Brownie Bites For When You’ve Bitten Too Many Brownies
When I do a low-fat or fat free recipe I feel like it needs to come with a disclaimer. I’m a feminist. I love how women look in all shapes in sizes. I don’t think women should spend their lives constantly counting calories and striving for society’s idea of perfection. To be blunt, I like fat girls!
That said. I gained a lot of weight over the past 2 years. I’m at a point where I’m not feeling healthy and getting winded walking up my stairs. None of my clothes fit and I am feeling kind of crappy. This doesn’t mean that I hate myself or think I’m ugly, it just means it’s time to lose some weight.
What I do to lose weight is a bastardized version of the Weight Watchers Core program. In a nut shell, it’s limiting refined carbohydrates and fat, and eating high fiber whole foods like grains, legumes, fruits and veggies. Easy enough if you’re vegan, but my biggest issue is baked sweets. I love apples and cantelope as much as the next girl, but I love to bake. I need the smell of brownies in my apartment at least a few times a week or I feel deprived, especially during these dreary gray winter months.
These Brownie Bites are perfect because they are portioned in mini muffin sizes so that when you eat too many, you know exactly how many that is. They’re ready to eat in about 45 minutes, so your craving can be met almost immediately. To bolster their health factor without giving too much of a “health food” taste, I use whole wheat pastry flour. Prunes are pureed with coffee to give the brownies moisture, gooeyness and depth of flavor as well as extra fiber. The prunes give the brownies a backdrop of fruitiness that I think complements the chocolate nicely, and using coffee as the liquid is not only fat and calorie free, but it accentuates the chocolaty-ness as well. I do still use regular sugar because I make them often and agave or maple syrup would be really expensive and I don’t like stevia or splenda so don’t even try to sell me on it. The point for me is not to be a perfect little angel, but to be a perfect little angel that can still eat brownies.
Low Fat Brownie Bites
Makes 24
1 cup fresh brewed coffee, cooled
1/2 cup prunes (about 12)
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 325.
Combine coffee, prunes and flax seeds in a blender. Blend until relatively smooth. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Mix in sugar, canola oil and vanilla until well combined. I just use a fork for this.
Sift in pastry flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
Spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray. Fill each tin most of the way.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, tops should be firm to the touch and rounded.
Remove from oven and serve when cool enough to handle.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I wish i had prunes so i could make these! they’re kind of making me SUPER hungry!
December 7th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I just have one thing to say. While those brownie bites look delightful, you’re the best, Isa!!
December 7th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Major yum! I added this to my recipe list so I can try them next week.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Thanks for this recipe, they look really good. Can I use a food processor to blend the coffee and prunes? I don’t have a blender.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
thanks for this recipe! i am trying to drop a few post baby…
i agree that women are beautiful in all shapes and sizes, and that when our self image is not all screwed up, we inately know what our personal healthy comfort zone weight is — a weight that has nothing to do with trying to look like Jack Skelington.
take care. h
December 7th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
But do they then have a coffee taste? ‘Cause I don’t like me some coffee.
December 7th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Thank you for your words on weight. We all need to learn that there is a huge difference between obsessing about the number on the scale and being kind to ourselves by keeping our bodies healthy.
December 7th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I feel like that’s only ever been my “health kick downfall” - baked goods. And mostly because I love to bake and share food and have food shared with me.
Very much excited to try this.
December 7th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Ahhh a recipe after my own heart (and waistline these days!). I wish we could get whole wheat pastry flour here but I’ve never found it…just the white stuff. Can you maybe use 3/4 white flour with a bit of (very sifted) whole meal flour instead or would it be better to just stick with white? (which kind of defeats the purpose of the recipe I guess).
December 7th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
‘tation…I would just use the white. It doesn’t defeat the purpose, it’s still only a tiny bit of fat.
ninja…they don’t really taste like coffee but you can use rice milk instead if you want.
December 7th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
You’ve got such a healthful attitude, Isa. You rock.
The recipe sounds great, too.
December 7th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Isa, you’re the best. I am struggling with the same thing! I love to bake more than just about anything, but I’ve packed on about 15 lbs in the past year and feel just crappy. I can make and eat these and not feel like a (guilt-ridden) blimp.
December 7th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Thanks Isa! Getting dates this afternoon while I’m out (mmmm my taste buds can’t wait!)
December 8th, 2007 at 9:05 am
You’re awesome, Isa!
Thanks for this recipe: I love to bake (and eat the results, too), but don’t like the way it can stick on me sometimes.
Have you ever used Stevia instead of sugar in baking?
December 8th, 2007 at 10:38 am
These are so cute! Thanks for the recipe. You’re a vegan superstar.
December 8th, 2007 at 10:43 am
That recipe looks fantastic. If you were going to use agave nectar instead of regular sugar, how much would you use? I need to avoid sugar for a variety of health reasons and I’m on the look-out for baked goods recipes that use agave instead.
Thanks for sharing these wonderful recipes!
