Beetroot brownies with icing

This colder weather that I've mentioned lately got me in the mood for some comfort food and what could be better than some brownies? At the same time I want to cheat a little... but in a diet-friendly way... I'm a real foodie and I've seen recipes of beetroot brownies that are apparently meant to not only taste splendid, but also add moist and make the brownies less sweet, well that sounds like heaven to me. I quite like beetroot from time to time, I've made carrot and courgette sponge cake in the past,  so I didn't hesitate much before try this out. Don't forget that beetroots are rather sweet and they are even used in the production of sugar, so don't expect the taste to be funky. I looked at several different recipes before trying it out, some of them very diet options, excluding both butter and chocolate and replacing sugar, others treated the beetroot as a minor ingredient, which is why I decided to make something in between.

Ingredients:
100g  butter
150g  brown sugar (I used muscovado, as it has an interesting taste)
300g  beetroot
100g  flour
50g    chocolate (or more to taste if you want)
60g    cocoa powder (don't replace it by cocoa drink)
2       eggs
1tsp baking powder

Note that I'm slightly lazy in the kitchen, I'm no professional cook, so I don't bother with sieving flour and the similar.

Icing:
200g Low-cal cottage cheese/white cheese or cream cheese (mine had approximately 60kcal per 100g)
4 tsp sugar (for example muscovado)
1 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar instead) or fresh vanilla

Brownie 1. Cook or bake the beetroot at medium heat (after 30 minutes check if it's quite soft with a fork), peel and shred finely.
2. Put the sugar, flour, baking powder and cocoa in a bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon (if you want use a processor).
Melt the butter at a low heat and cool it down for a few minutes.
3. Add the egg and butter to your dry ingredients and mix, then add the shredded beetroot and mix it all until smooth. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
4. Move the batter into a baking tin, it shouldn't be too flat or too thick as it will rise, roughly 4-5cm. Break the chocolate and stick the pieces in the batter.
5. Bake for roughly 30 minutes, at this point check with a wooden stick if the cake is cooked and not too runny inside (if you double the ingredients and use a big tin it will take longer). If you cook it too long it will come out like a chocolate cake/sponge cake, still tasty though. If you don't mind the extra sugar/fat, add 50g more sugar and butter, it will make it more gooey.

Icing To level the sweetness and strong chocolate taste the perfect addition is a fresh icing, unless you plan to serve it with some vanilla ice-cream. 

1. If you use cottage cheese then use a fork to press it down and mix it into a reasonably smooth paste with 50-100g of yoghurt.
2. Add the sugar and extract and mix well, before chilling in the fridge.
3. You can optionally add some beetroot juice to make it a lovely pink colour.


I love my brownies hot, but these really are tasty the next day and I have to agree that they are more moist the next day than regular brownies. With the right amount of cocoa powder, the beetroots really don't impact the taste at all. So enjoy!