Courgette Chocolate Brownies

The Happy Egg Co has partnered with award-winning nutritional therapist Christine Bailey with a challenge to create a healthy and nutritious recipe. As Christine is a well-renowned chef, author and broadcaster with 18 years experience transforming people’s health, we thought we’d give one of her recipes a go. The prize for the winner is an amazing Nutribullet and with a Dove health kick on the horizon, we just had to join in. Apart from anything else, we love brownies.

Christine Bailey’s Courgette Chocolate Brownies are made with almond nut butter instead of butter and xylitol instead of sugar so they’re better for you than conventional brownies. Given I’ve never cooked with either of these ingredients before, this recipe was a bit of an experiment for me. Thankfully the recipe is great and the brownies tasted just as good as they smelt in the oven! All the ingredients were in our local supermarket with the exception of xylitol which I substituted for another sweetener on this occasion. Almond nut butter, if you’re not familiar with it, can normally be found in the jams and spreads aisle.

Christine Bailey’s Courgette Chocolate Brownies 

This recipe is grain free, gluten free and packed full of natural protein and healthy fats thanks to the eggs, nut butter and almonds. Eggs are one of the highest quality protein rich foods and you’d never guess courgettes were in these brownies. They add natural sweetness and moisture plus they’re a great source of vitamin C, potassium and dietary fibre. What a fabulous low in fat treat!

The preparation time for this recipe is 10 minutes with the cooking time 25 minutes. You can expect to make around 16 brownies.

Ingredients 

200g almond nut butter 
200g dark chocolate (can be dairy free)
100g sweet xylitol 
3 medium Happy Eggs 
1tsp vanilla extract 
60g ground almonds 
1tsp ground cinnamon 
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 courgette, about 125g finely grated 

Method 

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC or gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin with parchment paper. Place the almond nut butter,

dark chocolate and xylitol in a pan and warm gently to melt the chocolate. Keep it on a low heat and make sure you stir regularly. With the texture different to using butter, I kept a close eye on it!

Place these ingredients in a food processor along with the eggs, vanilla extract, ground almond, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda. Process to combine, once done add the courgette plus the pecans if you’re using them. I decided not to on this occasion but we did have them at the ready.

Spoon the mixture into a square 20cm/8 inch baking tin. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch. Allow the brownies to cool before cutting into bars and eating. If you’re anything like me, you may feel obliged to have a sneaky taste while the brownies are still warm.

The smell coming from the oven while the brownies was cooking is divine and they tasted delicious. I was quite surprised having only eaten the higher fat variety so I was really impressed. I’ll no doubt be on the hunt for more of Christine’s recipes in a quest to eat better and get fit. This was such a great challenge for me and it was great to eat something tasty that’s also nutritious.

Nutritional information 

Calories per serving: 225kcal 
Protein: 5.2g 
Carbohydrates: 15.9g 
Sugar: 14.1g 
Total fat: 17.5g 
Saturates: 3.5g 

Top tips for creating deliciously healthy recipes

Christine Bailey has a number of top tips for creating healthy and delicious recipes. I found these rather encouraging, particularly in terms of cutting the sugar, using fruit and cutting out the fat.

Cut the sugar – reduce the amount of sugar by one-third to one-half and it’s unlikely to make any difference. Add spices such as cinnamon, cloves or mixed spice or flavourings such as vanilla extract or almond flavouring to boost sweetness.

Use fruit or dried fruit – sugar can also be replaced by apple puree or dried fruits like dates. These will add natural sweetness as well as soluble fibre to support digestive health.

Going dairy free – instead of butter, try using coconut oil. To replace milk, try almond milk or coconut milk.

Add in extra fibre – grounded flaxseed or chia seed is delicious in baked recipes and provides valuable soluble fibre to help stablise blood sugar levels. Flax-seed also provides omega 3 fats and protein.

Want to cut the fat? – replace some of the butter in a recipe with mashed banana or stewed apple. Instead of cream, try thick greek yoghurt – it’s tasty and full of beneficial bacteria too.

The Taste 100 Healthy Eating Recipe Challenge is in partnership with The Happy Egg Company and Christine Bailey #happyeggtastemakers