December 8th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Stephanie, when replacing dry sweeteners with wet you have to make a few other adjustments as well. There probably is a science to this, but I usually just use intuition. I would replace all of the sugar with a 1/2 cup of agave and I would only use 1/2 cup of coffee. Agave is sweeter than sugar and since you are basically losing 1/2 cup of volume (the coffee) in the recipe that should be just fine. I make no promise that this will work, but let us know how it comes out!
December 8th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
True story– I dreamt about these brownies last night. Not as a part of the main dream-plot-arc, but just as a small detail, I got to eat some.
December 8th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Yay! You’re on Recipezaar!
December 9th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
How did you generate the nutritional information via recipezaar? I did not see a link to that function on the home page. I would love to use this to figure nutitional counts for my families use.
December 10th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Hi Isa, I love the way you don’t look down on yourself like I sometimes do. Self-confidence is admirable! And thanks alot for the recipe, you’re the best vegan goody maker ever! I’ll use soymilk instead I think.
I consider myself a health freak cause I count calories and have this habit of baking with wholegrains unless I’m baking for sweet toothed friends and family. But I think it’s great to just relax and not get to uptight about these stuff.
You go Isa!
December 10th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I think you just hit on the idea for your next book. I gave up on WW meetings because although I could lose weight on the program, I got tired of listening to women feel so down on themselves and talk about their great fat free bologna and white bread. Nothing about being healthy, self-acceptance and being strong in good old punk rock tradition.
12 year old girls need you to write this book!!
December 10th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Dan - if you enter a recipe it does the nutritional info for you.
Hmm, maybe I will write a low-fat book. I have 3 books in the works right now, so I don’t know when that would happen!
December 11th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
isa chandra, what other books are you cookin’ up aside from the cookie book? i can’t wait….yeah!!
December 11th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Woah, these look amazing! We all have to watch our weight, now and again, when the baking gets a little out of control, so there’s definitely a need for recipes like this, in my life, at least…
December 13th, 2007 at 8:04 am
These look wonderful and delicious - love the idea of brownies shaped this way!
December 14th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
[…] Low Fat Brownie Bites, a low fat food that I might actually want to eat […]
December 15th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I think a low fat cookbook is a FANTASTIC idea. Your recipes from Veganomicon are so appetizing already, lowfat PLUS appetizing is gonna completely win me over.
And…HA. I have everything for this recipe. Except mini muffin tins. I only have the regular ones. AARGH.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:20 am
Thank you so much for sharing this. These brownies are fun to make and very yummy. I know I’ll be making these again and again.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Hi Isa! Tried these out today using mini muffin cups. They were still too big, so I only got 14 cups. I baked them for 20 minutes, then took em out. too wet and uncooked. So I kept baking longer and longer, in the end I probably baked double the time.
My brother and sister and mom didn’t like them, so I was pretty disappointed. We went out shopping and when I came back I checked on the brownies again, and tasted one out curiosity. Hey, they became chewy and really chocolatey!! I love them. Maybe I should try convincing my brother to try again…
And next time, I’ll stick to the brownie size.
Question: I think I got small but hard prune seeds in the brownies. Can I do anything about that?
When my brownies are double the size of yours, does that mean I have to bake double the time too?
January 7th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
melissa, I just saw this. Yes, increase baking time if your using larger cups. Not necessarily by double the amount, start at 1 1/2 time the baking time and work from there. And they taste best when fully cooled.
January 19th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Great recipe makeover with the use of prunes, flax seed and whole wheat flour. You are amazing, love your blog:-)
January 29th, 2008 at 8:08 am
I really wanted to like these, they were so healthy and so cute. But they were a bit too squidgy and sticky (even once cooled, and I don’t think I undercooked them) and for me the prune flavour, though not overpowering, was just slightly too strong. My 4-year-old, who eats just about anything I bake, only ate 2 1/2 of these! The amount of oil is so tiny, I might try increasing it to 1/4 cup and then decreasing the prunes accordingly for a sort of medium fat brownie bite instead.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hi Isa,
Thanks so much for this recipe. I just made them and they are delicious. I love prunes! The only difference is that I added 1/3 of a cup of oat bran, a bit of milk (2tbsp), and a tad more oil (I used olive oil). As I am addicted to dark chocolate, this is a great way to get my fix without all the fat.
Thanks again!
October 15th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
These look great… I found you site looking for brownie recipes to compare a brownie recipe that was on recipebuddys.com…. Please advise if you can assist… I would like an opinion on the recipe…thank you in advance…
April 1st, 2009 at 11:52 am
I really wanna make these but can you use applesauce in place of the prunes? I only have a hand blender and assume applesauce would be wayy easier than hand blending prunes
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:38 am
can i do these in a regular baking dish, or do they only work in muffin cups?
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November 14th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
These were delicious fudge-y little brownie bites! I used applesauce simply because…I have no prune puree. They turned out great. I had a tough time getting the brownies out of the muffin tin though….