BROWNIES 12 & 13

Ina Garten thinks I should be arrested!!  Well if she knew me she would think I should be arrested, well if she knew I made these Brownies she would think I should be arrested!!  All a very convoluted way to say that Ina thinks that anyone who makes Brownies without butter should be arrested, and I am here to confess, hands out, ready for the cuffs and to hear my rights.  IF I can just have another one with a nice mug of coffee, I'll go quietly!!

After the horribleness that were Brownies 4 I was slow to try Harry Eastwood's beetroot brownies from Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache, but I was wrong they are delicious, truly delicious - moist, densely chocolaty, perfect texture, taste, the works.  I know the fact that I used the organic beetroot from my weekly delivery helped, I know the fact that I baked them myself (instead of using the horrible vacuum packed precooked ones I used last time) helped, but I have to say that these were so good that I imagine they would overcome even the factory cooked beetroot.

I changed the method quite a bit as I had baked the beetroot before I read the recipe, so I will give you my method as that is what worked for me!!

Super Yummy (and not too bad for you) Brownies

400g        cooked peeled beetroot

100g        hazelnuts

3              eggs

220g        light muscovade sugar

1/4 tsp    salt

150g       dark chocolate (I used l00g Lindt 70% and 50g Lindt 85%)

2 tbsp     white rice flour

70g         cocoa powder (I used Green and Black)

2 tsp       baking powder

1 tsp       vanilla extract

30g         chopped hazelnuts for the top

Preheat oven to 160 C

Line a brownie tin with baking paper

Blitz 100g hazelnuts in the food processor into a fine powder.

Whisk the sugar and eggs until light and frothy (approx. 5 minutes)

Remove the nuts from the processor and then blitz the beetroot until smooth.

(my processor didn't get it smooth enough, so I then added it to the egg mixture and blitzed it with a stick blender)

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.

Meanwhile add the powdered hazelnuts, rice flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla extract and salt to the egg, sugar and beetroot mixture, stir through carefully.

Add the melted chocolate and combine.

Pour the mixture into the brownie tin and sprinkle with the 30g of chopped hazelnuts.

Bake for 35 minutes, until cracked on top but still moist in the middle.

When baked remove to a wire rack for 20 minutes in the tin.  Then cut into individual portions and allow to cool completely.

I have also experimented with the Blondies from this book, when I baked them I wondered how they would taste as brownies proper so I replaced two heaped tablespoons of rice flour for the same amount of cocoa, and they were very good, the blueberries didn't sit quite so well with the dark chocolate, so I tried them without

using chocolate chunks in place of the fruit and they were excellent - the perfect option when you can't get your hands on some beetroot.

Now for the rating - in an ideal world I would side with Ina and always have butter in my brownies, but for the real world the beetroot brownies would have to wing their way to the top of the list - for a delicious luxurious treat, with quarter the guilt factor!!