Cucumber (or Zucchini) Brownie
Cucumber (or Zucchini) Brownie is perfect for feeding kids some veggie goodness. Hide the vegetables, grains in the brownies and let your kids enjoy the brownie along with some needed nutrition.
Servings: 9 people
Ingredients
- 2 cup cucumber (or zucchini) washed & grated
- 3 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp flaxmeal flax seed powder
- 1¼ cup whole wheat flour
- ½ cup amaranth flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 7 tbsp cocoa powder unsweetened
- 125 gram dark chocolate chopped or chocolate chips
- 1 tsp instant espresso powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¼ cup boiling water
- ¼ cup jaggery powder
- 6 tbsp butter softened
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup walnuts chopped
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together the water (3 tablespoon) and flax meal. Let it sit for about 10 minutes till it becomes frothy. This mixture is called flaxseed egg. Coat the chopped walnuts with little flour to avoid sinking to the bottom. In a medium bowl whisk together flour and baking soda. Keep aside.
- Preheat oven to 180 °C. Line & grease an 8X8 inch baking dish. Allow overhang on all sides for easy lifting of brownies after baking.
- In another medium bowl add the cocoa powder, chocolate, coffee and salt. Add boiling water and mix in the ingredients into a paste using a spoon. Make sure that chocolate pieces are melted. Add jaggery powder, butter, vanilla extract and flax meal egg into the chocolate mixture until smooth.
- Stir in the walnuts if you're using them along with grated cucumber (or Zucchini). Using a wooden spoon, mix in the flour until well combined. The mixture becomes extremely thick and you may need to use your hands to mix. Don't mix the dough with an electric mixer at this point. It will overwork the dough and gluten will form, in turn affecting the texture of the brownies.
- Transfer the batter to the baking dish, using a silicone spatula press the thick dough into place. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for an hour. Transfer the brownies to the wire rack by lifting the overhang. Allow them to cool completely before slicing into squares.
- Serve with powdered sugar or ice-cream or sauce or eat them off the rack. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use brown sugar in place of powdered jaggery.
- The trick of perfect brownies lie in 2 things. One is not over-bake them, otherwise they become cake like and not chewy.
- Second is to allow them to cool completely (no matter how tempted you are) before slicing. Also use a plastic knife and not a serrated knife. I use the cheap plastic knives which are given with store-bought cakes.