Mayonnaise Chocolate Brownies

Ever read a recipe that you just have to try straight away? I saw this in the current issue of Australian Good Food and made it almost straight away. I have tried Low Fat Brownies before that are nice but was very interested in this recipe. This one uses mayonnaise to help lower the fat content, something I have used before when I made Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake. That worked out really well so I was confident in these brownies. The texture is definitely more cakey then fudgy but that's the way I like my brownies and the use of a good quality dark chocolate makes them beautifully rich. I never revealed the reduced fat nature of these brownies to my testers and they were all satisfied, with no clue to the true ingredients, infact I've renamed them Mayonnaise Brownies instead of the Reduced-fat Chocolate Brownies title it has in the magazine. I have pretty strong brownie competition from a friend who makes the fudgiest, richest brownies you have ever tasted and these didn't measure up for many of my tasters but for a lower fat (they're not 'low fat' just less then a regular brownie) they are pretty darn good.

Here's how it went:

Grab all the ingredients, and plug in your ipod. The recipe called for 70% cocoa chocolate but 85% was all I could get, but whatever you choose make sure its good quality dark because you really taste it.

You might have some lunch as well. Multi-tasking give it a try.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin. I'm sure a glass dish would also work.

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water on low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Look at that gorgeous gorgeous chocolate.

Meanwhile, sift flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Stir sugars into chocolate with coffee, buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in warm water. Whisk in egg.

Stir in mayonnaise until smooth and glossy. I used low fat mayo because its what I had in the fridge, which means they're even lower fat, awesome. Gently fold through flour mixture until just combined.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth surface, if you're neat that way. Stick it in the oven for 30 mintues and chill out in front of the TV while you wait. The brownies need to cool completely in the pan, so a little more patience is needed. Then outta the pan, cut up and taste test.

Reduced Fat Chocolate Brownies (Mayonnaise Brownies)

From Australian Good Food Jan/Feb 2010

Ingredients

85g dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids, chopped into small pieces

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp powdered instant coffee

2 tbsp buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp warm water

1 egg

1/3 cup mayonnaise

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin.

2. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water on low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

3. Meanwhile, sift flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Using a wooden spoon stir sugars into chocolate with coffee, buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in warm water. Whisk in egg. Stir in Mayonnaise until smooth and glossy. Gently fold through flour mixture until just combined.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth surface. Bake for 30 mintues, until a skewer inserted comes out with just a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Cool completely in pan. Cut into 12 pieces to serve.

The article said there are 658kJ and 6g total fat in each brownie, compared to 1351kJ and 18g fat of a regular brownie.