Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

 

UPDATE: Last night I noticed that I had mistakenly typed the number of pancakes in the recipe as 14. That should have been 24!  I have since corrected this mistake in the recipe and also posted a new Nutrition Facts label below the recipe.  Sorry for any confusion!

Yikes!  It's been 5 months since I last blogged!  You might have thought that I'd be posting like mad during this pandemic time, when we're pretty much isolating here in the woods. It's not as though I'm not cooking!  I cook quite a bit. But I've been mostly revisiting recipes from my own cookbooks and cooking notes, re-discovering (and sometimes improving on)  dishes that I developed many years ago.  Which has been fun, I must say.  But I haven't been inventing new recipes very often, I confess. So, it feels good to post again, with a recipe that I'm quite proud of.  

I love brownies!  You will find quite a few brownie recipes on this blog, but, because I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes last year,  I've been working on a version that is not only very chocolate-y, moist and low in fat, but made with low-glycemic ingredients. (See this post and this one.)

I did devise a very good low-glycemic brownie last September, which included the addition of yellow split pea puree and unsweetened applesauce.  (See about the low-glycemic advantages of split peas and other pulses here.)

In this new recipe I still use my favorite low-glycemic flour combination of oat flour and chickpea flour, but, in addition to split peas and unsweetened applesauce, this new recipe utilizes prune puree , which provides sweetness (thereby cutting down on the amount of sugar needed) AND a whole lot of other goodness. (It seems that prunes contain lots of fiber, which is slow to digest, leaving you satisfied for a longer time. Prunes also have a low glycemic index count, which means that they raise the glucose [sugar] levels in your blood slowly.  See this article for more about the benefits of adding prunes to your diet.

Printable Recipe
BRYANNA'S NEW MOIST AND VERY CHOCOLATE-Y LOW-FAT OAT & CHICKPEA FLOUR BROWNIES
(It also happens to be gluten-free if you use GF oatmeal.)
Makes 18 brownies
This is the latest (and maybe the last!) recipe in my quest for a really delicious dark chocolate, vegan, low-fat, low-glycemic brownie.  It's easy to make and, dare I say it, even healthful, despite being a delicious dessert item.
       Oat flour and chickpea flour are both low-glycemic flours. Applesauce, prune puree and yellow split pea puree add plenty of fiber and nutrients, as well as moisture. 

NOTE: I make oat flour by grinding oatmeal flakes in my Vitamix-- just make sure the container is absolutely dry!

DRY MIX:
3/4 cup oat flour
1/2 cup +1 Tbsp dark cocoa powder
6 Tbsp. chickpea flour (also called besan) (or other bean flour)
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
WET MIX:
1 cup unsweetened smooth applesauce
1/2 cup Prune Puree (see end of blog for homemade recipe) OR babyfood pureed prunes in a jar
6 Tbsp. yellow split pea puree (see how to and store make below)
6 Tbsp. maple syrup or agave nectar
1 1/2 Tbsp. oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
ADDITIONAL: 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

INSTRUCTIONS:
Turn the oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare a 7 x 11" baking pan by lining with baking parchment.

Or, as I do, grease the bottom and sides of the inside of the pan lightly with my Homemade Palm-Oil-free, Non-Hydrogenated “Cake Release” (Pan Coating or Professional Baker's Grease) with GF Option. 

Whisk the Dry Mix ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.  

In a larger bowl, whisk together the Wet Mix ingredients until smooth. Add the Dry Mix into the bowl  and stir until smooth. Add the chopped walnuts and stir just to distribute evenly.

Scoop the batter into the prepared pan (using a silicone spatula to get as much as possible) and then spread it evenly into the pan with the spatula.

Bake for 18 minutes and cool thoroughly on a rack before cutting into 18 pieces.

HOW TO MAKE PRUNE PUREE:
Note: 2 cups of large pitted prunes, pressed down a bit, with make about 2 3/4 cups of prune puree.

