They look like chocolate brownies don’t they?
Well, they’re not.
These brownies are made with carob powder instead of chocolate. Carob is a chocolate substitute and although it does not taste like chocolate, it does give you that familiar sense of chocolate. I am sure this is not hard to imagine when you take a look at the photo. I have offered carob chip cookies to my friends and find that their similarity to chocolate chips often means that dissimilarities go unnoticed. Like chocolate, carob also comes from a seed pod, but rather than coming directly from the seed it comes from the pod itself.
I have been eating carob for years. The nice thing about carob is that it is caffeine free, is safe for people with chocolate allergies and is also safe for pets.
Not that you are going to go feeding these brownies to your dog.
Another interesting thing about them is that they are oil, dairy and egg-free. Despite this, they are moist and chewy. And as my husband says, “they don’t taste like a traditional brownie, but they are delicious”. He really means it. He has had a hard time keeping his hands off them.
They are sweetened with concentrated apple juice and honey and kept moist by canned crushed pineapple. When I saw that the recipe had one cup of pineapple I was reluctant to give them a try. It seemed like a strange combination, but it works. The pineapple keeps the brownies moist and chewy without making them taste too “pineappley”.
Again, like the majority of the sweet treats I post on Cookbook Cooks, these brownies make for a healthy snack and are good way to shift from refined sugar and carbohydrate baked goods to something that will satisfy your sweet tooth without putting you into a sugar coma.
Carob Cashew Brownies – from The Shoshoni Cookbook by Anne Saks and Faith Stone
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or 1 cup white flour plus one cup of whole wheat flour
2/3 cup carob powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of honey
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup apple juice concentrate
1 cup canned unsweetened crushed pineapple and juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of raw cashew pieces
- Preheat the oven to 350C
- Oil a 8 x 12 baking pan
- In a large mixing bolw combine flour, carob, baking powder and salt.
- Blend honey, applesauce, juice, pineapple, and vanilla
- Add dry ingredients to wet and stir in the nuts.
- Pour into the pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Enjoy
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