Carrot & Orange Vegan Brownie
I cannot say I adore carrot cake and with all honesty I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it but this week I decided to put my few leftover carrots to good use and experiment with a new recipe - trust me, I wasn’t sure about how these were gonna turn out but, oh boy… were these delicious!
These brownies are totally plant-based and are filled with nourishing ingredients, from carrots and apples to pure cacao powder and flavorful hints of orange zest and warm spices including, cinnamon, clove and anise which I used to make the homemade applesauce. Once cooked, you can drizzle your brownies with some melted dark chocolate (microwave a tsp of coconut oil and 2 dark choc squares) for a subtle bitter taste, alternatively you can drizzle with your fave nut butter or a choc and orange frosting!
Ingredients
1 cup applesauce (homemade recipe)
1tbsp chia seeds
1tbsp coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar
1tbsp peanut butter
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cacao powder
1tsp baking powder
1tbsp orange zest
1/2 cup grated carrot
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line with some parchment paper a 9 inch x 9 inch baking tray
In a large mixing bowl, add the apple sauce, coconut oil, chia seeds, peanut butter and brown sugar. Whisk all ingredients
Start sifting the flour, cacao powder and baking powder into the wet mixture. Combine with an spatula until reaching a smooth and slightly sticky consistency
Fold in the grated orange zest and carrot. Transfer the mixture evenly into the baking tray and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean
Let it cool down before slicing it up. Drizzle with some melted dark chocolate and orange zest and enjoy!