Рецепт Baking | Easy Eggless Cocoa & Pearl Millet Brownies
There are times when I prefer & rely more on my ‘quick fixes’ in cooking over the original recipes. The handy ‘quick fixes’ I invented for my convenience during the last 20 years in my kitchen are easy and more fun do with whatever is available at that particular day in my kitchen. And this Cocoa Brownie is one such recipe when I run out of chocolates…well, not exactly run out, but am raided of…want to know how?
Cozy family weekend when everyone crave for a scrumptious dessert and there is no signs of the chocolate bars I hide in refrigerator for a surprise Sunday dessert. Yes, this happens quite often at home, my two naughty pirates never get tired of raiding my refrigerator of all that is ‘Chocolate‘..chocltae chips, chocolate sprinkles and even the dark unsweetened chocolate cooking bars!
So here is my alternative ‘quick fix’ to the authentic chocolate brownie recipe when I don’t have enough chocolate bars to bake the same. It tastes yum and I bet you will never miss out on chocolate part in these Cocoa Brownies, except the gooeyness of the chocolate brownies.
The cocoa butter present in the cooking chocolate bars give the gooey texture to the chocolate brownies. While cocoa brownies baked with just cocoa powder are dense but lack the gooey texture. You could add some amount (about 50 gms) of chopped dark chocolate bars in the same recipe to get a gooey chocolate brownie.
I tried baking Pearl Millet brownies which are denser than the cocoa brownies and taste more like fudge. These millet brownies certainly need an acquired taste to enjoy the overpowering somewhat grassy taste of the whole grain.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup melted butter/oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp. yogurt/curd
- 2 tbsp. milk
- 2 tbsp. chopped nuts
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- ½ tsp. vanilla essence
Method; Preheat oven at 190°. Take a rectangular baking tray and cut out a butter- paper to the exact size and line it inside. This will make it easy to un mould the Brownie after it is baked.
Sift whole wheat flour, salt and baking powder in a large vessel. Chop nuts into fine pieces.
Heat butter in a medium pan and add sugar in it. Let the sugar melt completely. Cool it a bit and add chopped nuts, vanilla essence, milk and yogurt and stir well.
Pour this liquid content in the dry content and mix lightly.
Pour the batter in the lined baking tray and bake it for 20-25 minutes at 180°C or till the skewer comes out clean when inserted in the brownie.
Cool it completely before slicing the Brownies
Take out the baked brownie with the butter paper and keep it on a flat surface. Slice it into squares or diamonds and serve.
Millet Brownie
More dense and fudgy Millet Brownies
Ingredients;
1/4 cup Pearl millet flour (Bajra)
1/2 cup All purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 cup oil/melted butter
1 tbsp. yogurt/curd
½ cup milk
2 tbsp. chopped nuts
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
A pinch of salt
Method; ; Preheat oven at 190°. Take a rectangular baking tray and cut out a butter- paper to the exact size and line it inside. This will make it easy to un mould the Brownie after it is baked.
Sift the flours, cocoa, salt in a large bowl. Whisk butter/oil and sugar till sugar dissolves. Add chopped nuts, vanilla essence, milk, and yogurt and mix well.
Pour the liquid ingredients in the dry ingredients and gently fold the batter.
Pour the batter in the lined baking tray and bake it for 20-25 minutes at 180°C or till the skewer comes out clean when inserted in the brownie.
Cool it completely before slicing the Brownies
Take out the baked brownie with the butter paper and keep it on a flat surface. Slice it into squares or diamonds and serve.
These millet brownies will be denser than the cocoa brownies.
This is the first time I tried adding Millet in my baking after my vegan friend Harini baked a cake with Pearl millet here and I like the dense and more fudge like brownies I got from baking with millet. One another recipe I am waiting to try is this fudgy olive oil brownie from another foodie friend Chin’s space here .
I need to become more adventurous in my baking to come close to a perfect brownie with various wholegrain. Baking a simple brownie I feel is the easiest among cakes, breads and cookies. You hardly need to check the exact proportion of the leavening agents (as it is used in very little quantity) and the long waiting hours for your dough to rise. All that you need to check in a Cocoa brownie is more sugar, butter/oil and cocoa to the flour ratio in the recipe than what you use in a normal cake. And you have your sinfully scrumptious Cocoa brownie..nom..nom..
Notes;
Add roughly chopped dark cooking chocolate to the recipe, the Brownies will come out more chocolaty and gooey. Remember to increase the liquid content accordingly.
The amount of liquid absorption by whole grain flour differ according to the variety of grain used and thus the recipe has to adjusted with adequate amount of liquid in it.
Cocoa brownies will come out dense and cakey unlike the chocolate brownies which get the typical gooey texture due to the cocoa butter and extra sugar in the dark chocolate added in the recipe.
Whole wheat in the cocoa brownie recipe makes it slightly denser, you can replace the same with all purpose flour (maida) for a lighter version.
PS: The hunt for a good Millet Brownie is still on….all suggestions are welcome..