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Fudgy Dark Chocolate Beet Brownies

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Fudgy Dark Chocolate Beet Brownies - you won't taste the beets, but they'll make the texture of your brownies heavenly!

Fudgy Dark Chocolate Beet Brownies are incredibly moist and chocolaty! You would never know that they’re loaded up with 1/2 pound of roasted beets! These beet brownies are easy to make and will be a hit for any brownie lover.

Dark-Chocolate-Beet-Brownies

It was my friend Shashi of Runnin Srilankin who inspired these brownies. She posted Chocolate Beet Cookies and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I’d eaten (and loved) chocolate beet cake, but cookies? Then I wondered, what about brownies?

Beets and brownies are buddies.

 If it seems strange to put beets into a dessert, consider carrot cake. Imagine the prejudice it must have endured before that first bite, “hey, wait a minute…” Beets in chocolate desserts have the same magic. It’s about the moisture and depth they add not the beet flavor.

Fudgy-Dark_Chocolate-Beet-Brownies

Did you see this post from The Kitchn –  Brownie Philosophy: Chewy, Cakey or Fudgy?  I like my brownies either fudgy or chewy, I’ll skip them if they’re cakey. Which is kind of weird because I love cake. hmm. I digress.

These brownies are fully in the fudgy class, especially the next day when they’re even better than when they’re warm. I had to try them both ways, R&D you understand.

5 from 1 vote
Print
Fudgy Dark Chocolate Beet Brownies
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
1 hrs 10 mins
Total Time
1 hrs 30 mins
 
If you're concerned at all about the presence of beets, make sure you process them until they're very fine before adding them to the batter. You'll never know they're there.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 20 brownies
Ingredients
  • ½ pound fresh beets scrubbed
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter plus more for buttering parchment paper
  • 8 ounces dark chocolate chopped or chips
  • 1¼ cups white whole wheat flour (150 grams)
  • 1½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup golden brown sugar packed
Instructions

  1. Place beets in a saucepan and add water to cover by 1/2 inch. Set over medium heat and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 25-35 minutes, until tender. Drain and transfer to ice bath. When cool enough to handle, use your hands and a paper towel to peel beets. Transfer to food processor and pulse until minced.

  2. Preheat oven to 350°F.

  3. Line a 9-inch by 9-inch brownie pan with parchment paper; lightly coat with butter.
  4. Cut sticks of butter into tablespoon size chunks and place in a heavy saucepan. Add chopped chocolate and cook over very low heat, stirring constantly until the chocolate begins to melt. Remove the pan from heat and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.
  5. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  6. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, gently mix the eggs for about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and brown sugar; mix on medium-high until light and airy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed and add minced beets then slowly add chocolate mixture and mix just until combined. Slowly add flour mixture and again, mix just until combined.
  7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with a rubber spatula.
  8. Bake about 30 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Allow brownies to cool for 5-10 minutes then transfer with parchment to cooling rack.
  9. Cut and serve warm, at room temperature, or straight from the refrigerator (my favorite).

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Comments

  1. About how much is 1/2 pound beets? like a cup or so? I am planning on doubling the recipe! I have a lot of beets! And this seems like a dumb question… but you peel the beets before boiling them, correct?
    Can’t wait to try these for Valentine’s Day!

    Reply

    • Hi Katie…Beets vary so much in size, but a rule of thumb is 5 medium beets is about a pound. Your peeling question isn’t dumb at all! You can do it either way – peel them first or after they’ve boiled and are cool enough to handle. I find it’s easier to peel them after they’ve cooked. Let me know how it goes. 🙂

      Reply

  2. Ok update! In my pan it took about 5-7 additional minutes… DANG! These were worth EVERY. SINGLE. STEP. Thanks for an awesome recipe! I’m currently 7.5 months pregnant and haven’t baked much this pregnancy (I LOVE baking) so I made these in spite of being exhausted and having Braxton hicks the whole time… and I would totally do it again. But not today.

    Reply

    • haha, hang in there! Your new little one will be worth every second of discomfort. So glad the brownies turned out well! I know what you mean about the baking time. I don’t know if different beets have different water content, but the baking time on these varies for me too. I think I’ll update the recipe to say 30 to 35. I’ve overcooked them before (turned out more cakey) and I think that it’s better to under than overcook them.

      Reply

  3. Currently in the oven.. I used a rectangular dish that I think is 7×11 or something odd. Been in there about 30 mins and the middle is still shaking like jello..I really hope these come out looking as awesomely delicious as yours!!

    Reply

  4. My hubby is currently in the dog house for eating blueberries I was saving for a recipe. He refuses to eat beets…you KNOW what I am going to do, don’t you??? (Gee it’s not like they are Ex-Lax )

    Reply

  5. Just made these using unsweetened baking chocolate and 1/2 lb of pureed beets. These are pretty tasty and more on the cakey side when warm from the oven – they’ll go in the fridge today and hopefully turn fudgey.

    Reply

  7. I can’t eat regular brownies anymore after I ate this on. I could have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I could feel some pieces of beets, and I loved it. My toddler says “I don’t like beets”, and she loved it! LOL So moist and chocolaty because of the dark chocolate.

    Reply

  8. These look incredible and I plan to make them this weekend, any chance you have made with with regular all-purpose flour? I’m a girl on a budget and already have it in the house!

    Reply

  9. Hey Marissa, recipe looks awesome! Have you tried this recipe without the use of a food processor or standing mixer? Do you have any recommendations for making this recipe more accessible to those without kitchen machinery?

    Reply

    • Hi Victoria – great questions! I haven’t made them myself without machinery, but I imagine that a potato masher or just a good sharp knife would work to mince the beets. And you could certainly use a handheld mixer or a wooden spoon and some elbow grease to mix the batter. 🙂 It will be a bit of an arm workout, but it’s doable!!

      Reply

  10. It’s hard to resist a recipe that’s kind of healthy – whole wheat flour aaand beets, AND has chocolate. I’ve made a cake with beets and I love the earthy flavor it adds. I bet they taste sinful in this recipe. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  21. Marissa – these are my kind of brownies!!! I love that you amped up the fiber with that whole wheat floor too! And I am so honored to have inspired you – these look phenomenal – so fudgey – my salivary glands are on overdrive!

    Reply

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