I tag these as "brownies" instead of brownies because I believe some things are sacred. The combination of butter, sugar and chocolate that creates the divine fudgey nature of the brownie cannot be faked. Using anything other than those magical three foodstuffs with a few extra ingredients to make it all come together is absolutely required if you're going to call your result a brownie.
Despite my propensity for using what Shawn calls "fake sugar", I do believe that dessert should, in general, be dessert and use the real thing. That being said, if the result is not appreciably degraded by using fakes, then I see nothing wrong with lowering the calories. For instance, making cheesecake with fake sugars rarely has much of an impact on the resulting product since its the fat which carries most of the load in making cheesecake the delight that it is. Also, sometimes people simply want to lower the poor nutritional profile of their sweets and making some modifications can help with that.
Brownies are one of those things which notoriously cannot be faked because both the butter and sugar are essential to the texture and richness. I have made a type of "Amish brownie" before which used applesauce instead of butter. It was good, but more of a dense cake than a fudge brownie. It was by far the best fake I've ever made, and I've made some pretty miserable fakes with Splenda granular. You can try and replace the butter, but you cannot reduce the sugar in cakes in my experience. The result will always be like rubber if you use fake sugar.
I was inspired to find this recipe while reading a food review blog called "Nutritious Junk". The writer of that blog included a recipe and a picture of what appeared to be completely normal-looking brownies. I have some confidence based on my experience with Splenda-based baked goods that the brownies in her picture were not the ones you'd see if you used the recipe she detailed. In fact, I'm pretty sure you'd get a piece of brown rain boot material if you followed that recipe.
I found this recipe on Recipe Zaar. It's supposed to be a clone of a box mix of low fat brownies called "No Pudge". I have no access to such treats since I'm living in Japan, but I had read positive reviews of this brand's "No Pudge Fudge" before. Getting back to the recipe though, it has a lot of variations listed by readers and the author. You can include egg whites, or not. You can include wheat gluten, or not. The egg white version is supposed to be more cake-like, so I opted to leave them out. Wheat gluten is supposed to make them rise a bit better. Here is the recipe that I tried:
- 1/2 tsp. vital wheat gluten
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup cake flour
- 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2/3 cup plain, low-fat yogurt
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
These brownies look exactly like the picture of them on Recipe Zaar. They aren't, however, indistinguishable from normal brownies as many reviewers say in the comments on Recipe Zaar. They definitely are different from the real thing in terms of taste and texture. They are fudge-like and have a pretty good chocolate flavor. They're more like moist cake though than a brownie. The top does not get crispy or crackly like real brownies. Unsurprisingly, they also taste different. They don't taste bad, but have an unusual taste because of the yogurt.
Another thing to keep in mind is that these are lower calorie than normal brownies, but they aren't low calorie. If you cut these into 16 servings, each is a small portion for 80 calories each. You have to ask yourself if the pleasure you get from these is worth it when you can have other small treats for the same number of calories. I think these would be best used for someone who has dietary concerns related to fat and cholesterol consumption rather than as a lower calorie replacement for brownies or chocolate treats. Frankly, I get more pleasure out of a 100-calorie pack of York wafer bars than I get out of an 80-calorie brownie made with yogurt.
I tried these both alone and as part of a reduced calorie brownie sundae (with reduced calorie vanilla ice cream). They remind me a lot of a type of low-fat cookie that my husband I used to buy many years ago made by a company called "Heaven Scent". Those cookies are no longer made by that company. I'm guessing that they discontinued their low fat cookie options when that fad died off. I have a sense that one could make a cookie out of these by reducing the amount of yogurt or adding in an egg and more flour. They definitely taste fine, but are not really a brownie.
Update: I served 5 of these at a get-together with a few former coworkers and they both seemed to really enjoy them. I was told they didn't really taste low fat or "healthy". I ate one of them and my guests consumed the other four, so I think these are possibly even better if you serve them to people who don't know what sort of fakery is going on. I also felt they were better the next day than the first day.
by Shari (Orchid64)
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