brownies Archives - Just J.Faye

Ginger-Orange Brownies

March 29, 2016 by Jenna

These ginger-orange brownies are delicious, fudgy brownies with a hint of orange, ginger, and salt.

Ever since moving to Denver I feel that I bake much less than I used to. I think a large part of it is that I used to bake a lot on the weekends; however, now that I have easy access to the mountains and an overwhelming amount of things to see I try to spend the bulk of my weekends out exploring rather than in the kitchen experimenting.

I mean, when you have the chance to go see this and this and this and this can you really blame me!?

But then there are things like this – these ginger-orange brownies.

They make me remember how much I love to bake (and eat) brownies.

Surely, there is plenty of time to both bake and explore.

Ginger and orange and brownies may seem like a strange combination, but it works. Quite well, actually.

Or at least it does in my opinion. Bake them and let me know your thoughts!

Ginger-Orange Brownies

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

These ginger-orange brownies are delicious, fudgy brownies with a hint of orange, ginger, and salt.

Serves: 12 brownies

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar
zest from one orange
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
3 eggs
3 ounces high quality dark chocolate, chopped (I used a Lindt Intense Orange chocolate bar)
Sea salt (optional)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350° F. Take two pieces of parchment paper and place them perpendicularly in an 8x8” baking pan. Leave some overhang so that the brownies can easily be lifted out of the pan. Grease with butter or oil.
Add the sugar and orange zest to a bowl. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers until fully combined. Set aside.
Combine the cocoa powder, flour, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
Melt the butter and bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler (a saucepan over a larger saucepan of boiling water) or in the microwave (heat for 30 seconds then stir, continuing this pattern until everything is melted). Let this cool slightly.
Whisk in the vanilla extract, espresso powder, and orange-zested sugar, then whisk in the eggs one at a time.
Stir in the dry ingredients, then fold in the chopped chocolate.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top with a generous amount of sea salt.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake! Brownies can be slightly underdone and gooey (<-- the best!).

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Guilt-Free Tahini Brownie Bites (v, gf-o)

September 30, 2015 by Jenna

I was in Seattle this past weekend visiting my best friend. We celebrated her birthday, explored the city, and were so happy to be reunited after a crazy 2.5 months of not seeing each other.

The great thing about a best friend (or any really good friend for that matter) is that you can pick up right where you left off and 2.5 months can seem like it had only been 2.5 hours. We all need people like this. People who get you when you don’t make sense, who support you when you’re feeling a little unstable, who laugh with you at stupid things that no one else things is funny, and who make you amazing Powerpoint weekend itineraries. It’s just the best.

Amiright?

Alongside of having a best friend and group of people you can forever count on, it’s also good to have chocolate.

And chocolate gets even better when it comes in this guilt-free tahini brownie bite form.

These little friends are made of a chia seed egg, oats, salt, cocoa powder, tahini, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and almond milk. This is why we can call them friends; no bad influences in sight.

I know that chocolate and peanut butter is like the ultimate BFF combo, but the mix of chocolate and tahini is pretty dern good too. Plus, they are vegan and can easily be made gluten-free, if that is what you need.

These bites will be there for you when you need a mid-afternoon snack or a post-dinner dessert. They are perfect for moments when you aren’t quite ready to indulge, but are craving a sweet treat that won’t wreck your week.

This is a good friendship to have.

Plus, they are easy to make! You just throw everything into a food processor and let it whiz away for a bit. Divide the batter into a 24-cup mini muffin tin and bake for 8ish minutes. Then eat, enjoy, and go meet up with your friends.

They will stay fresh in an air tight container for a few days, but you can also store them in the freezer. I love topping mine with a little bit of tahini, but almond and sunflower butter tastes great too.

So yeah, these tahini brownie bites are guilt-free and good friends to have!

And now some Seattle pictures.

We kicked off our Saturday with brunch at Tallulah’s and then went on a hike around Rattlesnake Lake. From there we belted out some karaoke at Rock Box, ate dinner at Tin Table, and had ice cream at Molly Moon’s.

On Sunday we grabbed coffee at Stumptown (!!), walked around Pike Place Market, ate some chowder, and enjoyed a beer at Fremont Brewing. Then it was time to part ways and go back to Denver. Weekend over. Sigh.

But you know what? It was exciting to fly back into Denver. I’m still getting used to the fact that I live here now, not Minneapolis. So strange! I like it 🙂

Guilt-Free Tahini Brownie Bites

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

9 mins

Total time

19 mins

These tahini brownie bites are easy to make, delicious, and totally guilt-free!

