Heaven On Bourke: Not-So-Naughty Choc Fudge Brownies

Take away my normal fabulous life and replace it with 4,000 word essays and sleepless instant coffee filled nights why don't you! Yes its that time of the year again, exam period. The super stressful time when the couch becomes my home and I look to my private tutors: pretzels, ice magic, ice cream and nutella to get me through the all-nighters. Well not this time baby! As you all know I'm determined to get a bod similar to those under the #fitspo on Insty, but I'm not going to get there if I keep shoving naughty things into my gob. So, I decided dust off my apron and cook something super yummy but amazingly healthy as a guilt-free way to satisfy my late night study cravings...

Goodbye delicious but very naughty things...

This recipe is based off the wonderful Sarah Britton's Chocolate Fudge Cake but i've changed it up a tad to make it extra healthy yet equally as delicious! Now I know that some of these ingredients aren't going to sound very appetising and I admit it really is hard to stray from the classic chocolate fudge cake recipe with loads of butter and flour and best of all sugar but this healthy alternative I have found to be the next best thing. So without further ado may I present to you...

Not-so-naughty Choc Fudge Brownies

Ingredients pictured below from left to right include:

4 eggs (or one cup of applesauce)
3 tablespoons of high quality cocoa
1/2 cup of dark agave syrup
1 teaspoon of coconut butter
1/2 cup of hazelnuts
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
180 grams of high quality dark chocolate - preferably 70% to 90% cocoa

AND...

... 1 can of chickpeas drained ;)

Now preheat your assumably lovely made in the 20th century oven to around 180 degrees, the oven in the Dirthouse looks like it was pioneered in the prohibition era with fire that spurts out the back and a door that barely shuts so I have to pre-heat mine to 240 degrees before it gets the right bit toasty. Moral of the story is make sure you have a hot oven, get my gist?

Now pour your chickpeas into a blender or in my case an immersion blender...

Add your 4 eggs

and blend!

Next pour in your agave (there has been much controversy around agave lately and truth be told while its a healthier alternative to sugar it still has a high fructose level). I'm using dark agave because its what i've got left in my pantry but if you can get your hands on it use date syrup instead. In my eyes a little agave is better than a whole lot of the stuff they put into ice magic anyway.

Next add your cocoa

And the baking powder

Blend :)

Mmm...its starting to look chocolatyy!!

In my variation of this recipe I use less dark chocolate because of the sweetness of the agave, you can still get the delicious rich taste with only using 180 grams and you could probably get away with using even less.

Melt you plate of deliciousness making sure not to burn the bottom - been there done that!

And pour it into the mix...

mwhahahaha this bad boy is starting to take shape...taste it now - what chickpeas??

The essence of life -

Now add your chocolate chickpea mixture into a larger bowl

And slowly pour in your desired amount of hazelnuts

don't forget to fold them through evenly...

This raw organic coconut butter by Lovingearth in a pantry essential of mine - I pretty much use it in all of my cooking, not only is it creamy and delicious but it's incredibly good for you! This step is completely up to you, I added a teaspoon of the butter to my cake mix and also used some to line the base of my tray.

Put your fudge brownie cake into the oven and bake for around 30 - 40 mins.

Don't you just hate that moment just after you've put the cake into the oven and look up to realise you made absolutely huge f*cking mess. I'll just call my maid Sandy into clean this up...Sandy!?

Lol jks, looks like I'm going to have to clean this up myself.