Healthy fudge brownies

Do you make New Year's resolutions? I personally don't. I honestly don't find them very helpful and have never made one (at least none that I remember). I like having personal goals, but I don't classify them as resolutions.

Whether or not you make resolutions, my bet is that most resolution-makers hope to eat healthier in 2013. We should all be aware of what food we put into our bodies and aim to eat more natural foods and avoid processed ingredients. Right?

Catherine at Pursuing Domestic Goddess-ness is this month's What's Baking host and asked us to bake something that was healthy. She challenged us to identify a favorite baked good and health-ify it (is that even a word?).

Since I am a sucker for brownies, I chose them as my focus for this month's challenge. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I follow another blog called Chocolate-Covered Katie. Her original creations are vegan, so they are much healthier than your normal, run-of-the-mill desserts. Her recipe for fudge brownies immediately caught my eye so I knew I had to make these.

Although the flavors in these brownies were spot-on (I could not taste or feel the texture of the tofu or applesauce), they never set up properly. My brownies did not solidify as much I wanted, so they were more like a thick, fudgy brownie batter. The tops and sides did bake up nicely, but the middles were a bit underdone.  I even baked my brownies for 23 minutes and stored them in the refrigerator to firm up. If I make these again, I will add a bit more flour to help firm up these bars. I did find that they resembled "real" brownies the longer I kept them uncovered in the fridge. Regardless, the brownies still tasted chocolately and gooey, and I didn't feel too bad licking up the batter on my knife.

(The photo above was of some brownies that had been sitting, uncovered, for about 5 days in the refrigerator.)

Healthy fudge brownies

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose or whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 TBSP soft tofu
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 3 TBSP vegetable or coconut oil (I used canola oil)
• 2 TBSP milk of choice (I used soy milk)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• Chocolate chips (optional - I used dark chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients (cocoa powder through salt), and mix  well.

In a blender, combine wet ingredients (sugar through vanilla) and blend until smooth.

Add the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a 4×6 oiled pan (or double the recipe and use an 8×8). Bake in the preheated oven for 12-18 minutes.

Let the brownies cool for at least an hour before digging in.

Yield: 8 brownies

Source: Chocolate-Covered Katie