Serves: 24 bites

Ingredients

3 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon ground chia seeds
1 cup old fashioned oats (gluten-free if needed)
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
⅓ cup tahini
⅓ cup maple syrup
⅓ cup tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons almond milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a mini muffin tin.
In a small bowl, stir together the water and chia seed meal. Set aside for at least 5 minutes.
Add the oats and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the oats reach a flour-like consistency, but there can still be some bigger pieces.
Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Add 2-3 tablespoons of almond milk if the batter seems thick.
Divide the batter evenly between the mini muffin cups, about a heaping teaspoon.
Bake for 8-9 minutes, then let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

You can substitute the chia seed egg for a flax egg if you prefer. A real egg would probably work as well!

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Sea Salt Brownies

August 18, 2015 by Jenna

I am excited about these sea salt brownies for many, many reasons.

First of all, these are brownies. I realize there is no need for reasons beyond that, but I have some extra to share.

Another reason is the sea salt. Sea salt and chocolate just belong together.

Then there is the fact that I basically haven’t baked in months, which is basically forever ago and far too long to go without baking. It felt so great to stir up this chocolatey batter.

Also, this is the inaugural recipe of the JK Hotel and the first thing I’ve baked in the Denver altitude! (side note: JK Hotel = Jenna/Katie residence = come visit!)

Aannnndddd I successfully baked these with my broken right wrist.

So yeah, exciting brownies! Eeeee alsdj aslj gaio qklgboan!!

The base of these sea salt brownies is the same as the one in these bacon nut bourbon brownies. Minus the bacon, nuts, and bourbon, but with sea salt and some dark chocolate chunks sprinkled on top.

There are a few different chocolates going on here: bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate chunks. All of these combine with some butter, flour, sugar, and eggs to make incredible brownies that are chocolatey and fudgey with that perfect hint of salt.

Just ridiculously amazing.

I hope you are as excited about these sea salt brownies as I am!

Sea Salt Brownies

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

Chocolatey, fudgey, gooey brownies with sea salt for extra deliciousness!

Serves: 9 large brownies

Ingredients

½ cup butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon course sea salt, plus extra for topping
3 ounces high quality dark chocolate, chopped (I used a Lindt dark chocolate bar with a touch of sea salt)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350° F. Take two pieces of parchment paper and place them perpendicularly in an 8x8” baking pan. Leave some overhang so that the brownies can easily be lifted out of the pan. Grease with butter or oil.
Melt the butter, bittersweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler (a saucepan over a larger saucepan of boiling water) or in the microwave (heat for 30 seconds then stir, continuing this pattern until everything is melted).
Stir in the cocoa powder.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. The sugar should be completely dissolved.
Whisk in the chocolate mixture.
Stir in the flour and sea salt.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top with the chopped dark chocolate and more sea salt.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake! Brownies can be slightly underdone and gooey.

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Bacon Nut Bourbon Brownies

June 13, 2015 by Jenna

After a few weeks of posting recipes for healthier treats (like almond butter trail mix cookies, triple berry almond oat bars, and coconut cashew butter) I decided to go the opposite direction.

I made brownies.

And I put bacon in them. And then I added a lot of nuts and a little bit of bourbon.

I’m not upset with the situation. These bacon nut bourbon brownies are totally worth it.

The base of the brownie itself is amazing. They bake up nice and thick with just the right texture ranging somewhere between gooey and cakey. With three types of chocolate – bittersweet, unsweetened, and cocoa powder – they aren’t too chocolatey or too tooth-achingly sweet. They are juuuuuust right. Plus, these have that little crust on top that is just perfect. This will be my new go-to brownie base going forward.

Then there are the nuts. Nuts always belong in brownies, so I feel like I don’t need to explain this further.

But the bourbon and bacon? That one I’ll explain.

Explanation: bourbon and bacon belong in everything.

I kid.

(But really I’m not kidding)

To be honest, I added the bacon because I had a half-full (optimist!) package of bacon in my fridge leftover from another recipe. I didn’t know what to use it for, because I already had my lunches and dinners planned for the rest of the week. I needed to use it for something and I happened to be making brownies to bring to dinner at a friend’s house, so I just decided to throw bacon into the batter.

And since I was already trashing these brownies up by adding bacon, I figured what the heck, might as well add bourbon.

Does that make sense?

I’ll tell you this: no one complained about it. I don’t think you would either.

And remember when I put bacon in scotcheroos? Yeah, those were good too.

