Caramel Brownie

This is another recipe that I tried from Mellissa at I Breathe I’m Hungry (original recipe here). Her photos look so good that I couldn’t wait to make it. As soon as I managed to find some sugar-free syrups I gave it a go.

Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I’m not certain what the critical mistake was – it could have been that I halved the original recipe, that I didn’t have quite enough almond butter so made do with what I had, that the flaxseed I used was quite dark and coarse, or all three of these combined!

Whatever the problem was, the brownies were not sweet enough for my liking – the flaxseed taste in the brownie needed significantly more of the sweet caramel topping to offset it. Mellissa notes this issue as an update to her original recipe, but I think the recipe I tried was already adjusted to correct this (so the failure was no doubt one of my making). Note that this recipe below is the halved version that I tried, rather than the full recipe on Mellissa’s website.

Ingredients:

For the brownies:
• 1 cup of ground flaxseed
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1/8 tsp of sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp of Stevia powder
• 1/4 cup of smooth almond butter
• 1 egg
• 1/8 cup of coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp of sugar-free chocolate flavored syrup (or you can substitute another 1/8 cup of cocoa powder and an additional 1/2 tsp of stevia mixed with 1 Tbsp of coconut oil or water)

For the caramel:
• 3/4 cup of smooth almond butter
• 3 Tbsp of sugar-free caramel syrup
• 1 tsp of Stevia or Splenda (I used Stevia)

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C (350 F).
2. In a medium bowl combine the first five dry ingredients for the brownies and mix well.
3. In a separate medium bowl combine the almond butter and egg for the brownies, mixing until smooth.
4. Mix in the coconut oil, followed by the chocolate syrup.
5. Add the dry ingredients gradually to the almond butter mixture, mixing until fully combined.
6. Press the “batter” into a greased pan to an even thickness (should be about 1.3 cm or 1/2 an inch thick).
7. Bake for 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and cool.
9. Combine the ingredients for the caramel.
10. Mix well and press onto the cooled brownies.
11. Cut into squares and press one on top of the other for a total of four layers per brownie.
12. Sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy.

Nutritional Info: