Recipe to share: Cocoa Banana Brownies

[pilgrim719]

Well, it's not another cake recipe, but it is from Secrets of Fat-Free Cooking, and it is yummy! :) I had 3 egg whites sitting in my fridge and found this recipe to use them up in. These brownies are very good! You can really taste the chocolate and banana flavors in them, and they're very moist. They are pretty dense too, I was expecting them to be cakey because of the banana in them. They're not exactly fudgy like The Farm brownies, but they're more fudgy than cakey. I followed the recipe exactly (other than not including the optional nuts), not that there's even a lot of ingredients to fool around with anyway. Hope you enjoy them if you try them! :)

Kari

Cocoa Banana Brownies

1 cup oat bran
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 1 1/2 large)
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Combine the oat bran, cocoa, and sugar, and stir to mix well. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
2. Coat an 8" square pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the batter evenly in the pan, and bake at 325F for 25-30 minutes, or just until the edges are firm and the center is almost set.
3. Cool to room temperature, cut into squares, and serve.

Yield: 16 servings
Per serving: 80 calories, 0.8g fat, 2.1g protein, 1.7g fiber, 0mg cholesterol, 7mg calcium, 0.5mg iron, 96mg potassium, 23mg sodium

[lonetree1353]

Thanks Kari...this looks delicious. You can never have enough recipes to use up those spotty bananas. Will try this tomorrow.

Maureen

[KristinK]

Kari, thanks for the recipe - like Maureen said, you can never have enough banana recipes!

BTW - with all your good reviews from that cookbook, it's definitely getting more and more tempting for me to buy :D

[susan_foster]

I made this recipe a few weeks ago - included the nuts too! I liked how they came out - interesting texture with the oat bran. They were especially nice when re-heated in the microwave - and I really could taste the banana (in a nice way).

Susan

[aquinas_chris]

oat bran? Where do you find that? Is it the cereal?

Excuse my ignorance- I'd love to make these in the next day or two!

C<><

[shoefling]

These look really good! I have some ripe bananas on the counter that need used up and these brownies look like a great place! I have to go to the store this afternoon so will have to see if I can find some oat bran!

aquinas_chris~ I think you can find oat bran near the other flours in the supermarket. That's where I have seen it before. I have not seen it near the cereal. Good luck finding it!

[leannebw]

I always find oat bran near the cereal, with the instant and slow cooking oatmeal and farina. So you might want to check both places.

[pilgrim719]

I buy my oat bran in the bulk bins at Whole Foods, but I was just in Trader Joe's today and they had a big bag of it for $1.89. At Trader Joe's, I saw it in with the bags of granola.

Susan, I will have to try nuking one of the leftover brownies to see how the are warm. I've only eaten them at room temp so far, thanks for the tip!

Kari

[leannebw]

I made these last night . . . interesting, but very good. At first, the consistency surprised me. The oat bran/banana combo makes these very dense. But the flavor was good: a nice combination of chocolate and banana, and not too sweet.

DH and I each had a piece last night, then I covered the rest and put the pan in the fridge. I just had another piece; they taste good cold too :D

Thanks for the recipe Kari!

Leanne

[KristinK]

I doubled the recipe and made these for the weekend with a couple subs. First, I only had 1½ cups oat bran, so I used ½ cup wheat bran. Second, I used turbinado sugar (based on my brother's preference). And third, I used egg replacer instead of the egg whites to make them vegan. The batter tasted pretty gritty, but it evened out after baking.

Anyway, everyone enjoyed them! I personally thought they were too sweet, and I would cut the sugar down by as much as half - and I do plan to try them again!

Thanks for posting, Kari :)

ps. I skipped the walnuts.

[Linda in MO]

I really, really liked these! They're definitely different than any brownie that I've ever had. I pretty much followed the recipe except I added a pinch of salt and used peanut butter chips in place of the walnuts (I would do this again) . I didn't think they were too sweet, but I agree with Kristin that the sugar could be cut back a bit. A definite repeater. Thanks for sharing, Kari.

[Terrytx]

Okay, I'm sold- I will try these as soon as I have some ripe bananas again!

[Linda in MO]

I think you'll like these Terry. I highly recommend the addition of the peanut butter chips. I think they added a lot to the brownies.

[aquinas_chris]

Well, there's always one, isn't there. Made these on the fourth and disliked them very much. They reminded me of a protein type bar that you'd buy at the grocery store. I'm glad I gave them a shot, but they just didn't cut the mustard as a brownie in our home.

Glad everyone else is enjoying them. I guess I will use this oat bran as cereal for the baby now.

C<><

[pilgrim719]

I'm happy several of you are enjoying this recipe! I've been eating the rest of the batch I made from the freezer, just nuking them until they're warm. Actually, they're not too bad straight from the freezer either on a hot day.

Linda, thanks for the tip about adding peanut butter chips! I think I will definitely try that next time.

Kari

[JulieAnn]

Yummy! I don't think these really taste like brownies (but I'm not really a big brownie fan, anyway!) A better name might have been Cocoa Banana Bars. Last night my husband and I finished 2/3 the pan by ourselves. so much for low-cal!

I really shouldn't post when my 3 kids are awake because I can't think straight! I only used 1/2 CUP SUGAR, and it was plenty, even for my sweet tooth. I used pecans, instead of walnuts and white chocolate chips (it was what I had). I would do the pecans again, but would try peanut butter chips next time.

[Linda in MO]

Originally posted by JulieAnn
Yummy! I don't think these really taste like brownies (but I'm not really a big brownie fan, anyway!) A better name might have been Cocoa Banana Bars. Last night my husband and I finished 2/3 the pan by ourselves. so much for low-cal!

:D I was calling them my "Health Brownies"! :D When I added it to MC, I named them Oat Bran Banana Brownies.

[leannebw]

Originally posted by JulieAnn
Yummy! I don't think these really taste like brownies (but I'm not really a big brownie fan, anyway!)

I agree. I think if you try this recipe expecting a brownie taste, you'll be disappointed. I like them, but not because they taste like brownies!

[Lynn B]

This recipe certainly has me intrigued! It's on my TO DO list! Thanks for sharing!

Lynn

[sqntyeyes]

i thought it was quite good, and thought it plenty sweet even though i had cut down the sugar by half, but i did use a bit more banana then called for

[Lynn B]

Made these brownies the other day. I made some changes, though... I used half oat bran and half whole wheat flour, subbed half of the sugar w/ brown sugar, used 1 whole egg and 1 egg white rather than the 3 egg whites, omitted the walnuts (DH is allergic) and added chocolate chips and a bit of freeze-dried coffee.

They were good... quite banana-ey (duh!!! ;)) but a little too "cake-ey" for my preference - I like my brownies chewy. But I am sure that had everything to do with the changes I made!!! I really liked the "texture" that the oat bran gave them, though, and am planning to incorporate some oat bran into all my brownie recipes in the future. YUM!

[valchemist]

I made these as written. They were good. Pretty fudgy/dense in texture, not cake-y. As has been stated above, don't think of these as a brownie or you will be disappointed. Chocolate Banana Bar is a better description. You could tell the chocolate flavor came from cocoa as opposed to a rich melted chocolate bar. Not as chocolatey as, say, the Beverly Hills Farm Chocolate Brownies. But hey, what do you expect - this is fat free, 80 calorie recipe. And if you look at it that way, they are just what the doctor ordered.