Even though I created this recipe as something special for Valentine’s Day, this is a recipe that everyone can enjoy at any time of the year. Keep it simple by eating the brownies on their own or pimp them up with Greek yoghurt and berries. You can turn the leftover brownie pieces from the remains of the heart cut outs into an Eton Brownie Mess, so there’s no waste.
As you know my philosophy with food is to always try and add in more goodness to recipes, rather than taking the taste away. And when it comes to good nutrition, it’s eating a variety of food ingredients that counts. Not many kids voluntarily choose to eat beetroot on its own, but add it to a brownie and they’re happy to gobble it up. And this should help their taste buds adjust to the idea of eating beetroot. If they can even recognise what that vibrant flavour is!
This recipe also packs in magnesium-rich buckwheat and calcium-rich almonds. Easy to make dairy-free and naturally gluten-free. Suitable from 12 months.
- 200 g Butter
- 100 g Milk Chocolate (you can use dark if you like)
- 125 g Coconut Sugar (or light muscovado sugar)
- 4 Eggs
- 0.5 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 85 g Buckwheat Flour
- 60 g Ground Almonds
- 2 Beetroot (small & already cooked with no vinegar)
- 100 g White Chocolate Chips
- Heat your oven to 180 degrees non-fan/160 degrees fan.
- Break up the chocolate and melt this with the butter in a saucepan on a gentle heat, stir from time to time until it makes a thin chocolate sauce.
- In the meantime, crack the eggs into a separate bowl and mix well with a hand or electric blender. Add in the coconut sugar, beetroot and vanilla, and blend well again so that it makes a light bubbly mixture.
- Then mix in the buckwheat flour and ground almonds.
- Then add in the chocolate butter mixture.
- Stir in half the chocolate chips.
- Grease and line a square 8 inch x 8 inch brownie tin with some baking paper.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the lined brownie tin, pressing it well into the corners.
- Sprinkle on the rest of the white chocolate chips.
- Place into the oven for 25 minutes until cooked all the way through.
- Cool on a baking rack and then cut out heart shapes (or whatever shape takes your fancy) with a cookie cutter.
- Don't waste the remnants. They make an amazing Eton Mess Brownie pudding for another day.
Cooks Tips
- If you don’t have buckwheat flour, swap to spelt, rice flour or gluten-free flour.
- Dairy Free: Use dairy-free spread or odourless coconut oil, use dark chocolate instead of milk and dairy-free chocolate drops.
- Egg Free: Swap the eggs for 4 tablespoon of ground flax seed and 8 tablespoons of water OR 6 tablespoons of whisked chickpea water (known as aquafaba).
- Nut Free: Swap ground almonds for 60g ground up sunflower seeds
- Storage: Store in a cake tin for 4 days or in the freezer in a container for 3 months.
Lovely, thank you! Looks like a plan for next weekend.
I do hope that you and yours are thriving.
Dylan is! Final year at university.
Wow final year already!
Hi, I’m trying to wean my little sugar monsters off so many sugary treats and processed foods. We’ve had some great successes this week using recipes from your book. Enthused I’m going to use this chocolate brownie recipe for my son’s birthday tea party on Sunday. Just wondering if it’s possible to tweak the recipe slightly so they don’t detect the beetroot?! Or is it unlikely they will taste it anyway? I am hoping their taste buds will adjust over time but it’s still early days and I want to keep up the positive momentum. Any advice will be gratefully received!
Hi Gemma – this really does not taste of beetroot and we have thumbs up all round from our beetroot dodger here!
Amazing, thank you! I would normally just give them a whirl but as it was for a birthday I thought I had better check! I am new to baking with these healthier alternatives. Excited to try them tomorrow. Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