I Go Nuts for Brownies!!

 

A regular brownie has about 23 carbs.  This brownie has 8.6 net carbs.  Ok, I'm just going to go ahead and be up front and honest with you.  THESE BROWNIES ARE TO DIE FOR!!! I'm always a little bit skeptical when cooking with "alternate" ingredients such as almond flour and artificial sweeteners ( I won't mention the awful "cinnabon" cake I made this weekend), but holy cow, are these good.  They were approved by my awesome trainer (who after tasting these went out and bought the ingredients immediately to make them the same day- no joke), my dad, and his staff.  Comments I received ranged from, "there is no way those are healthy," to "you should open up a bakery."  They are fudgy, chocolately, and REALLY, REALLY, GOOD!!! They are also rich, so these are perfectly portioned out if you use the muffin tins.

That being said, I can not claim this recipe as my own although the girl that came up with these...genius!!! You can find the recipe Here  Scroll down to the "Simple Cocoa Brownie" recipe.  I did not add the cranberries to make the holiday brownies, I only added nuts to the basic batter.  I went ahead and used the Xylitol pictured below as well as the liquid Stevia.  Both of these are natural sweeteners so you don't get the bitter taste as you would with Stevia in the Raw.  Both ingredients I found in my local Hy-Vee health food section. You can also find both types of flour I used in the health section at Hy-Vee.  I like the Bob's Red Mill brand. 

A few pointers of this recipe:

*I used the Xylitol/Stevia combination(pictured above)

*I used 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

*When I added the cream, I heated it up a bit before adding it in so it wouldn't clump my chocolate.  Nevertheless, my chocolate clumped a bit, but I kept my heat on low and continued to whisk and it turned smooth eventually.

*I divided the batter into 12 silicone muffin cups (they will not even fill the cups half way- no worries- it is perfect portion control.)

* I started checking them at 15 minutes.  I only baked them for a total of 18 minutes, so start checking on them early!

*ENJOY!!! 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a brownie I have to attend to. : )