownies, so I didn't include them here. I also added 3 packets of Stevia, but I thought they were a little too sweet so I left that out here as well.