Chocolate & Blueberry Brownies - with photo

[Slice of Health]

Name of Recipe:  Chocolate & Blueberry Brownies
Number of People:  Makes a nice plateful (ideal for a morning tea!)
Ingredients: 
- 160g (1 1/4 cup) self raising flour
- 30g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup splenda granular (I used another brand)
- 175g no-fat vanilla yoghurt (I used plain yoghurt with vanilla essence)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup frozen blueberries

Preparation:
- Preheat oven 180 degrees celsius
- Add frozen berries to TMX: 4 sec, speed 5 *see note
- Add rest of ingredients: 10 sec, speed 5
- Add to slice pan (I used a silicone square cake tin which didn't need lining)
- Bake 25 min

Tips/Hints:
- Adapted from 'That's Life Low Fat & Fabulous' booklet which was attached to a recent copy of the magazine
- * Their recipe used frozen raspberries that were not chopped, they could be stirred through at the end instead (I only chopped my blueberries because my DH doesn't like them)
- The result was a dense (but really nice!) brownie with flecks of blueberry through it, not too sweet or rich like real brownies (although I love them too!!)

[goldfish]

These look fabulous!!  Is 1/2 cup of splenda granular equal to the same amount of sugar?

[Slice of Health]

I would say so goldfish. I had some 'cup for cup' low carb/calorie type sugar that I want to finish up.  My brownies were sweet enough (to me) although my dh predictably said they needed choc chips... Next time I'll probably use 1/2 cup white or castor sugar as I don't normally have Splenda etc. I might even add some choc chips... 

[judydawn]

Just checked a packet of Splenda I haven't used for a long time - yes it definitely measures cup for cup goldfish.

[goldfish]

Kulsha and Judy - thank you both for that. My preference I think would be to use sugar..  I wonder how stevia would stack up as a sweetener . . .

[Slice of Health]

Stevia is super sweet. Isn't it something crazy like 100 times stronger than sugar? Check the packet because some granulated Stevia products might be bulked up so it measures cup by cup like Splenda and the others.  I have my own Stevia plant and have dried some leaves in the microwave and milled with almonds to create a healthy sweet powder sugar alternative - I am yet to experiment with baking but I think I would only need a tablespoon at a guess. Might have to try it with this recipe actually... thanks for the idea ! 

[goldfish]

 . . and thank you for the idea with the dried leaves and almonds . .that sounds great!  What proportions do you use? (- but I guess that's a matter of personal experiment and choice.)  I don't have a plant at the moment . . . but it's always a good excuse for a trip to the local nurseries!!  If you do try it with the baking, please let's know how it turns out.

[Slice of Health]

Hi Goldfish, I just put a really small amount of almonds in there to help with the abrasive action of milling to make the leaves into a finer powder (and to absorb any remaining moisture). Its similar to when you mill lemon rind, it turns out finer if you mill it with sugar. You could use other things like a bit of rice maybe. I got my plant from Bunnings! Its really hardy and grows well up here (in Darwin).

[Vivaroo]

I saw the stevia plants and wondered how to use it - thanks Kulsha - another thing I've learnt today.

[goldfish]

Thanks Kulsha - I appreciate that.  This is a great learning curve!   I think anything would grow well in Darwiin!!  With our present humidity and heat in Sydney our plants are going Tally Ho . .  but come winter this is my last shot at keeping Pandan plants alive!!

[Slice of Health]

No worries, it's nice to contribute something helpful as I've gained so much info from these forums too 
Ps - I forgot to mention that I keep my 'stevia powder' in the freezer because almonds go rancid pretty quickly...

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I made these today and they are very nice (for a very low fat recipe). I used wholemeal flour, raw sugar and substituted the vanilla yogurt for a berry one (just used what I had - but vanilla would be nicer). I am looking forward to trying it with the raspberries next.  For anyone on weight watchers with my modifications this works out to 2 propoints/16 serves.

[cookie1]

Thanks Chelsea.

[obbie]

I have stevia seeds at my shop.

[Thermokitchen]

Oh these look too good!

Thanks