Growing up one of my favorite-est things in the world was box brownies with the fake cheesecake filling. Oh how I loved them. Thinking about it tho, I didn’t really love the brownies all that much. In fact… I would eat the cheesecake-like stuff off of it and throw out the brownie bottom.
Guess they weren’t the bestest.
Plus I have never been a chocolate fan (*gasp* I know), so that could’ve had a little something to do with it.
BUT, I was actually craving brownies the other day. Real, live chocolate brownies. But since we don’t keep processed “food” in the house anymore, box mix was out. So I went to my handy-dandy Pinterest page and looked for a clean recipe. Ha. According to Pinterest, clean brownies are either made with beans or are really only masquerading as clean. Seriously, white sugar is not clean. Even the Queen of Candy-Land would (probably, I’m just assuming as I don’t know her personally) admit, sugar is not healthy. Hence it’s not clean. I don’t care how ‘gluten-free’ it is, if it’s got white sugar (or brown sugar or powdered sugar or splenda) in it, it’s NOT clean. Brown rice flour is also not on our clean list, so I’m not even going to go there with that one. Also, I don’t consider nuking something to be healthful. Quick, and easy maybe, but not healthful. (AKA: clean) Have I used the word CLEAN enough yet?? 😉
What’s a girl who normally doesn’t crave chocolate, but is in the moment strongly craving chocolate to do? Create her own recipe! So I found some good (bad) recipes that all had good reviews. Then I sat down and converted till I came up with something that sounded clean. Actually I think I stood there. I didn’t sit. Who’s got time to sit?!?
Then I decided I didn’t just want brownies. I wanted cheesecake brownies!!!! So I found a cheesecake recipe, stood there and converted that. Then I put them together! And it worked! At least according to hubby it worked. Let’s just say, he told me several different times that night, several times during the next day and then several different days how good they were. And I’ll have you know, my dear husband is just as complimentary-constipated as your husband, son, brother, nephew, boyfriend, male friend, etc. 😉 Hehe.
Anyway! Here is the recipe. Hope you enjoy, comment below if you get to try it!
- 9 tbsp butter
- 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
- 3/4 c maple sugar
- 1/4 c honey
- 2 farm-fresh eggs beaten
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 c organic white spelt flour
- 1/4 tsp Real Salt
- 8 oz organic cream cheese (or cream cheese made from yogurt)
- 1/3 c sour cream (cultured, not pasteurized)
- 1/2 c maple sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
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Line 8x8 pan with parchment paper or grease it really well with coconut oil or palm oil shortening.
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Melt butter and cocoa together in saucepan on the stove over low heat.
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Remove from heat, add maple sugar and honey.
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Add eggs and vanilla, stir till smooth, then add flour and salt.
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Pour in pan and set aside.
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Stir all ingredients together really well.
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Drop by large spoonfuls on top of brownies.
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Swirl with a knife, or if they're just for you, feel free to use your finger. 😉
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Bake in preheated oven 35-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
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Remove and cool, then serve, either alone or with delicious homemade raw milk ice-cream!
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Enjoy! 🙂
I used strained yogurt for my 'cream cheese' and it worked great. Take a cheesecloth or clean dishcloth, dump your raw milk yogurt, or cultured (not pasteurized) plain yogurt from the store in and tie it up. Hang above a big enough bowl (you will lose at least 50% of what's in the cheesecloth as whey) for several hours, then scrape it out of the cloth and add a pinch of salt. You want it to be a thick, cream cheese consistency. If it's still runnier than that, hang it back up! Then you have your 'cream cheese'! 🙂 Oh and don't throw away the whey (what's in the bowl). It goes well in place of water in bread and rolls, and makes them super moist!
