Hmm, zucchini brownies. Sounds royally suspicious. Speaking of royal, they say Marie Antoinette had a thing for sweets. This does not surprise me. If you have thirty-something live-in chefs floating around the castle, wouldn’t you have a thing for sweets? I wish I had attended one of her parties. Umpteen tier cakes. Truffle towers. Macaroons on macaroons on macaroons. No judging the girl in the corner with the frosting face. At my wedding, I had a Marie Antoinette-inspired cake gloating by the water in wonderful buttercream bliss. Wouldn’t have had it any other way.
See? Here’s my point: we can all be royals, minus the whole being-glued-to-our-thrones thing, by divulging every once in a while. Every day, you should have dessert. Just my opinion. But be sure to do so the right way. My favorite way to have dessert is to “skinnify” it. Now that we know what we know about living a healthy lifestyle, I think it’s important that we don’t abuse our relationships with food. Sometimes, that means being super sneaky and sneaking zucchini into our diets by like, oh I don’t know, sticking it in double-fudge brownies?
You won’t believe me, but you can’t even taste the zucchini in these brownies. Swear. In fact, you can’t even taste the healthy. So why not eat these brownies while having a royal-inspired brunch? Here are some of my favorite must-haves for dining “royally”:
Baking Pan I Centerpiece I Serving/Cake Platter I Appetizer Plates I Serveware I Mixer I Blush Dining Set I Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup liquid egg-whites (67 calories)
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (36 calories)
- 1 tablespoon I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, “Lite,” melted and cooled (40 calories)
- 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup Truvia Baking Blend (150 calories)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (25 calories)
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour (400 calories)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (80 calories)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda (3 calories)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chopped zucchini (40 calories)
- 96 semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided - 64 for batter, 32 for topping (210 calories)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Mix together all wet ingredients – including applesauce – and Truvia Baking Blend.
- In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients (excluding chocolate chips).
- Now, combine both wet and dry ingredients. Mix together, getting rid of clumps, but be careful not to over-stir.
- Pile 2 cups of zucchini into a blender and blend just until zucchini has been chopped into very fine pieces. Before pouring zucchini into batter, drain excess water from blending.
- Add zucchini into mix and stir until combined.
- Add 64 chocolate chips into brownie batter.
- Pour mix into 8 X 8 baking pan, lightly greased with butter, coconut oil or cooking spray.
- Sprinkle 32 chocolate chips on top of brownies, dispersed evenly.
- Bake brownies for about 28 – 32 minutes.
Inspired by Texanerin’s recipe!
Hey there! My name is Jordan Nettleship. I'm a Christian, an author, and a nutty health freak. I adore cooking, my husband Ryan, my puppy Mercedes, writing young adult fiction and being my weird self ;) I believe that "skinny" isn't about how you look, it's about how you feel.
Jessica
June 24, 2014 at 7:24 am (7 years ago)Thank you for this recipe, I desperately wanted gooey chocolate delishiousness and this did not disappoint, even my kids liked it, healthy enough that I gave them a bit of nutella on top. First time using zucchini in sweets and I couldn’t taste it at all 🙂
jordan urtso
June 24, 2014 at 5:11 pm (7 years ago)Awesome! I was so nervous to try out the zucchini brownies, but I love them! Such a nice surprise. Happy you enjoyed 🙂
Kristen
February 1, 2015 at 8:27 pm (6 years ago)Jordan, these were awesome!
jordan urtso
January 20, 2016 at 5:12 pm (5 years ago)Thanks Kristen!!
Erinn Hampton
January 11, 2016 at 4:32 pm (5 years ago)Love this!!!
jordan urtso
January 20, 2016 at 5:11 pm (5 years ago)Thanks, Erinn! <3
Cailee
January 13, 2016 at 7:14 pm (5 years ago)Oh my goodness! This recipe looks amazing! So chocolatey and delicious. Thanks for sharing! LOVE your website btw!!
jordan urtso
January 20, 2016 at 5:10 pm (5 years ago)Thank you, Cailee! 🙂
Stef
January 15, 2016 at 3:30 pm (5 years ago)Hi! I have a gluten intolerance…can I sub almond flour or coconut flour in the same amount? This looks too good not to try. Thanks!
jordan urtso
January 20, 2016 at 5:11 pm (5 years ago)Stef,
Thanks for asking! You can use almond flour or coconut flour, but you are going to need to use about 1.5X as much due to the density. My suggestion, add additional flour by 1/4 cup at a time, mixing, until the batter is thick like brownie batter.
Hope this helps!
God bless,
Jordan
Kelly
March 5, 2016 at 2:48 am (5 years ago)These are amazing!! I was wondering if they are freezer friendly?? Not that eating the entire batch doesn’t sound like a good idea but I’d like to have them last so I can take them for a work snack
Jordan
March 5, 2016 at 9:28 pm (5 years ago)Kelly,
Thanks for asking 🙂 They’re fine in the freezer packaged in individual Zip-locks.
Xoxo,
J
Elisabeth Hogeveen
October 10, 2016 at 8:38 am (4 years ago)Just wondering, if you didn’t have zucchini on hand would it still work to make these without the zucchini or is that crucial to the recipe?
Jordan
October 18, 2016 at 3:15 am (4 years ago)Hi Elisabeth,
Thank you for asking. You’ll most likely need to add a little additional flour if you choose to complete this recipe without the zucchini. The zucchini is used as a place holder to reduce the amount of carbs required in traditional brownies. Simply add a few tablespoons of flour at a time until the dough is thick and resembles brownie batter. Hope this helps!
Jordan