Maybe among your 2020 resolutions is the noble one to eat a little less sugar. But, it’s really hard to avoid the stuff, even if you make your own food. It lurks in yogurt and fruit juice, granola and sometimes even bread!
That’s why we’re loving the recipes in Half the Sugar, All the Love. Instead of calling for a full kibosh on the sweet stuff, authors Jennifer Tyler Lee and Anisha Patel, MD, MSPH developed recipes with a lot less of it. (And gentle reminder from the duo: Agave syrup, honey, maple syrup and sorghum syrup are still sugar!)
Jennifer and Anisha are proponents of using whole fruits and vegetables in recipes, adding fiber to help slow sugar’s absorption rate into the bloodstream. These genius double-chocolate brownies are a great example of smart baking in the face of a sugar crush: Sweet potatoes are cooked, combined with egg and almond butter, and folded into a double-chocolate brownie batter. There’s real chocolate in the chips, and real cocoa powder in the dough, but the sweet potatoes add a real creamy richness to the finished product. (We love that maple syrup makes a cameo, too; sure, it’s sugar, but it’s such a classic foil for maple!)
The end result? A chewy, chocolate-y brownie with just one-and-a-half teaspoons of sugar per serving. (Compare that to boxed brownies’ four-and-a-half teaspoons of sugar!) It’s definitely a recipe worth trying.
Double Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1/2 pound sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed, and boiled until fork-tender
1/2 cup unsweetened almond butter
1/2 cup coconut oil or unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips (6 3/4 ounces)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 13 × 9-inch baking dish with parchment paper, leaving 2 inches of overhang on each side, and coat with cooking spray.
2. Combine the sweet potatoes, almond butter, coconut oil, egg, and egg yolk in a food processor. Process until very smooth, making sure no chunks of sweet potato remain, about 1 minute.
3. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the maple syrup and vanilla. Process until combined, about 30 seconds.
4. Add the cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda and process until all the dry ingredients are incorporated, about 1 minute more. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spread it into an even layer, and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons chocolate chips. Bake until the top is set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 27 to 30 minutes. Let the brownies cool slightly. Cut into 24 bars.
Quick Tip: You can substitute 1 cup canned sweet potato puree for the fresh sweet potato.
Make Ahead: The brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Nutrition Information (1 brownie): Calories: 136 | Added sugar: 1½ teaspoons or 6g | Carbohydrates: 12g | Sodium: 97mg | Saturated fat: 30% of calories or 5g | Fiber: 2g | Protein: 3g
Excerpted from Half the Sugar, All the Love by Jennifer Tyler Lee and Anisha Patel, MD, MSPH. Photographs by Erin Scott. Workman Publishing ©2019.
4 comments
We appreciate you for creating the blog on “Mapping identities in global cultural studies”. Thanks for providing information regarding this topic, read more
Thank you very much for this recipy, hope you come up with some new recipe. Thanks a lot.
These are interesting. While they’re not terrible I wouldn’t crave worthy. The flavor reminds me of very dark chocolate and it is missing something but cannot figure out what. Also I couldn’t decide if I was supposed to measure the coconut oil in its solid state or melted state.
[…] vegetables enhances their natural sweetness. Roasted sweet potato is the secret ingredient in my Double Chocolate Brownies. Caramelizing is another great trick that I use to create low-sugar recipes. That method is the […]