In an appropriately-sized bowl, cover your prunes with hot water. (Make sure that they are completely covered with water.)  Let the prunes sit until they are more or less lukewarm.  Then pour the prunes and water into your blender and blend until VERY smooth.  You can safely keep this in your refrigerator in a tightly-closed container for 2 or 3 days, or you might prefer to store it in 1/2-cup containers in the freezer.

HOW TO MAKE YELLOW SPLIT PEA PUREE (Makes 5 cups):
Mix 2 cups of dried split yellow peas with 4 cups of water in an Instant Pot and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes. (PS: You could use any other type of pressure cooker, OR you can simmer, covered, for 30 minutes in a medium saucepan on your stovetop.) The resulting soft mush just needed a few stirs to "puree", or, if it looks a bit lumpy, you can cool it off a bit and puree it in your blender.

I refrigerate the puree in a covered container for a day or so-- it will firm up considerably.  You can press then the puree into silicone cupcake liners or large silicone ice cube trays in 1/4 cup portions, or into normal ice cube trays in 2 Tbsp. portions and freeze them.  Then pop out the frozen portions, bag them up and place them back in the freezer for future use.
(See more about yellow split pea puree at this link.)



Enjoy!

I'm happy to report that, over the last few days, my rotten cold is just about over, my nerve pain (from shingles) discomfort has eased quite a bit (after 4 months), and I have had much more energy in the last few days. I have managed to get some much-needed household and outside jobs done (in the morning, when my energy is highest)-- yay!

That said, I was moved to make some muffins a few days ago, and I made a batch of the same today, as well.  I had stumbled upon a recipe I had written a few years ago that sounded  just perfect for what I had available in my pantry and refrigerator.  But, I tweaked it a bit to make it lower on the glycemic index. I was a bit worried that using low-glycemic whole grains in place of the original white pastry flour, but I needn't have done so. I used only 1/2 cup of wholewheat flour, and replaced the rest with my favorite low-glycemic flour mixture of 3/4 oat flour and 1/4 chickpea flour.  It worked perfectly!

In my original recipe, I made a note stating: "Batter will be kind of runny-- it will be fine." I was a bit nervous about this, but decided to proceed anyway. Again, I needn't have worried-- the muffins turned out just fine-- in fact, nice and moist, but not soggy at all.  I hope you'll give them a try!


Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S NEW, MOIST LOW-FAT, LOW-GLYCEMIC LEMON, WALNUT, BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
Makes 12 muffins

WET MIX:
1 1/2 cups creamy plant-based milk (I use soy)
1/2 cup sugar of choice (for sugar-free, use 1/2 cup sucralose instead)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 T. oil
grated zest of 1 lemon

DRY MIX:
3/4 cup oat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup chickpea flour (or white bean flour)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup oat bran
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Additional:
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw them out!)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or nuts of your choice)
Optional for topping: brown sugar or coconut sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease 12 muffin cups (or use cupcake liners or my Homemade Palm-Oil-Free, Non-Hydrogenated “Cake Release” (Pan Coating or Professional Baker's Grease).

Blend the Wet Mix ingredients together in a blender or with a stick blender, or a food processor. Set aside Mix the Dry Mix ingredients in a medium bowl.  Add the blueberries and walnuts and stir to coat with the Dry Mix.

Stir in the blended Wet mix and stir well, making sure that there is no Dry Mix still at the bottom of the bowl. As noted in the intro above, the batter will be runny-- see pics below.

As you may be aware from reading this blog in the last few months, I am refining my vegan low-glycemic way of eating because of a diagnosis of pre-diabetes (and it's working!).  I've lost some weight, and I'm learning to use some different ingredients and to cook a bit differently from what I was used to, but it's really not been that difficult.  You can read about my research here and see some of my new low-glycemic recipes, discoveries and cooking adventures in my blogs from March 2018 to the present.

