Zucchini Brownies

A dear sweet lady brought us a meal not long after my youngest baby was born.  It included a fabulous dessert of Zucchini Brownies!  I promptly asked for the recipe and have made them several times!  I made them again last night and took pictures of each step of the process...but, my camera died, so all I have is one pic of the finished product that I took on my phone.  :(

I tried to use the best ingredients I could find, like fresh raw milk, fresh made butter from said milk, homemade organic applesauce I canned this fall, Equal Exchange baking cocoa, Bob's Red Mills Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Aluminum Free Baking Soda, Frontier Organic Evaporated Cane Juice in place of the white sugar, pure Mexican Vanilla, zucchini that we grew in our garden this summer and pureed and had frozen in 2 cup portions, etc.  I had a beautiful picture taken of all of the ingredients set up on my kitchen table!  But my camera juju lately hasn't been so great so no pic for now. 

I hope to eventually get around to adding more recipes and try to link them together.  Like for the applesauce I used, the butter, things like that.

Anyway, without further ado, the recipe!  Let me know if you try these

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup applesauce *
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar **
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour ***
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Icing

•  
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup butter 
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions - 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour (I use cocoa powder) a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the apple sauce, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched. To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and butter (mine was soft not melted); set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners' sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

The only things I did differently in the directions was that instead of mixing in the walnuts, I laid them on top of my brownie batter once it was poured, and I didn't measure them.  I love walnuts in my brownies!  Also, I added about an extra 1/4 cup of powdered sugar to the icing.  It seemed thin and even after adding the sugar, it was still thinner than I really like it.  I think I'll add more next time.  Finally, my cook time was also closer to 35 minutes.  At 25 minutes the toothpick wasn't clean coming out so I added another 10 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these!  We sure do!

*Applesauce is used as a replacement for oil* You can do this with any baked goods recipe to try to make it a bit healthier.

**I used Evaporated Cane Juice in place of white sugar** I don't think it's as sweet as regular white sugar, but team it with the applesauce in place of oil and you have a nice sweet dessert that you can feel good about!

*** Note about whole wheat pastry flour *** I often use WW Pastry flour as a replacement to all purpose flour in recipes.  It's ground finer and comes from soft wheat rather than hard wheat.  That makes the flour a bit less wheat flavored (it IS still wheat flavored though! Just not so much.), but still healthier than white flour and an excellent substitute in baked goods without changing the denseness and consistency.  In my opinion.  :)