Recently I bought this interesting cook book, I quit sugar: Simplicious Flow by Sarah Wilson, an author and promotor of life without sugar. What attracted me to the book was its colourful and fun looking cover page. I only opened it when I already had it. And this is when I learnt that it goes beyond just ‘I quit sugar’, it helps you live and cook ‘zero-waste’ and ‘plastic-free’. The book offers some really good advice on how to cook with seasonal veggies, how to use all parts of broccoli, how to refrigerate salad so it lasts longer, and how to make perpetual bloody mary pickles for example. And it also has this really cool ‘brownie’ recipe!
Well, at least I thought it was cool! The recipe is called Molten-Hemp-Slow-Cooker-Protein-Breakfast-Brownie-Bake. A bit of a mouthful, but that’s what makes it cool, I think. I also love the fact that it contains the word ‘brownie’ – surely it can’t be bad! And I appreciate that it mentions ‘hemp’ and ‘protein’ in the same same sentence as brownie – a healthy brownie!
At first I thought it will be quite complicated to make, but mainly because I didn’t understand or know half of the requested ingredients (and that always scares me). I mean ‘sweet potato puree’ sounds like a lot of work. Or ayurvedic spice – where the hell am I going to get this? But then, upon closer look, I learnt that there’s nothing impossible in this recipe.
Preparing sweet potato puree turned out to be super easy. I took one kumara, I scrubbed it with a bit of olive oil and cover it in salt. Then I baked the whole kumara for about an hour. As it softened, I peeled it and mashed it with a fork.
I put all the following ingredients in a food processor and blended them all together:
- 1 cup sweet potato puree
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1 cup hemp meal
- 1 tbs rice malt syrup (although I used maple syrup instead)
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon + 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg + 1/4 tsp ground ginger (or ayurvedic spice, whatever that is)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
After I got the mix, I put it in a slow cooker and cooked it for 3 hours on high. To be fair, I am not sure why the slow cooker is needed, as to me the blended mixture tasted very similar to the baked one, the cooked was just warmer. But I’m sure it does some sort of magic, so the brownie tastes better when cooked (or baked as the name of the recipe suggests).
I finally served my brownie! I was very excited, and so was Shaun. “I have a day off and I get a brownie for breakfast, what better way to start a weekend!” were his exact words. The excitement, at least on his part didn’t last very long though…
I served brownie with a plain greek yoghurt, as Sarah suggested. Shaun didn’t like the combination. There seemed to be two very strong flavours, clashing. I found it odd to start with as well, but after a few spoonfuls I got used to it and really enjoyed the brownie and especially its combo with the yoghurt. Shaun decided to go for brownie only. And his verdict…
“Hm… yeah… it tastes very healthy!”
He ate the whole portion.
“Would you like some more?” I asked enthusiastically. After the quantity I made was suggested for eight people.
“Hm… nah… but thanx! Could we have a real brownie next time?”
I on the other hand really enjoyed it and ate all six servings that were left by myself. I kept it closed in a container for a couple of days and it was just as good in two days as it was at the beginning. I either warmed it up a bit in a microwave, ir just ate it as it is. I found it too dry to have it just on its own, but with yoghurt or ice cream was delicious! And guilt-free! So I’ll definitely make it again.
MAYHEM IN THE KITCHEN 
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