Bacon Nut Bourbon Brownies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

40 mins

These brownies are a little bit gooey, but a little bit cakey. They are a little bit sweet, but a little bit salty. They have bourbon, bacon, and lots of nuts. What's not to love?!

Serves: 9 brownies

Ingredients

6-8 slices bacon
½ cup butter
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons bourbon
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon course sea salt, plus extra for topping
¾ cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts, peanuts, and pecans)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350° F. Take two pieces of parchment paper and place them perpendicularly in an 8x8” baking pan. Leave some overhang so that the brownies can easily be lifted out of the pan. Grease with butter or oil.
Fry the bacon in a pan until crisp, a few minutes on each side. Chop into small pieces then set aside to cool.
Melt the butter, bittersweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler (a saucepan over a larger saucepan of boiling water) or in the microwave.
Stir in the cocoa powder.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and bourbon until thoroughly combined. The sugar should be completely dissolved, about 3 minutes.
Whisk in the chocolate mixture.
Stir in the flour and sea salt.
Fold in ¾ of the bacon and chopped nuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top with remaining bacon, nuts, and a little bit of sea salt.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake! Brownies can be slightly underdone and gooey.
Let them cool completely before removing from the pan. Cut into 9 large (or 16 small) brownies. Enjoy!

Now I’m off to go do my last long run before Grandma’s Marathon, which is next Saturday! *insert panic attack * But afterwards I’m headed to go explore Stillwater with some friends. I’ll post Instagrams and take notes and tell you about it later. Enjoy your Saturday! I hope you go for a nice, long walk (or run) and then eat some brownies.

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Coconut Oil Brownies with an Almond Butter Swirl

January 17, 2015 by Jenna

Hi. It’s Saturday and I have a brownie recipe for you! If you are trying to stay away from the sweets this month, don’t freak out. These are healthy-ish coconut oil brownies with an almond butter swirl and they are super delicious. I say “healthy-ish”, because I don’t like using full-on “healthy” unless it is actually 100% good for you clean eating food. I don’t want to mislead you into thinking they are health food. Afterall, brownies. BUT I took out some bad stuff and added some better stuff and they still taste pretty darn good.

So what makes them “healthy-ish”? I swapped butter for coconut oil, granulated sugar for honey, and all-purpose flour for a combination of almond meal and whole-wheat flour. I also made sure there were no refined sugars. See, not so bad. I based these off of the Blueberry-Mint Brownies that I posted back in August. Making brownies from scratch may seem intimidating. You guys, it’s not. Yes, it requires a little more effort than boxed brownies, but these are still pretty simple.

Start by combining all the dry ingredients. Then melt the chocolate and the coconut oil (over the stove or in the microwave). Whisk in the honey, then the eggs and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients and there you have it: brownie batter.

Anything that takes four short sentences to explain can’t be that complicated. There are, however, more details and more sentences in the full recipe below.

To make these a little more fancy and flavorful I added in some chopped nuts and an almond butter swirl, because life is just better with nuts (and healthy fats). Melt some almond butter with a little bit of honey and swirl it into the brownie batter.

I used almond butter and peanuts, but you can use peanut butter and almonds or peanut butter and peanuts or almond butter and almonds. Or a mix of everything! Choose your own adventure.

I will tell you that these taste better the next day. Have one straight out of the oven, but save the rest for later. Another thing I will tell you is that you could pop these in the oven, clean the dishes, do this 20-minute plyometric tabata, and still have a couple of minutes to spare before pulling them out of the oven. If that’s not perfect, I don’t know what is.

Coconut Oil Brownies with an Almond Butter Swirl

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour

These are healthy-ish brownies made with whole wheat flour, almond meal, coconut oil, honey, and almond butter. They are free of guilt, but full of flavor!

Serves: 9 brownies

Ingredients

½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup almond meal
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
½ cup coconut oil
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup almond butter
1 cup roughly chopped peanuts or almonds (roasted, unsalted)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8” baking pan, line with parchment paper, and grease again.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, almond meal, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.
In a saucepan on low heat, melt the unsweetened chocolate and coconut oil.
Whisk in ¾ cup of honey. Let it cool for a few minutes and transfer to a medium bowl.
Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Fold in the dry ingredients until combined.
Stir in ¾ cup of the nuts. Set aside
In a saucepan heat up the almond butter and 1 tablespoon of honey until it melts a little bit (this should just take a minute or two). Stir in the remaining ¼ cup of nuts.
Pour batter into the prepared pan. Add spoons of the almond butter mixture. Run a knife or toothpick through the batter to create a marbled effect.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Notes

I used peanuts because that is what I had on hand, but almonds would be fantastic as well. You could also use peanut butter in place of almond butter.

