I would be telling lies if I said I didn’t have a sweet tooth and wasn’t a fan of chocolate brownies. Needless to say, when I discovered Ella Woodword’s (author of Deliciously Ella cook book) slightly healthier version of the traditional chocolate brownie, I was very, very excited!!
To be completely honest, I was a bit sceptical at first when I read the ingredient list and found that sweet potato was the main ingredient, but I promise you, IT WORKS!! These brownies are delicious! They are fudgy and chocolatey like a normal brownie but full of good, natural ingredients. When I first made these, Dan didn’t believe me that they were made out of sweet potato – that’s how good they are! They even have a gooey chocolaty icing made out of all natural ingredients.
The last time we went to London, we actually made it to Ella’s cafe on Weighhouse Street, where we sampled the real thing! Funny side note – Jimmy Carr popped in for some take away lunch while we were there too 🙂
The ingredients list and method is very straightforward, so I thought it would be a good one to share at this time of year, for anyone planning a summer picnic or party :).
Ingredients
For the Brownie
- 500g of sweet potatoes (about 2 medium ones)
- 12 medjool dates – (Medjool dates are usually larger, softer and sweeter than normal dates. I didn’t have medjool dates so I just used 15 regular dates instead)
- 6 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
- 100g of ground almonds
- 2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
- A pinch of salt
- 6 tablespoons of raw cacao powder – (cacao is a less processed version of cocoa powder, which has a higher antioxidant content. You can find cacao powder in most health food shops and a lot of supermarkets are beginning to stock it, but if you can’t find cacao, just use cocoa powder instead)
For the Icing
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons of almond butter
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons of cacao powder
Method
Step 1: Pre-heat your oven oven to 180C (fan), then peel and steam your sweet potatoes for about 20 minutes, until they become really soft.
Step 2: Once the sweet potato is nice and soft remove them and add them to a food processor with the pitted dates. Mix until the sweet potato and dates are well combined.
Step 3: Put the remaining ingredients into a bowl and then add the sweet potato and date mixture. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined.
Step 4: Add the mixture to a lined baking dish and place in the oven. The original recipe recommends baking the mixture for about forty-five to fifty minutes. I found that mine were ready after about 40 minutes, but of course it depends on the strength of your oven. Just keep an eye on it in the last 10 or 15 minutes. You will know it is ready if you poke it with a knife or fork and it comes out clean and dry. Once it is cooked, remove the tray and allow it to cool for about ten minutes. This will make it to stick together which is very important.
Step 5 – Icing!
To make the icing, simply melt all of the ingredients together while stirring well. Ella suggests putting the icing mixture in the freezer for 15 minutes and then the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up a bit, but I found that I didn’t have to do that. If you feel as though your mixture is too runny then you can take that extra step.
Remove the brownies from the tray and once they are completely cool, go ahead and ice them :). Spread the icing evenly across the top and then cut up into nice chunky squares. I gave mine a very light dusting of icing sugar because I think it makes everything look better, lol, but of course you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. Voila – time to enjoy your guilt free chocolate brownies 🙂
Please let me know how you get on with these if you try to make them, or if you have any similar recopies that you can recommend I try :).