Oat - Beet - Carrot Brownies

The beet - spinach brownie from Jessica Seinfeld's 'Deceptively Delicious' cookbook has been doing rounds over the internet for years now and I have been eyeing them for quite sometime. These brownies are made with a healthy twist without compromising the texture or the flavor. They are made with oat flour sneaking in veggies for added nutrition. One can never notice or taste the vegetable flavors in the brownies. The final brownies are moist with slightly dense texture. My daughter was surprised to see the red puree while mixing and asked me whether beets were being added. She licked the spoon and the residue batter from the mixing bowl and told me that the batter tasted yummy. Without any prompts, she told me that the brownies are so good that she could not find any difference between the regular and the beet version ones and she couldn't even taste or smell the beets / carrots.
I substituted carrot for spinach since I wasn't feeling that adventurous. However only beet or carrot puree can be used in the recipe. I replaced the egg whites with apple sauce after seeing Madhuram's recipe. However you can just replace it with some more beet or carrot puree instead. I peeled, chopped,  pressure cooked beets and carrots and then pureed them in a food processor. I prepared my own apple sauce as well. I just peeled, chopped and microwaved an apple and pureed it. I ground oats finely and sieved it to get oat flour. All purpose flour can be substituted instead of oat flour. Skip salt and baking powder from the recipe if using self raising flour instead. I used dark chocolate and so my brownies were not overtly sweet and they were good served with ice cream.

Ingredients:
3 oz. semi sweet or sweet chocolate (I used dark from Ghiradelli.)
2 tbsp. butter / margarine spread / oil
2 tsp. vanilla essence
1/2 cup cooked beetroot puree
1/2 cup cooked carrot puree
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup oat flour 
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:
* Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Grease a 8 inch square pan.
* Melt the chocolate in a microwave oven in a medium sized microwave safe mixing bowl, taking care to check at 30 second intervals so that it doesn't burn.
* Add butter if using to the same bowl and mix. The butter will melt because of the hot chocolate. Add vanilla essence, vegetable and apple purees, sugar and cocoa powder to the bowl and whisk well.
* Next stir in the oat flour, baking powder, salt and walnuts.
* Pour the prepared batter into the prepared oven and bake it for about 35 to 40 minutes. It should spring back when touched. Mine was done in about 35 minutes. (And it doesn't raise much. It came only up to half of my 8 inch square pan.)
* Let it cool on a wire rack and then cut into squares.

It goes to Bakeathon  and BM - 'Kids' Delight' event hosted by Vidyha this month with 'Vegetables sneaked in' theme.


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