The healthiest chocolate brownies you will ever come across!

What could be better than a fat-free chocolate brownie? How about a fat-free, high protein, wholegrain chocolate brownie, with zero refined sugar, that also counts towards your 5 a day? Impossible, you say? Well, anyone who knows me will know that I love a challenge, and the word impossible doesn't exist in my mind! So get ready for some seriously guilt-free  pleasure....

Ingredients

(Makes 10 brownies each at only 90 calories!)

300g Chopped Butternut Squash

4 Soft Dates

40g Finely Milled Oats (Ready Brek actually works very well)

50g Buckwheat Flour

1 scoop (25g) Chocolate Protein Powder

2 tablespoons (10g) Raw Cocoa

2 tablespoons Sweet Freedom Liquid Choc Shot, or one of these syrup sachets

10 drops of Chocolate Stevia Drops

(Most of the ingredients are available on  MuscleFood - use my code HFL5OFF for 5% off your entire order)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 150C, and line a baking tray.

2. Steam the butternut squash for 3-5 minutes, or around 7 minutes if you're cooking from frozen. I like using this pack from Waitrose, as it's all chopped and ready to go, and because it's frozen the little added water makes it slightly softer and easier for the next step...  

3. Mix the steamed butternut squash and dates using a blender (a hand blender does the trick just fine!) for around 3 minutes until a smooth puree forms. You may need slightly longer - you want to ensure there are no lumpy bits.

4. Combine the 3 dry ingredients (oats, buckwheat flour, and protein powder) in a seperate bowl. If you prefer not to use protein powder, you replace it with an extra 25g of oats or buckwheat, and one tablespoon of cacao powder.  

5. Add the 2 tablespoons of Liquid Choc Shot and 10 Chocolate Stevia Drops to the dry mix. You can add more or less chocolate drops depending on how sweet you like the brownies, but I found 10 worked quite well. Mix this in well before adding your butternut squash and date puree. Now your mixture should be beginning to look a little more like a traditional brownie mix! (FYI - it also tastes delicious like this, and because there's no eggs you can lick away!)

6. Add half of the cocoa drops to the mix, and stir in well. Pour into a baking tray (you can use round or rectangle, the latter is probably better, I just didn't have any of suitable size!) then add the remaining cocoa drops on top.

7. Pop into the oven (which should be heated to  a  relatively low temperature of 150C) for approx 20 minutes. The exact timing is really up to you, depending on how gooey you like your brownies! Personally, the gooier the better, so I tend to check them after around 15 minutes to see if they're ready. It's not an exact science, just put a knife into the centre and use your judgement.

6. Remove from the oven and run a knife along the rim of the tray, just to make sure they don't stick. Leave to rest for at least 45 minutes before turning out onto a plate. Cut into 10 pieces, and enjoy your guilt free gooey chocolate brownie! 

Let me know how you get on! And don't worry if there's some of the ingredients you can't find.... most of it can be substituted - just play around or drop me a comment and I can advise :-)