The Food Site

Whoever said that if you are on a strict diet, you can never have dessert? Especially chocolate brownies. Well, I absolutely LOVE love love brownies. So, now that I am trying to lose a few kgs (ok, ok, I have about 10kg to shed, not only a few!), having to cut out dessert and sweet stuffs will be especially torturous.

Imagine my delight when I found a low fat brownie recipe. OMG. I can be on a diet and still eat brownies. It is a life saver, I tell you. Now, this recipe may be low fat, it is not exactly healthy either. It still has sugar and flour and calories. So, do enjoy it but don’t sit right down and eat the whole pan of brownies no matter how tempting it is and no matter how long you’ve been on a diet. Trust me. It is damn tempting but will-power, please. If you finish it in one go, then there won’t be any left tomorrow, right? So, here it is. Just salivate over it.

The low fat chocolate brownies are low fat but the topping is not. It is very simple to make. Really.

Just sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the mixing bowl.

We need two eggs.

I used brown sugar instead of white sugar.

Then, add the yogurt, vegetable oil, vanilla and eggs (lightly beaten) to the flour and sugar mixture. Stir till very well mixed.

Pour the mixture into a prepared pan for baking. After about 20 minutes….

You get this!

Here’s the recipe proper:

Very Low Fat Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used blueberry yogurt)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the baking pan with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the mixing bowl. Add in the sugar.

3. Then mix in the yogurt, eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil. Combine well.

4. Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes.

5. Leave in the pan to cool.

Now, for the icing / topping. It is NOT low fat but damn good. If you are really on a diet, don’t use this!

Rich Peanut Butter Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

6 tbsp dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp low fat milk

3 tbsp peanut butter

3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

1. Melt the dark chocolate and butter in the microwave for about a minute.

2. Stir and mix the dark chocolate and butter. Add the peanut butter, milk and sugar.

3. Combine well and you will get a smooth, chocolate paste.

4. Scoop onto the brownies and serve.

I have several chocolate recipe books and one of it is The Australian Women’s Weekly Sweet and Simple Chocolate recipe book. It has quite a few great recipes that are really sweet and simple. One of it is the Fruit and Nut Choc Chip Cookie Recipe. I tried it out and it was absolutely great! The best thing about it is that it doesn’t need that much sugar too.

It contains dates, almonds, rolled oats and chocolate chips, that’s why it doesn’t need that much sugar.

The actual recipe used chopped pecans and since I don’t have that, I substituted with almonds. All you really need to do is to beat the butter, sugar and egg together and then stir in the rolled oats, seeded dates, almonds and choc chips.

Then scoop spoonfuls of the batter onto the baking tray and bake. You will get these…

Here is the recipe:

Fruit and Nut Choc Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cup self-raising flour (or use plain flour and add 1 tsp baking powder)

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped seeded dates

1/2 cup chopped, toasted almonds (or pecans)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Beat butter, sugar and egg until smooth.

2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Roll batter into small balls and place on greased baking sheet. Flatten it slightly with a floured fork.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes.

5. Stand for 5 mins before placing on wire rack to cool.

The cookies contain very little sugar compared to other cookie recipes BUT it is still quite sweet because of the dates and the chocolate chips. The rolled oats definitely added some texture to it and the toasted nuts gave it the extra crunch.