Almost Guilt-Free Brownies

This evening I returned from my beginning ballet class with a craving for chocolate. Unfortunately the only chocolate I had in my apartment wasn't enough to satisfy this craving and so I had to find something else! After a long search through recipes and I decided to attempt a healthy version of a brownie with the hope that because it has chocolate in it, even if I try to make it healthy, it can't turn out to be awful.


The end result was a surprisingly delicious, low-fat, whole wheat, egg-free brownie. The texture was a soft and gooey interior with a slightly elastic version of the normal brownie edge (I think this comes from the lack of fat). The flavor was quite rich but you could tell I used plain yogurt (next time I plan on using vanilla and reducing the sugar) and with the addition of chocolate chips, every bite was complemented with bits of melting chocolate. Yum!

Almost Guilt-Free Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 7 Tbs unsweetened coco powder
• 1 C white sugar (use a mixture of brown and white for a slightly deeper flavor)
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 C Non-fat Vanilla(reduce sugar in recipe) or Plain Yogurt
  
• 1t Vanilla
• 2 Eggs (for an egg-free recipe, substitute 2 Tbs of flax seed mixed with 6 Tbs of water. No saturated fat this way!)
• 1/3 C Chocolate chips (optional but strongly recommended)
• Feel free to add chopped nuts also
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch pan for thick brownies or an 11x7 for a thinner end result.
2. In one bowl, thoroughly mix together flour, coco powder, salt and sugar (and chocolate chips if using). In another bowl mix yogurt, vanilla, and eggs together.
3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until completely mixed. Pour into the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.