Avocado Brownies

It is a rare sunny morning here in Amsterdam and yesterday I did something I have never done before - I baked for the first time in our little oven in our new flat.
Now I probably should explain. We live in central Amsterdam so most flats here are fairly small and you have to be inventive with your space saving especially in the kitchen.

This is my kitchen. This it literally all the space we have.





















Here in Amsterdam most flats have these microwave combination ovens to save space.

It is a microwave, grill and electric oven all in one. I've cooked a pasta bake in there and some chicken which came out ok but I remained skeptical about actually baking in there. Yesterday I braved it and I was pretty happy with the results.

This was also my first time cooking Avocado Brownies.

Avocado is still enjoying a whole lot of hype for it's versatility and health benefits. It's high lots of vitamins and fat but it's good fat. Monounsaturated fat to be exact which is supposed to be good for you when eaten in moderation (so don't go scoffing down loads in one sitting).

In these brownies any fat that you might usually use such as butter or oil is replaced with the avocado. The recipe I used to make these just said to mash the avocado which I diligently did with my potato masher. I still ended up with a few lumps of avocado in these however along with some of the fibrous strands you sometimes find in avocados so next time I would definitely blitz the avocado in a food processor or with a stick blender to achieve a really smooth avocado puree for this recipe and I have adjusted the method accordingly.

These brownies are delicious however and only have a minimal taste of avocado to them which Monkey didn't even notice so it may well depend on your taste buds. They have a satisfying squidgey texture in the middle that you want from a brownie whilst getting a nice crust on the outside. I cooked mine for 36 minutes instead of the 30 that was recommended in the original but it took that long for skewer to come out clean perhaps my pan was slightly deeper.
If you are partial to a really fudgey brownie I would say to aim for closer to the 30 minute mark and disregard the skewer test. I desire a somewhat more substantial brownie though.

Avocado Brownies

Ingredients
250g Dark Chocolate
2 Medium Avocados (mine weighed 335g after peeling/de-stoning)
200g Sugar
4 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Paste or Extract (not Essence!)
1/2 tsp Chocolate Extract (optional - it helps boost the chocolatey flavour)
35g Cocoa
75g Flour
1/2 tsp Salt

• Preheat oven to 180'C
• Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (bain marie). 

• You could use the microwave but I don't really endorse that its far to easy to burn the chocolate and I couldn't if I wanted to as my microwave is also my oven and it was already preheating. Once the chocolate is melted turn off the heat and allow to cool. You don't want to pour this in when it's red hot or you will scramble the eggs.
• Cut the avocados in half and scoop out the flesh. Blitz the flesh in a food processor or with a stick blender to a smooth puree. 
• Mix the avocado puree and sugar and beat in your food mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer.

• Crack the eggs in a jug and mix with the vanilla bean paste or extract and the optional chocolate extract. Beat well. Slowly pour this mix into the avocado/sugar mix with the beater running (it definitely helps having it in a jug for this rather than a bowl!)

• Once the eggs are combined turn off the mixer and add the chocolate. Mix until combined.

• Sift the Cocoa, Flour and Salt together.
• Remove the bowl from the mixer. You want to fold the flour and cocoa in by hand gently until it has all come together. It's important not to over mix.

• Pour the mix into a greased and lined tray. Mine was approx 27 x 18 x 4cm.

• Smooth out the top.
• Place in oven for 30 - 36 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

• Let the brownies cool completely before removing from the tray and cutting.
• Store in an airtight container.

We had some of these little babies for dessert last night with some coffee flavour greek yogurt we have found over here which is bloody delicious and worked really well with the brownies!!

Note - I apologise for the poor lighting in these photo's up until this morning it has been a rather gloomy week here in Amsterdam and I was having to rely on artificial light for my photo's.