This dessert is not for the faint at heart.  Sure its lightening-fast to make, its tasty and the ingredients are simple – but if you are like me, the pure cocoa powder can make you a little loco.

A few days ago, I was in the worst mood imaginable.  I was agitated, overly-emotional and feeling sorry for myself.  And while it a personal pet peeve when men attribute a woman’s mood swings to her hormones – in this case, they had something.  So, I found myself trying to find solace by rummaging around my kitchen for something bad to eat.  Unfortunately for me, my kitchen just ain’t really the place you’d find a tub of Ben and Jerry’s or left over lemon meringue pie.  I did find some pure cocoa powder (unsweetened, no dairy) and some silken tofu.  And in the name of self-indulgence, I decided to get creative and pull out my beloved food processor.

I dropped in a cake of silken tofu (350 grams), 1/2 cup of cocoa powder, a tsp of vanilla extract and about a 1/4 cup of agave nectar.  It could’ve been a little more or less, I didn’t measure – I just poured.  You can also use maple syrup, molasses or honey, whatever you have in your pantry that can add some liquidity and sweetness. The cocoa powder is literally nothing but pure cocoa so you’ll need a lift.

Lethal and delicious

I like my puddings firm so I refrigerated it to stiffen up a bit.  You don’t have to, but anything too runny reminds me Jello-puddings.  Yuck.  The only thing good about a Jello pudding pop is Bill Cosby.

The whole process took me less than 5 minutes – which was perfect because I was running late to watch Ben’s team play football.  But of course I didn’t leave before licking the deliciously chocolate-y spoon, lid and each corner of my food processor.  I even got in there with my fingers making a right mess of myself.  I actually thought to myself: would it be stupid to lick the blades?

Well, holy chocolate because I was hyper through their entire game.  I thought it was the excitement of the game (it was the finals), but I was wrong.

When I got home, it was only natural to celebrate their victory with my yummy pudding cups, but it would keep my heart pounding for the next few hours.  Now, I am pretty sensitive to caffeine.  I have been known to get anxiety attacks from Iced Tea, and on my sixteenth birthday my mother got me a cake called “Death by Chocolate” which subsequently made me feel like I had taken LSD.  When I was eighteen I had my first and only vodka redbull (oh to be young again), and I woke up the next morning hyperventilating.

So, if you are one of  those people who can drink a cuppa Joe and go right to bed, get your spoons out because this is a pretty healthy, clean dessert with so few ingredients!  If you are like me though, maybe use 1/3 cup of cocoa powder instead -it won’t hurt the taste.  I personally like the bitterness of dark chocolate but Ben thought it could be toned down a bit anyway.

Hey, at least I wasn’t in a bad mood anymore – I was bouncing off the walls.

I have experienced my share of dessert disappointments. Growing up with my health nut of a mother, I remember getting sugar-free whole wheat apple pies instead of birthday cakes.  One year she iced the bottom of a plate to say “Happy Birthday Kristen” and placed it on the pie yet wouldn’t let me lick the icing.

But now as an adult I am free to eat as many birthday cakes as I like – and while I have adopted the ideals of clean eating I grew up with, I refuse to choke down some of the icky “substitutes” I used to have to.  Now, anyone who knows me I am a picky eater – I do not consume dairy products or red meat and I hard-core avoid gluten and sugar.  So as I have been on a baking kick, I thought I would do a few posts about delicious but healthy desserts.  But while you may think I that on my diet that my recipes involve faux-eating, spooning mouthfuls of air into my gob (an emperors new clothes for food) — you will see that my recipes are both healthy and decadent.  This weekend I brought these brownies to a dinner party and my friends demanded I post this recipe first thing this week!  They are divine – AND dairy-free, flour-free and sugar free!  I think its success is two fold: one – the flavour of cocoa blankets everything, and two – black beans make this cakelet creamy (which most dairy-free desserts lack).  I made some changes to the original recipe which I found in Clean Eating Magazine - you know you’re picky when you modify modified desserts.

Ingredients:

2 oz dark chocolate (70% or higher cocoa – and sugar-free.  I used the Baker’s brand – all the fancy Whole foods one had cane juice in them.  The original recipe had 1 oz – I doubled it for more fudginess)
2 eggs
1 egg white
2 tbsp canola oil + whatever you need to lightly grease the pan.  The orig recipe called for olive oil, but I have ruined enough desserts with this oil.  Its too olivey.  Coconut oil would also be excellent – its the best oil to cook with and lower cholesterol.
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce ( you can easily make yours from scratch – I didn’t.  You have to preplan to do this, but if you make it for breakfast – bake these that night)
1/2 Agave nectar (the orig recipe called for honey, but in Ayurveda cooked honey is toxic.  Maple syrup is another option – I wonder how molasses would work)
1/4-1/2 Chopped Walnuts (optional – but delicious)
1 1/2 cups of soft cooked black beans rinsed and drained (if you are like me and try not to use canned goods, you can make a black bean dinner than pull some out for this recipe.  Again, you have to be uber organized)

1. Melt the dark chocolate on a low heat.  I added a few tablespoons of water to help the pot from staining.
2. Add this to a food processor with all the other ingredients and blend.  Pour this into a lightly greased cake pan.  I used the only cake pan I own which is a 10 inch round.  I don’t think it matters – just check the brownies to make sure they don’t burn or get too hard.
3. Cook at 350 Fahrenheit for 20-30 minutes.  Its ready when the edges begin to pull away from the sides.  I also pressed the top with the spoon and made sure it didn’t leave an imprint.

4. (optional) – melt some more dark chocolate and add a dollop of agave – and ice the top.  I was trying to sell this brownie to Ben so I brought out all the marketing tricks. My brushed on icing defintely gave some value-add.

Store them in the fridge (making them fudge texture).  I put some in the freezer and they were hard as a rock but were fine when I put them back in the fridge to thaw them out.  I cook intuitively and sometimes my experimentation ruins a good thing.

Another view. Mmmm.