Borrowing Barefoot: Brownies for Adulting
When I was young, my dad worked for Nestle. Therefore in my childhood, chocolate=love. I'm pretty sure I ate the very first Nestle MagicBall there ever was, and I thought everybody's family said "No body better lay a finger on my Butterfinger," on the reg. Associating chocolate with family and relationships is a habit I struggle to overcome in adulthood. Yep, I said it…the dreaded “a” word. I’m an adult (kinda? maybe? I'm turning 30, so yeah I guess) and a lot of times that means I have to make difficult choices. Drink 10 bottles of rose and a mini bottle of chandon in one night or chug some water and call it? Go for a run even though I kind of hate running or sit on the couch? Eat Outrageous Brownies or create my own version that’s not going to leave me feeling like poo? Just like many of us, sometimes I choose well and sometimes I don’t. These brownies are the perfect compromise for when you feel like eating like a kid, but you literally can't even.
The official definition of “outrageous,” according to dictionary.com is “shockingly bad or excessive.” I suppose, then, it’s no coincidence that Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownie recipe starts with A POUND of butter. A pound. You guys, A FULL POUND. I am literally outraged because that is SHOCKINGLY BAD and excessive. I am all for substituting ghee in a recipe, but I can’t in any circumstances justify a full pound of butter, even super high-quality butter in a brownie. I’m sure it’s delicious, but I just love my friends and family too much for that.
My primary thinking on this one was to figure out a way to create indulgent feeling brownies with mostly healthy ingredients. Let’s be clear. These are not a health food. They are a healthier, less-inflammatory—and I mean that in the sense of systemic inflammation that causes chronic disease kind of way—treat. They still have sugar, though no refined sugar. They still have flour, though no gluten-based flour. They still have fat, though not the artery-hardening kind. AND they still have chocolate chips, because geez, I’m a health nut, NOT AN ANIMAL!
One of the best ever and most frequent Ina-isms is to add coffee to chocolate. “It makes the chocolate taste more like chocolate…” or alternately “gives it a real depth of flavor.” Anytime Ina makes something chocolate, she reminds us that it would taste better with a bit of freshly brewed coffee or coffee powder, and sometimes both. She claims it enhances the chocolate flavor. And no matter how many episodes she reveals this tidbit in, every time she looks straight at the camera and says “And now here’s the secret.” How long before it’s common knowledge and no longer a secret? IDK, but whatever, keep telling us, Ina. You know you love it. Anyway, in comes the secret ingredient in my Slightly Less Outrageous Brownies…Coffee Flour.
In my first Becoming Barefoot post, I talked a little about the way that I think (some) millennials are starting to prioritize food-quality and food-sourcing in a way that previous generations haven’t. Some of us are also beginning to look for ways to make this higher-quality food lower impact on our environment and more sustainable. It’s one of the coolest new ingredients on the market and ticks all the perennial, millennial boxes so to speak. It’s naturally gluten-free, low in sugar, high in fiber, and sustainable to boot.
Every year, as a world, we use billions of pounds of coffee beans and we harvest the beans and throw away the fruit. It gets left to rot or thrown in to water sources. UNTIL NOW! Different organizations have begun to harvest the leftover berries, and transform it into a nutrient-dense flour. It has a positive social, environmental, and economic impact in those coffee-growing communities, and it’s pretty darn good for you as far as flours go. When I first saw it I knew I couldn’t wait to play with it.
This recipe took some experimenting—I won’t lie. When it’s raw, it has the same bitterness, but not to the same level as coffee beans. When it’s cooked it adds a natural fruitiness and sweetness that helps eliminate some need for sugar in baked goods. BUT it is tricky for consistency. It seems to be even more crumbly that usual GF flours. Because of this, I don’t recommend using it as a “flour.” When you’re going to bake with coffee flour, I’d recommend thinking of it more as you would cocoa powder. It adds great flavor but should make up the bulk of your dry ingredients.
Outrageous Brownies sound delicious. I just want guests at my house to know that I’m taking care of their chocolate-loving souls and their rapidly again (eek) bodies. So, I opted out of a pound of butter and 2 ½ cups of sugar. I opted in to a mix of ghee, coconut oil and avocado (!) and replaced the sugar with a ¼ cup of coconut sugar and the coffee flour. These brownies really need to cool when they come out of the oven. You need to let them sit for about 25 minutes. To be honest, I think they’re best straight out of the freezer.
Anyway, chocolate=love even when you’re adulting, so you should probably just make these brownies and continue to feel all kinds of good about yourself.
Coffee Flour Brownies
What You'll Need:
1/4 cup coconut oil
3 TBSP ghee
1/2 avocado
2 eggs
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup chopped unsweetened baking chocolate
1 tsp baking powder
3 TBSP coffee flour
3 TBSP coconut flour
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
What I Did:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces. This will help it melt faster. In a double-boiler melt the coconut oil with the dark chocolate.
Once melted, let it cool.
Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl, except the chocolate chips.
Add the chocolate mixture and combine using a hand mixer. Be patient with your avocado here. Let the mixer do the work and break it down. It will take several passes to break down the avocado chunk...you're not doing it wrong.
Grease an 8x8 baking pan with coconut oil. Pour in the batter. Bake for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool for at LEAST 20 minutes.
Slice up the brownies and enjoy!
