It’s almost Valentine’s Day!! The most pointless holiday of the year! If your significant other doesn’t show you how much the love you until that national holiday pops up on their calendar, well I think it’s time to drop their ass. I’m not a big Valentine’s Day person…obviously. But I’m also not a holiday person in any sense. I’m not in to gifts or even receiving them. But I do like an excuse to eat a brownie. Where the hell is national brownie day?? I’m sure there is one, but it’s really only celebrated in the food blog world because it gives food bloggers an excuse to promote an old brownie recipe. I want Trump to come out on stage for the State of the Union and announce that February 14th is now National Brownie Day, where everyone has to give each other brownies. That’s a holiday I can get behind.
Anywho, I’m not in to going out to dinner or going somewhere special on Valentine’s Day. I could really care less. But I definitely was thinking about what kind of dessert I wanted to enjoy this year. But something I’ve been doing in the New Year is staying away from sugar as much as possible. I’m not great when it comes to self control so I have to stay away from most things or I can’t seem to physically stop myself. So when I decided to make brownies this year, I wanted them to be loaded with some good stuff, not just sugar. And that’s where the secret ingredient comes in to play…can you guess what it is? It’s actually THREE secret ingredients.
First up – sweet potatoes. I made my own Sweet Potato Brownies back in 2012. 2012!! That’s insane. I love adding some sweet potatoes to a brownie because it helps make it nice and dense and it adds a little extra sweetness without the added sugar. Second on the list – zucchini. Zucchini isn’t anything new in the baking world, but it definitely keeps the brownies nice and moist. Yes, I said it. And if you peel it and finely shred it, you can’t even see it in the brownie! Last but not least – spinach!! Yes, these brownies have spinach in them but you’d never know it! So everything single one of these brownies is loaded with 3 different kinds of veggies! Yes, it’s also loaded with some chocolate and hazelnut butter, but I feel just a tad better knowing I’m getting a little extra veggies in while I’m enjoying my stupid holiday dessert!
Speaking of a stupid holiday, guess what I’m doing on Valentine’s Day?! I’m flying to Albuquerque to interview for my Global Entry! The Denver Global Entry office was all filled up until May and who knows when the government is going to shut down again, so I booked mine in Albuquerque, which is only an hour away! I’m getting some miles in while getting my Global Entry done before the government flips upside down again. It’s a win-win! I leave by 8, home by 2. Not a bad Valentine’s Day in my eyes. Especially since the brownies will be waiting for me when I get home. What a lovely day.
Extra Fudgy Secret Ingredient Brownies
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 16 brownies 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup finely shredded white sweet potato (peeled first)
- 1 cup finely shredded zucchini (peeled first, drained after measuring)
- 1 packed cup fresh spinach
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips, melted
- 1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut butter
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- handful of chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8 glass baking dish and line with parchment paper.
- Use a grater to finely shred sweet potato and zucchini, then drain the zucchini of as much liquid as possible. I used a nut milk bag to squeeze out any of the excess liquid.
- To a food processor, add sweet potato, zucchini and spinach and pulse until combined. Then add melted chocolate, chocolate hazelnut butter, coconut oil, maple syrup, egg, vanilla extract, baking soda and salt and blend until completely combined, scraping the edges of the food processor throughout. Fold in chocolate chunks.
- Pour into baking dish then place in the oven to bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the baking dish.
- Let cool slightly before removing from pan. Slice and eat!!
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More Valentine’s Day Treats!
Valentine’s Day Raspberry Caramel Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
Valentine’s Day Chocolate Chip Chocolate Heart Cookies
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Pretty damn good! Thank you!
OMG!! These are AMAZING!! Like melt-in-your-mouth-want-to-eat-the-whole-pan incredible!! Thank you!!! I didn’t have chocolate hazelnut butter so I used an extra 1/4 cup of melted dark chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of almond butter. 🙂 I just posted on my IG story as I want the whole world to know about these!!! THANK YOU!!! Hope you are having a warm and toasty Sunday!!
great substitution!! glad it turned out delicious!!
Just attempted these and after 50mins in the oven they are still liquid ? I tried squeezing the water out of the zucchini and not much came out. I might have just used too many of the veggies. I tried to follow the directions to a T but somewhere they went wrong. Will attempt again at some point.
wish i could help!! hopefully they come out better the second time. they definitely shouldn’t be still liquid.
Any coconut oil substitute suggestions??
you could use ghee instead!
I have a tree nut allergy. Do you have a healthy suggestion for a nut-free substitute for the hazelnut butter? I can only think of those soy based products and I’d like to avoid GMO soy if possible!
you could find a chocolate sunflower seed butter! i personally love this brand and company! https://88acres.com/products/dark-chocolate-sunflower-seed-butter?variant=33426110794&utm_campaign=gs-2019-01-15&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign but there are tons of other brands out there!
OMG dying to try it!! Do you know how many sweet potatoes or zucchini I should be to produce 1 cup of shredded per? Like is that about 1 large sweet potato? 2 large zucchini? etc.
it was one sweet potato and one zucchini!! that may be different for you based on size so it’s always good to grab an extra one of each!
I don’t believe I have ever seen white sweet potatoes at my local grocery store. Can you sub with the regular orange? Looking forward to trying these.
yep!
I so want to make these but I’m a crazy person about baking by weight. Do you really just shred the sweet potato and zucchini and pack them into a 1 cup measure. And then is it a packed cup or just a loosely filled cup. Inexact meaaurements give me anxiety, can you tell?!
lol i can tell for sure. but i promise you, i NEVER weigh my baking ingredients ever, and the recipes always turn out lol. i packed all the veggies in the cup for measurement
Love this recipe!!!! Thank you so much!!! They are delicious!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
yay glad you loved it Alesha!
THANK YOU FOR THESE. Seriously. So awesome. I was making them for a family dinner, so I just used peanut butter (but even if I had any hazelnut butter, I’m sure I would be too cheap to bake it up for my family, anyway!). That’s why i loved this idea! Full of healthy veggies AND possible to make without a TON of extra sugar AND with really affordable ingredients (did I mention I’m cheap?? i won’t even try a recipe if it calls for more than a cup of almond flour!). I’m just a stay at home mom trying to get my kids to eat the most veggies (they win. i’ve been paleo their whole lives.), and I am an hour away from Whole Foods or Vitamin Cottage, so these sorts of recipes are a lifesaver. Thank you again for taking the time to test stuff out and share recipes…if i had free time, I would love to do it for myself, but for now, I’ll be letting you take care of that! I sure appreciate it. 🙂 Oh! Also! I put your zucchini fritter cup mixture in my waffle maker and it was EVEN BETTER! Zucchini is the only veggie they often scoff at, but they gobbled it up!
woot woot!! i’m here for you Haley!