Shirtless Chef – Double Down Brownies

Local fitness enthusiast Jason Murphy remakes favorite meals of his youth into healthy dishes. See the full list of his recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.

Double Down Brownies

I’ve covered brownies before in my articles on how to hack recipes for a healthy lifestyle. I say you can’t have too many brownie recipes. In fact, I will eventually write another one for a gooey and decadent avocado based brownie that might be my all-time favorite. We’ll save that one for the winter months when I’m not trying to be in a slight calorie deficit for the summer.

This brownie came about because, damn it, I had a craving for brownies and I needed a lighter calorie version that was quick and could be concocted with items I already had on hand. I started running through a mental checklist of the building blocks essential for healthy brownies.

Let’s see, almond flour, dark chocolate, grass fed butter, low carb sweeteners, eggs and nuts. Checks across the board, as those are all things I keep in stock for just such an emergency break glass situation. That’s the key to it all, kids…cravings will come, and if you are prepared to deal with those cravings in a healthy and non-processed way, you won’t end up looking like Steve Dallas in Bloom County:

Trust me, I’ve lived that cartoon, and I wasn’t even trying to quit smoking like Steve was in that strip. Cravings will come. Sometimes you have to white knuckle it and just get through it with sheer determination, but that will only work so many times. It’s a much better strategy to have a plan so that you can satisfy that craving and still be in control of your food, instead of letting Little Debbie take control. That’s when you end up in a sugar coma on the bathroom floor wearing only tighty whities with cake crumbles on your chest.

To be blunt, this recipe isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. It’s super easy to make and comes together so quickly, I bet you can make it from scratch and be eating it before you could get dressed and go to town to buy snack cakes. Make a batch and you can thank me later that your kids don’t come home to find you looking like Steve Dallas.

Fast Brownies

Ingredients:

2 pasture raised eggs, room temp

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup Swerve Brown Sugar replacement (packed)

1/4 cup Stevia in the raw sweetener

1/8 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) grass fed butter

8 oz 72% dark chocolate baking chips divided

1 1/2 cup fine almond flour

Chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Instructions:

Cut the butter into chunks and place in a glass bowl with 4 ounces of the chocolate chips. Fill a saucepan about 1/3 full of water and set the bowl on top to make a double boiler. Melt gently, stirring often until the mix is smooth:

Mix in the brown sugar, Stevia, and vanilla, then set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the eggs one at a time to the chocolate mix and beat well:

After eggs are incorporated, add almond flour and salt, then beat with a hand mixer until completely mixed through. Then add the other 4 ounces of chocolate chips and chopped nuts and fold in if using: