Well gang, I hope you all had an absolutely LOVELY Easter, and if you’ve got more chocolate leftover than you know what to do with, I’ve got you covered. Today’s recipe, BROWNIES, is ideal for using up the leftover eggs and bars that you’ve got lying around the house! I use a creamy ripe avocado and dark chocolate in my recipe – dark chocolate because that’s my favourite kind of chocolate (85%, the business!), but you can 100% use milk chocolate or even white! Let’s get baking – and please do tag me if you try this recipe out gang!

Recipe (Makes 12 Brownies)

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• 70g good quality dark chocolate, ideally 70% or higher (most of the 70g will be melted but save 2 squares for chocolate chips!)
• 1 whole ripe avocado
• 100g of oats, blended into flour
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 handful of blueberries
• 1 handful of raw almonds, roughly chopped

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C (fan oven). Line a square 1 inch deep baking dish with greaseproof paper or greased tinfoil.
2. Blend the oats into flour and add to a large mixing bowl.
3. Slice the avocado in half, remove the stone, and scoop out the flesh into a small bowl, and mash it using a fork.
4. In the large mixing bowl, add the rest of the dry ingredients – oat flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Stir to combine.
5. In your blender cup or food processor, add the wet ingredients (avocado, eggs coconut oil and honey) and blend. You should have a mixture that is green/yellow in colour.
6. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir until you have a batter-like consistency.
7. Melt all but 2 squares of your dark chocolate (I use my microwave to do this – if you do, take care with the hot bowl and use gloves or a tea towel to remove it from the microwave). Add the melted chocolate to the batter and then break up the remaining two squares of dark chocolate into chocolate chips and fold these into the batter.
8. Fold the blueberries and almonds into the mixture.
9. When the oven is ready, pour the batter into the baking dish and pop the dish in the oven for 25 minutes. Check the brownies at 25 minutes by sticking a fork in – if it comes out 95% clean you’re sorted, but if not, and the top of the brownies looks okay (i.e. not burning), pop the dish back in for another 5 minutes.
10. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before slicing up and serving!

Enjoy guys! Tag me if you try this one out – @theirishbalance on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x