You can melt the unsweetened chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave. Just put it in a microwave-safe bowl and stir it every thirty seconds until it is melted. Same goes with the almond butter and honey, which will probably only take 30 seconds. My microwave doesn’t work so I need to use the stove for all of this.

So there you have it. No blood. No sweat. No tears. No guilt. Just love, some better-for-you ingredients, and delicious brownies. Hurray!

Coconut Oil Brownies with an Almond Butter Swirl

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Blueberry-Mint Brownies (sugar-free & dairy-free)

August 2, 2014 by Jenna

Would you still eat a brownie if I told you it was sugar-free?

I would. In fact, I made a whole pan of sugar-free brownies and almost ate the whole thing.

No joke. It was a small pan though. And I said “almost”. I still have some to share.

Earlier this week I was dead set on trying bake up some fudgy, sugar-free, healthy-ish brownies. Then after reading Minimalist Baker’s recipe for simple berry compote I knew I wanted to somehow combine a version of it with my brownies. After all, who doesn’t love fruit and chocolate together?

That is not a rhetorical question. Who doesn’t love that combo?! Let me know.

Anywho, I had blueberries on hand and some basil. Thus, blueberry-basil compote was born.

Now it was time for the brownies. I baked some up and they were… a total fail. I wanted something fudgy and delicious and these were dense, cake-like, and had little flavor. I baked them in muffin tins and topped them with the compote. They were still edible, just not what I wanted.

I gave them to my co-workers. This is basically how it went:

Me: “Hey! Want a brownie?”
Coworker: “Sure!”
Me: “Great! They are sugar and dairy free!”
Coworker: “Nevermind. I don’t want one. (2 second pause) Ok. I’ll still have one.”
Me: “Here you go! These were an experiment and not the best… but hey, brownie!”

It is so easy to give away free food. Bless their hearts.

They did give me some great feedback though. I went home, re-worked the recipe a little bit, annnddddddd……… SUCCESS!

The result was exactly what I was looking for.

I used a mixture of cocoa powder and melted chocolate instead of all cocoa powder. I reduced the amount of flour (I knew I added too much the first time around! Lesson learned.) I baked them in an 8×8” pan rather than muffin tins. I then swirled the compote in with the brownie batter so that the fruit was baked right into the brownies rather than just sitting on top. Also, I was out of basil, so I used mint instead.

Since starting this blog I have been doing a lot of baking experiments. Sometimes things work. Sometimes they don’t, which can be disappointing. But failure can lead to a lot of learning and then to success. I like learning and I like success. I also like eating delicious things. So basically, it all works out.

Oh, and as I mentioned before these are both sugar-free and dairy-free. I used honey instead of sugar and coconut oil instead of butter. So you don’t have to feel super guilty when you eat almost the whole pan. And by “you” I mean “I”. But you are welcome to make these and then eat half of the pan and then go share the other half with people who you like. Or keep them all to yourself. No judgement!

So there you go. Delicious, chocolatey brownies with burst of blueberries and mint. Indulgent, yet healthy-ish. Does it get any better than that?!

Yes. Yes, it does. Today is Saturday and it’s beautiful outside. Enjoy your weekend!

Blueberry-Mint Brownies (sugar-free & dairy-free)

These are delicious, fudge-y brownies with bursts of blueberries and mint. Since they are sugar-free and dairy-free, they are also a bit guilt-free too.

Author: Jenna Duesterhoeft

Serves: 16

Ingredients

For the blueberry compote:

1 pint blueberries
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons chopped mint

For the brownies:

¾ cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
½ cup coconut oil
¾ cup honey
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

For the blueberry compote:

In a saucepan, add the blueberries and honey. Heat on medium-high until it begins to bubble.
Turn heat to medium-low. Stir and smash berries every few minutes for about 10-12 minutes.
Stir in the chopped mint. Transfer to a mason jar and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

For the brownies:

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8” baking pan, line with parchment paper, and grease again.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.
In a saucepan on low heat, melt the unsweetened chocolate and coconut oil.
Whisk in the honey. Let it cool for a few minutes and transfer to a medium bowl.
Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Fold in the dry ingredients until combined.
Pour batter into the prepared pan. Add spoonfuls of the blueberry-mint compote. Run a knife or toothpick through the batter to create a marbled effect.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Notes

The first time around I used basil and the second time I used mint. I loved the outcome of both, so feel free to swap out the mint!
The blueberry-mint compote was inspired by Minimalist Baker's Simple Fruit Compote!

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