Baking Mad Monday - Chocolate Brownies

It's Sarah V's  turn to take part in the Baking Mad low calorie baking challenge this week! 

I haven't had much free time lately. Well, ANY. But I managed to grab half an hour yesterday to put these brownies together. It was a good thing as they were super quick and easy to make, and only used one bowl!

As Sarah said last week, the point of the Baking Mad challenge is to make lower calorie treats with Half Spoon granulated sugar by Silver Spoon. Baking Mad provided me with some products to use:

In addition I had to supply baking powder, low fat margarine and an egg.

I chose the brownies as I LOVE chocolate. I was quite interested to try them as my favourite brownie recipe is incredibly decadent, with a whole block of butter in it - these are a lot better for you!

Low Calorie Brownies

Ingredients
70g Margarine (low fat)
25g Good quality orange 70% dark chocolate, broken up
1 Happy Eggs lightly beaten
0.50 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract Blend (Nielsen-Massey)
60g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar (Silver Spoon)
25g Plain White Flour (Allinson Nature Friendly) sifted*
1 tsp Cocoa Powder
0.50 tsp Baking Powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/ 350°F gas 4.
2. Grease and base line a 14cm square tin.
3. Put the chocolate and low fat margarine in a large bowl over a pan of just-simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir until the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat and stir until smooth.
4. Add the other ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Spoon into the tin, levelling the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake for 25 minutes or until risen and firm around the edges but a little soft in the centre. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes. The brownie will continue to cook as it cools.

Although the recipe stated plain flour, I'd actually been sent Self Raising. Based on the small quantity, I tried it with Self Raising and it was fine. I think the brownies needed a raising agent to bulk them out a bit.

The brownies were yummy! Very light, and a bit more cakey than full fat brownies, but still chewy in the middle and lovely and chocolatey. The orange chocolate added a nice touch. I took them to work today and no one realised they were low fat!

Yummy!