The one thing that we haven't been eating very often is dessert, sadly. (My husband is being very patient!)  I have devised a delicious low-sugar apple/rhubarb crumble, and some yummy no-sugar corn muffins, but we've mostly been enjoying the lovely fruits available this summer, and the occasional Chocolate "Nice Cream. (It's made with frozen ripe bananas and no added sweetener-- I'll post my version soon, as well as my newest version of Peruvian Lucuma Ice Cream, made with lucuma powder, which is used as a natural sweetener by some raw foodists, so you don't need to add much sweetener.). But, as  the weather was changing a bit, I thought I'd work on making some LG and low-fat  brownies. (You might have noticed that I love chocolate!)

In my first version, I use a combination of oat, millet and soghum flours (all low-glycemic) and smooth unsweetened applesauce instead of fat and a small amount of agave nectar for the sweetener (you could use maple syrup instead). They weren't bad, but the millet and sorghum flours made the brownies slightly crumbly in the finished product, even though the flours felt very fine to me when raw.  So, I tried  the same recipe again with only oat flour.  The brownies were better, but I still felt that they weren't moist enough. 

The 3rd time I made brownies, I used 2/3rds oat flour and 1/3 bean flour, AND I added 1/4 cup of yellow split pea puree, which I keep in the freezer, frozen in ice cube trays [2 tablespoons per cube] and then popped into freezer bags. This puree is a great as a fat replacer in baking and I thought it might add just that little bit more moisture that I needed. It turned out really well and this is the recipe I'm sharing below.

UPDATE: But, re-reading my post on baking with yellow split pea puree, I noted that I had been adding 1 T. water to the 2 thawed-out cubes of puree for a moist texture in muffins.  So, I did just that today (Sept. 22, 2018) when I made a fourth batch, and the brownies were perfect this time. One more change I made was using 6 tablespoons of agave nectar instead of 1/3 cup (which is 5 1/2 tablespoons). We brought the brownies over to some friends today and they loved them! So I have updated the recipe below and I hope you enjoy it!PS: See about baking with yellow split pea puree, + a yummy fat-free muffin recipe at this link.

Anyway, enough chatter!  If you try these, let me know what you think.  I may try using a date puree for the sweetener next time and, if it works, I'll post it.


Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S MOIST & DELICIOUS LOW-GLYCEMIC, LOW-FAT, VEGAN BROWNIES (soy-free and gluten-free if you use GF oats; NO added oil)                 
        Servings: 12 bars   
RECIPE UPDATED SEPT. 22, 2018 (See highlighted paragraph above.)
UPDATED on June 21, 2019:
If you cannot have any kind of sugar, you can use your favorite non-sugar sweetener, use sugar-free chocolate chips and use 1 cup chopped walnuts. [I dislike the taste of stevia, BTW.] Allulose is a relatively new type of sugar-free sweetener that sounds ideal (I haven't tried it yet, but plan to soon)-- read about it here https://bit.ly/32mD8C8 . Considering that most of the newer sugar subs are quite expensive, this is a pretty good buy, if you're interested.

DRY MIX:
1/2 cup oat flour  (I simply blend rolled oats in a dry blender until fine and fluffy.)
(NOTE: stir the oat flour a bit before measuring.)
1/4 cup chickpea flour, yellow split pea flour, soy flour or white bean flour (You could use a darker bean flour, if you like, as long as the taste is mild.)
(PS: Soy flour is very low-glycemic-- GI 20-25 ; yellow split pea flour and black bean flour are GI 30; chickpea and oat flours ar GI 44.)
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
WET MIX:
1 cup smooth UN-sweetened applesauce
6 tablespoons agave nectar (you can use maple syrup instead, if you prefer)
1/4 cup yellow split pea puree (see Tip below for how to make and store)
1 tablespoon water (to mix with split pea puree)
1 tsp vanilla extract
EXTRAS: (Optional)
1/2 cup semisweet or bittersweet dark chocolate chips (can be minis)
1/2 to 1 cup walnut halves or pecans, roughly chopped

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (NOTE: When I use my little counter-top Cuisinart Air Fryer Oven, 325 degrees F works best.)

