blogging, Cakes, Food

Dark Chocolate Brownie

Forestwood

I have been making a Dark Chocolate Brownie over at the Home by the Sea.

It is a quick and easy recipe that has some health benefits owing to the use of dark chocolate. These are more cake recipes posted previously for #Onecakeaweek

Are you tempted by any?

I will be making one cake each week and would love you to link up any cake recipes you have posted on your blog, so I have more recipes to try out.

From Enticing Desserts – Strawberry Mint Sorbet

From The New Vintage Kitchen – Lavender and Lemon Shortbread Cookies

From Pictures Imperfect – German Cheesecake with Quark

Published by Forestwood

A philosophic Aussie writes here at StPA, one who will readily admit to loving Scandinavia. I'm interested in global politics and what drives us to be who we are. Scratch the surface and you'll find a practical Environmentalist with an egalitarian bent, trying to unleash a little creativity via the written word. Scandinavian culture, literature and traditions are close to my heart, even though I'm Australian. Travel and courteous discussions greatly broaden the mind, so I travel if I can and am always up for a vigorous, respectful discussion. I'm an avid reader, a writer and I enjoy photography and crafts, particularly traditional art forms. I hope you'll find 'Something to Ponder About,' in my WordPress Community.

41 thoughts on “Dark Chocolate Brownie”

  2. I think your comment about health benefits is interesting. Why do people feel the need to say something like this? You probably wouldn’t say it about a vegetable medley. Why have we been made to feel like all food should have “health benefits” or the implication that sweet food has to be justified. I think adding dark chocolate for “health benefits” is somewhat spurious – but is “health” what you are aiming for with brownies? Or perhaps enjoyment – a much greater health benefit that eating a particular chocolate? Social cohesion?

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Your point is well made, Jane. I guess the tendency to over indulge has made us feel like we have to justify eating a sweet treat. But then, why? When I am making one cake a week, it is indulgence isn’t it? Then again, dark chocolate does have some nutrients and I often include that in my posts, whether that be avocado, zucchini or in this case, dark chocolate. It is all knowledge knowing what is in our foods, isn’t it?

      Liked by 1 person

  4. I had way too many dates In August – this store across town had these awesome packs of dates with a hint of coconut flower and they were my breakfast many days –
    And even though I had ton many – ha! I’d love to l kw more about the sticky date pudding

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      1. Well stopped having those kind of dates –
        Ugh – did not realize it was a steady stream of sugar!!
        And sugar suppresses the immune system and so I just was not realizing all natural dates still had 23grams of sugar
        —
        And on a side note –
        I think that is the problem I have with a lot of baked goods and chocolate bars – the cane sugar or the fructose – almost counterbalances the health parts – maybe not for all – but for folks who need to help their immune system as much as possible – like this who have leaky gut or hidden systemic candidiasis infections.
        And I had to give up deal chocolate bars until I found a brand that used stevia
        –
        And so for me – dates now only once in a while – Not a steady stream of daily sugar – and Then chocolate bars only with stevia or xylitol works really well for me –
        So I modify recipes and many times it works out –

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      2. Thanks ever so much for reminding me how bad sugar is for our immune system and gut generally. It is a substance with no nutritional value AT ALL! Calories with no benefit, yet many are addicted to its taste. Some primeval act of carb storage, to ward off famine, perhaps?
        Is Stevia okay for you, long term, Yvette? I seem to remember aspartame had a bad wrap years ago.

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      3. Aspartame is cancerous ! Aspartame is not stevia –
        And for some reason – stevia is fine for my body and I can have it – but I have also changed my way of eating and recently when my son brought some goodies and one of them was an expensive chocolate bar with stevia and no sugar – it was the first time I had a chocolate bar in a long time – I had a systemic infection (unknown origins but including a seafood parasite I likely had from a Bahamas trip – but Amanda – the truth is that I had poor gut health – I believed in the fat free lie and my eating was off because of stupid FDA suggestions – further – had courses of broad spectrum antibiotics on and off – too many times to count!- which pulls from gut health))
        Anyhow – I sometimes watch shows about the turn of the century late 1800s and early 1900s and see how sugar was making its way into everyday life! Like in a Russian documentary “the admiral – so good) they offer “real sugar” with tea! And if you think of little house on the prayie days – one cup of sugar would be a huge family tera when “ma” would get it.
        And Amanda – I cannot believe how much sugar snuck into my daily life – ugh!
        Ok – another thing to share for this comment has to do with xylitol
        -I’d do recommend a little of this but some
        people cannot handle it at first because they get a lose stool or cramps – well it turns out that it might be from xylitol’s natural cleansing properties – and Fave Asprey uses it in his sinus rinse because it is any bacterial – and xylitol is in toothpaste for that reason- so sometimes I use xylitol –
        And aspartame and Splenda and many of those are bad bad bad news for human health
        And worse than “pure sugar” but pure sugar arrests the immune system and if people want an anti cancer diet – they must get it out of their daily life
        –

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      4. All the chemical names sounds bad I think. I try for natural and that also means avoiding natural sugar where I can. A diverse diet with moderation is I feel what sounds the best. I don’t like the aftertaste of the artificial sweeteners. The fat free foods are generally full of sugar so they taste okay, isn’t that right?

