Spicy Peruvian Avocado Brownies
Having been sent eight large ripe Peruvian Hass avocados, I didn’t have a great deal of time to use them up. Following on from the avocado chocolate chip cookies I made a few weeks ago, I wanted to continue with the avocado baking theme. Leafing through the accompanying booklet, I found a recipe for Peruvian Hass avocado brownies. With my well known love of all things brownie, I didn’t need to cogitate further.
Of course, I made a few adjustments with the recipe. For a start I thought a hint of chilli and a soupçon of cinnamon would be appropriate flavours to enhance the South American feel of the brownies. Sadly I didn’t have any Peruvian chocolate to hand but made do with using up three partly used bars which were making my cupboard look untidy; as it happens one of them was from Ecuador, so at least it was from the right neck of the woods. As well as the spices I added a little cocoa powder for extra richness and used mostly brown sugar for fudginess. As I was using duck eggs which are quite large, I added a little bit of extra chocolate too.
Whilst the avocado by no means replaced all of the butter, it did have less saturated fat than many brownie recipes, so it could be argued that they are slightly better for you!
This is how I made:
Spicy Peruvian Avocado Brownies
- Melted 150g unsalted butter in a pan over low heat with 270g chocolate (I used a mixture of 70& plain, 53% dark and 37% milk). Stirred to combine, then left to cool a little.
- Beat 100g dark brown sugar, 50g golden caster sugar together with 3 duck eggs (large hens eggs will be fine) using electric beaters for about 3 minutes
- Mashed 1 large Peruvian Hass avocado and added it to the eggs. Beat the mixture for a further minute.
- Poured the chocolate mixture down the side of the bowl and folded the mixture in as gently as possible.
- Sifted in 60g self-raising flour, 1 scant tbsp cocoa powder, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper and ¼ tsp ground cinnamon.
- Folded this in until just incorporated.
- Scraped the batter into a 9″ sq. silicone mould and baked at 180℃ for 25 minutes.
- Left in the mould to cool then cut into 16 pieces.
These are real melt in your mouth brownies – sort of light but fudgy and unctuous at the same time. The touch of spices was just right, a catch at the back of the throat and a hint of something warming, but nothing that overpowered the deep rich chocolateyness of these brownies. You can eat several of these and your palate is left feeling quite clean at the end of it – I should point out that eating several at a time is not really recommended. The taste of avocado could barely be detected. None of the taste testers (other than super taster CT) noticed it, even after I told them what the brownies contained. Not being able to taste avocado in your brownies, when all’s said and done, is for most of us, a good thing.
This month’s theme for Love Cake over at JibberJabberUK is all about Back to School – Something New. These brownies fit the bill perfectly. They are delicious treats for the school lunch box, but slightly healthier than your average brownie. They are also new to me as I’ve never made brownies with avocado before.
Karen S Booth
4th September 2014 at 8:42 amA Brownie is always welcome at L and L towers and these look top drawer! 🙂 Karen
Johanna GGG
4th September 2014 at 11:59 amuntidy bars of chocolate in your cupboard – that is my sort of messiness 🙂 the brownies look beautiful
Katie @ The Perfect Brownie
4th September 2014 at 12:30 pmSeems like avocado is showing up in a lot of bloggers’ baked goods these days. I wonder where that trend started?
Janice Pattie
4th September 2014 at 7:07 pmLook great, veggies seem to make great brownies.
Heidi Roberts
4th September 2014 at 8:49 pmNever knew avocados could be so versatile!
Cheri Savory Spoon
4th September 2014 at 11:13 pmOh these sound delicious! love that avocado was added
belleau kitchen
5th September 2014 at 6:49 amI have been so intrigued by all your avocado recipes. These really sound incredible. I bet they were so creamy too. Nice work!
manu
5th September 2014 at 6:53 amOMG brownies and avocado sounds yummy
LiSa
5th September 2014 at 2:10 pmI would say these could be considered healthy really!! :0) they look delicious!!
Sisley White
5th September 2014 at 4:29 pmAvocado brownies have to be a health food I’m sure!
I can’t wait to try these x
Angie Schneider
6th September 2014 at 5:11 pmGorgeous brownies! We love avocados and this is definitely a must bake!
GG
6th September 2014 at 9:04 pmI bet these are wonderful. Great recipe. GG
yummychunklet
7th September 2014 at 12:07 amWhat a fun twist to use avocado!
Jacqueline Meldrum
7th September 2014 at 10:13 amYou said avocado and brownies so you have my attention. Nice!
Kate@whatkatebaked
7th September 2014 at 11:14 amWe went to Peru on our honeymoon last year and enjoyed all the fun new foods we tried in the great markets and restaurants- the fruits and veg were fascinating, especially all the potato varieties. These sound a great twist on a brownie Choclette, delicious
Lix Hewett
7th September 2014 at 2:02 pmThese look delicious!
Kate Glutenfreealchemist
7th September 2014 at 7:24 pmLove the idea of avocado in brownies. They are so naturally creamy, I bet they really add to the texture! Nice!!
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins
17th September 2014 at 1:28 pmI love brownies and had never thought of using avocado but they sound like such a great idea x #LoveCake
Jibber JabberUK
29th September 2014 at 9:48 amThinking about it it does make sense to use avocados in baking but it would have crossed my mind to do so! There is always a danger to me though that I would scoff the avocados before they got in the mixing bowl! Thanks for linking up.