Chocolate brownies
1 x 410g tin white beans, drained 60-75ml medium-fat milk 187.5ml pie apples, unsweetened 15ml caramel essence 200ml cake flour 10ml baking powder 2.5ml salt 187ml cocoa 3 eggs 250ml sugar 16 pecan nut halves, roughly chopped 50g white chocolate Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spray a medium-sized baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Place the drained beans and half the milk in a food processor or liquidiser and process until smooth and the consistency of mashed potato. Add more milk as needed. Add the pie apples and caramel essence and process again for 1 minute until well mixed and smooth.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.
In a separate large bowl, beat the eggs using an electric beater. Add the sugar and beat into the eggs. Add one-third of the bean and apple liquid mixture to the egg and sugar mixture, together with one-third of the sifted dry ingredients. Fold in carefully. Repeat with the rest of the liquid and dry ingredients.
Take care that all the “wet” ingredients do not lie at the bottom of the bowl. Fold in the chopped pecan nuts. Pour the batter into the greased baking pan and spread evenly.
Bake for about 40-45 minutes until well risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the brownie “cake” comes out clean. If some unbaked batter sticks to the skewer, bake for another 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes in the pan before cutting into 15 squares.
Cool the cut brownies on a cooling rack.
Heat the chocolate gently in the microwave on medium for 30 seconds and then 10 seconds at a time until pourable. Drizzle over the brownies. Serve one brownie as a snack with a glass of water or a cup of tea.
Makes 15 brownies.
Dietitians’ notes
These brownies must be consumed with the required water to fully hydrate the fibre in them.
Although the added sugar content is 15g per brownie, this is acceptable for an occasional high-fibre, low-fat and delicious snack.
The daily recommended added sugar intake is 24g and this snack contains just over half of that, so be sure to only eat one brownie. Super-sensitive stomach notes: These brownies are not suitable for those super-sensitive stomachs because of the fermentable carbohydrates and the wheat flour.