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  5. Reading some of the points above about the ostensible need for ‘health benefits’ in our food . . . I have both lectured and written on the topic most of my life separate from my ‘paintwork’ and, yes, I am qualified ! And have also always been an ardent foodie. This is hardly the time and place to elaborate 🙂 ! I love life in all its aspects. I want to live long and be healthy. No pills . . .but few ‘aging’ effects many of which are totally preventable ! Yes, food plays a HUGE role. Huge ! I never think of ‘healthy’ food when I plan my meals . . . I just automatically don’t keep ‘unhealthy’ food in the house . . .and I cook from all around the world . . . if it does not beg to be eaten I do not make it . . . And, yes, in this case I regularly have a few squares of dark chocolate . . . but I eat almost no sugar and use white flour, cream and butter but rarely . . . I do not think I have had a piece of cake for half my lifetime . . . not because I promptly think ‘Oh, that is unhealthy’ but because me and my body honestly do not desire it with the myriad of choices which I don’t think as ‘healthy’ but which are . . . smiling at me . . . Others may do what they like . . . I just know what is good for a human being and that includes me 🙂 !!!

    Liked by 2 people

    2. We each have to decide what we put in our mouths and bodies, Eha. You are wise to restrict sugar a.k.a white death! I actually don’t eat too much cake, unless it has berries in it! But I do like to cook it. I give it away to neighbours as treats and the Moth loves cake! Genetically pre-disposed to eat sweet stuff, perhaps. I think if there is something your diet is deficient in, then it is nice to know a cross section of different foodstuffs wherein you can source it. But I agree the wider and more varied the diet, the better for all.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. I’ll definitely try this this weekend as we are going to see our grandson and he luuuuuuuuvs brownies. Normally his father (aka our son) makes them for him but he hasn’t progressed yet past the packaged brownie batter variety. I normally don’t publish recipes but on my other blog (about me teaching German) the question of my German cheesecake came up and I put the recipe online. –> https://picturesimperfect2.wordpress.com/2020/09/06/kasekuchen-german-cheese-cake/

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    1. Great that you are going to try this recipe as it is a simple one that your son could manage as long as someone helped him with melting the chocolate and butter on the stove.
      Thank you for linking that recipe, Knickers. I used to eat cheesecake and I am SURE the German one you listed is absolutely delicious but I had a bad experience with colic last time I ate cheesecake and that has kind of finished it for me. I have a protein intolerance to dairy and the cheesecake was too concentrated. I might try a fermented dairy product, such as Quark, one day as that might be tolerated better. ( Quark is fermented in some way, isn’t it, or do I have that wrong?)

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      1. Yes, you’re right, it is fermented. I understand absolutely how you feel – I am allergic to shellfish. I can eat mussels and used to love them (before I ended up passed out on our bathroom tiles after eating a small piece of crab meat). I’ve had mussels since, just to proof that I could eat them but I felt so apprehensive that I don’t enjoy them anymore. There are enough other things for eating around!

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      2. I love mussels and crab so I do hope I don’t suddenly become allergic to them, like you. That would be a shame. I am currently eating the garlic and lemony marinated green mussels from New Zealand. So nice.

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      3. Enjoy! It wasn’t a sudden thing, though. I probably was allergic to shellfish (actually to the iodine in them, not – like many other people – to the protein). I just grew up in the middle of Germany with a mother who detested fish so I hardly ever ate fish. I never tried prawns. Then I moved to South African and I saw these huge lobsters and I told myself that I would eat a real big, great, wonderful lobster when I’d be at the seaside and not in Johannesburg, so far away from the freshness of the sea. Lucky me, I had a salad in a fancy restaurant before that: it was lettuce with raspberry vinegar and a crab medaillon. It was our 10th wedding anniversary. By the time we got home, I felt sick. I thought I’d eaten too much or had too much of the wine. And the next thing I know I was out cold on the bathroom floor. I never knew why this had happened until a month or so later, when I needed an x-ray of my gallbladder and reacted really bad to the radioactive iodine I had to ingest. I collapsed and it was touch and go that I got to the hospital in time. The doctors then connected the dots.

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  7. Aahhh!! Another of my favorites! Cakes have to be my favorite dessert… not the over frosted ones … a simple fluffy cake, the one you can have with tea! I have tried using zucchini a few times in cakes and also in bread ( like a banana bread but with zucchini) and it actually tastes good. Though with all the sugar that goes in the cake, I wonder if any goodness of the zucchini is left! Happy baking, Amanda😊

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    1. Heya Moon! Thanks for your comment. I do like the thought of using zucchini in cakes. You are right to be concerned about whether the sugar component cancels out the goodness of having the vegetables such as carrot or zucchini as an ingredient. I will have to watch the recipes to see if it makes any difference. Is there more sugar in an ordinary cake or a carrot cake? Carrots are pretty sweet anyway. I never ice my cakes and that I feel is because they are generally sweet enough. I really dislike making icing and icing cakes, let alone eating all that gooey, sugary buttery stuff! I guess that helps reduce the calories.

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      4. She came home from school one day asking, “What’s ‘Yummy’?”
        She became known for that question! Her year 12 school jersey was printed with it instead of her name….(they could choose the words that would be printed- nickname or name).

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