banana brownie challenge
Whilst browsing the Food Network Canada website, I stumbled upon the Foodtv.ca Cooking Club Challenge: a monthly online challenge to make a specific recipe from one of their shows, with some cookbook prizes for the winners. The challenge for May is Michael Smith’s Banana Brownies, and I just happened to have all the ingredients in my kitchen already, so I thought I’d join in.
The original recipe is somewhat very high in calories and fat, so I made a few modifications:
- Halved the recipe to make a smaller batch.
- Substituted semi-sweet chocolate for dark chocolate (from necessity – it was all I had in stock)
- Reduced the fat by substituting half the butter with the same weight in unsweetened applesauce.
- Made individual brownies by pouring the batter into a muffin pan – my half-sized batch filled 12 muffin cups (3/4 full) perfectly.
- Reduced the baking time to 1hr 10 mins to compensate for the smaller cake size.
They turned out very well – not overly sweet or rich, nicely dense, and very tasty. The banana flavour is quite noticeable, although I think that may have been due to my bananas being very ripe! With a bit of whipped cream on the top (which is entirely justified with the lower fat mods and smaller portion size) they make a very nice dessert. Have a virtual taste:
To enter the Cooking Club Challenge, you just submit a photo and a description of your creation. I submitted mine and now I just have to wait and see…
I really don’t expect to win, but the club is a nice motivator to try out a new recipe every month!
kris said
YUM!
i have always been afraid to try applesauce in my baked goods! i guess i think every now and then alot of fat isn’t that bad!
kassie made brownies yesterday – the normal kind they are almost all gone tonight!
xo
k
IdaDown said
Yummy! I made some decadent “Nigella” brownies for Xmas – too die for! You have to eat the teeniest amount. I am on a cupcake cruisade at the mo – churning out batch after batch of mini cc in search of the perfect coffee cc.
Josefin said
Oh, they look yummy!
johanna said
I made the same brownies too! I think the next time I make them I will use the applesauce too. Calories, calories!