Chocolate Brownies ~ Totally Fat Free!

How would you feel making a brownie that doesn't have a single drop of butter or oil in it? Surprised? Me too!!! One time, as I sat and did my favorite pastime - flipping through my scrap book, I came across this recipe. I read and re-read, and then re-read it again. No butter? No oil? Really? I thought maybe there is an error in the ingredients, so I checked the method and there was no mention of any fat, apart from using a tbsp of butter to grease the pan. I avoided that and used oil to grease the pan. From the time I was whisking the ingredients till the brownie came off the oven, I was really apprehensive. But when I saw those beautiful layer on top, that's it, yippee!!! This is one of the best brownies I have ever made for sure. Did you know that for a brownie, the method of checking the done-ness is the layer or the cracks on the top and not a skewer coming out clean? As the brownie sits and cools down, it starts to thicken or harden to our liking, till then it will be squishy. Just make sure that the top is cooked and ensure that you cool the brownie completely - I said, completely. You can see that little mistake I made of not cooling it completely in my Horlicks brownies, though who complains? I really don't mind licking my fingers once I finish eating, but doesn't look nice to everybody, right? Hehe... Without delaying much, off to the recipe...





Ingredients:

200 gm dark chocolate
40 ml lukewarm water
200 gm icing sugar
3 small eggs, at room temperature
40 gm all purpose flour, sifted

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Put parchment paper in a 20 x 20 cm brownie pan, with it hanging out of all corners. Grease it well.

Using a brain-marie, melt the dark chocolate. Allow to cool a bit. Add the lukewarm water and mix well. Slowly add in the icing sugar and mix well till the sugar is dissolved. Break in an egg at a time and whisk vigorously till well mixed. Finally add the flour and give a final mix. The batter will be kind of flowy.

Pour in to the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes till cracks appear on the surface - I baked for 40 minutes. Allow to cool completely in the pan.

Pull out carefully using the parchment paper and cut into 9 squares using a sharp knife.


End notes: I baked this at night, left it in my oven to cool, picked it up and came directly to office. I even carried my camera with me! As I cut, I couldn't hide my excitement. My colleagues were like, why do you have the camera with you? That is when they saw the brownie. I just bought one piece each for the kids, B and HD back home and the remaining was finished by my colleagues. The pictures were clicked in the office - I hope nobody reads this... hehe... anyway, whatever said and done, awesome looking brownies, isn't it? :)