Bakety, bake, bake

Yesterday was a miserably rainy day and I decided to make a mess in the kitchen. Whenever I bake, I seem to make a trail of ingredients all over the kitchen - flour, cocoa powder, salt - I'm totally the girl you see with flour on her face while stirring and mixing. Go ahead, make fun. 

Anyways, in an attempt to be healthy with my food intake, I recently bought Jillian Michaels' cookbook - The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook - and in it is a recipe for Fudge Brownies - How can these be healthy, right? The strangest (in my mind) ingredients: unsweetened applesauce and pure honey. I thought baking with these types of ingredients would be extremely difficult and hard to judge considering I've never used them in a recipe (that I can recall) and I was really nervous that the brownies wouldn't taste good and I'd be yelled at by the men in my house for making a horrible dessert. While mixing everything together, I have to be honest, it kind of had a funky smell, which made me even more nervous. Anyways, the result... HEAVENLY.

I'd say the total time you need for this recipe is 35-40 minutes (10-15 prep, 25 bake). Definitely make sure you have 2 mixing bowls (one large, one medium) and one glass measuring cup.

Ingredients:
Olive Oil spray for the pan
2/3 cup mild honey, such as clover or orange blossom
1/3 cup natural, unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup white whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large egg, at room temp
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square pan with olive oil. Set aside.

2. Place the honey in a large glass measuring cup. Microwave on high power until the honey is runny and just bubbling, 45 to 60 seconds (I tried 47 seconds and it was perfect). Add the cocoa and stir with a fork until well combined. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

3. In a small bowl, place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until well combined.

4. In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, oil, egg, and vanilla. Whisk together until well blended. Add the honey-cocoa mixture (pictured below) and whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and stir until no traces of flour remain. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

5. Bake until the surface looks dry around the edges of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, about 25 minutes. Do not overbake. Place the pan on a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing into 16 squares.

Make sure you have a spatula handy to get all of the honey/cocoa mixture out!

Fits perfectly in the 8x8 square pan!

Bakes for 25 minutes - Make sure edges are dry and toothpick test has moist crumbs

Right out of the oven - Edges are dry (correctly done) and separated from pan

 Cuts into 16 wonderful pieces (not all pictured - someone decided to taste test!)

The best thing about these brownies are how light and fluffy they are - normal brownies usually leave me feeling a little sick because of how rich they are... these are perfect for that quick sweetness craving!

xoxo