Oil an 8-inch square baking pan (I use a Pyrex pan). Line with baking parchment, if you wish.

In a medium bowl, mix together the Dry Mix ingredients.

In a small bowl, mix together the Wet Mix ingredients.

Pour the Wet Mix into the Dry Mix and combine briefly but thoroughly. If you are using the chocolate chips and/or nuts, stir them into the batter.

Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Check with a toothpick at 18 minutes. If the toothpick is a bit gooey, bake a few minutes more. A toothpick should come out just about clean, but not really dry.

Cool the pan on a rack. When it has cooled completely, cut into 12 squares. Store in a covered container at room temperature-- they are even better the next day!

TIP- To make and store yellow split pea puree: Mix 2 cups of dried split yellow peas [they don't have to be soaked first] with 4 cups of water in your Instant Pot or other pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes. (PS: Or, you can simmer them in a pot, covered, for 30 minutes on your stovetop.) Let the pressure come down before opening the pot. The resulting soft mush just needed a few stirs to "puree", and the yield was 5 cups.

I refrigerated the puree for a day or so.  When I removed it from the refrigerator, it had hardened considerably! I pressed some of the the puree into ice cube trays, which made cubes of 2 tablespoons puree, and some in 1/4 cup portions in silicone cupcake liners also in a silicone ice cube tray that made 1/4-cup cubes. Then I  froze them.  Later, I popped out the frozen portions, bagged them up in zipper-lock storage bags and placed them back into the freezer for future use.) Add 1 Tablespoon water to each 1/4-cup portion of split pea puree before adding to a baking recipe for brownies, muffins, etc..

NUTRITION FACTS:
WITHOUT chocolate chips or nuts:
Nutrition (per bar): 64 calories, 6 calories from fat, less than 1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 134.1mg sodium, 139.2mg potassium, 14.9g carbohydrates, 1.8g fiber, 7.1g sugar, 1.8g protein, 2.1 points.

WITH semisweet chocolate chips, but NO nuts:
Nutrition (per bar): 98 calories, 23 calories from fat, 2.9g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 134.9mg sodium, 139.2mg potassium, 19.4g carbohydrates, 2.3g fiber, 7.1g sugar, 2.1g protein, 3.2 points.

WITH 1/2 cup nuts, but NO chocolate chips:
Nutrition (per bar): 96 calories, 33 calories from fat, 4g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 134.2mg sodium, 160.7mg potassium, 15.6g carbohydrates, 2.2g fiber, 7.2g sugar, 2.6g protein, 3.1 points.

WITH both chocolate chips AND 1/2 cup nuts:
Nutrition (per bar): 130 calories, 49 calories from fat, 6.1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 135mg sodium, 160.7mg potassium, 20g carbohydrates, 2.6g fiber, 7.2g sugar, 2.9g protein, 4.1 points.

WITH semisweet chocolate chips AND 1 cup nuts:
Nutrition (per bar): 195 calories, 94 calories from fat, 10.9g total fat, less than 1mg cholesterol, 141.6mg sodium, 198.7mg potassium, 20.1g carbohydrates, 3.5g fiber, 6.5g sugar, 5.3g protein, 5.6 points.

Nutrition Facts for this recipe, using 1/2 cup sucralose instead of agave, and with 1 cup chopped walnuts and no choclate chips, are directly below,

***followed by Nutrition Facts for the recipe using 1/2 cup sucralose instead of agave, with 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup sugar-fee chocolate chips or chunks, and***

Nutrition Facts for the recipe using 1/2 cup sucralose instead of agave, with 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup sugar-free chocolate chips or chunks.


Nutrition Facts for the recipe using 1/2 cup sucralose instead of agave, with 1  cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips.