At last Sunday morning’s 8am class with Paul, Marike brought in a plate of home-made Rhubarb Chocolate Brownies for us all to share afterwards. She told us they were high in antioxidants, so excellent for this time of year, and a great excuse to eat more than one!

They tasted absolutely delicious. Thank you Marike, and thank you for sharing the recipe with us.  She says they are pretty much “no fail”..  We like that!

Enjoy! x

Rhubarb-Choc-Brownies

Irresistable!

Marike’s Rhubarb Chocolate Brownies

  • 145 g unsalted butter or coconut oil
  • 150 g cooked rhubarb
  • 150g raw sugar or coconut nectar sugar
  • 65 g pure cacao powder
  • 1/4 rounded teaspoon pink salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs, cold
  • 1/2 cup organic wholemeal spelt plain flour
  • 1/3 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Method

  1. Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and heat to 163 C. Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch (20cm) square baking pan with baking paper leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. (This helps when removing the baked brownies from the pan, once cooled).
  2. Add enough water to a medium saucepan so that it is 1 to 2 inches deep. Heat water until barely simmering. Combine butter, rhubarb, sugar, cacao powder and the salt in a medium heat-safe bowl. Rest bowl over simmering water (if the bottom of the bowl touches the water, remove a little water).
  3. Stir mixture occasionally until the butter has melted and mixture is quite warm. Don’t worry if it looks gritty, it will become smooth once you add the eggs and flour.
  4. Remove the bowl from heat and set aside for 3 to 5 minutes until it is only warm, not hot.
  5. Stir in vanilla with a wooden spoon, then eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each egg.
  6. When the batter looks thick, shinny and well blended, add the flour and stir until well incorporated, then beat well with the wooden spoon for one minute by hand, stir in the nuts and spread evenly into prepared lined pan
  7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer can be inserted into the centre and come out almost clear (needs to be a little moist with batter – do not hesitate to take the brownie out of the oven)
  8. Cool completely before removing from pan, and cut to whatever size you wish

Notes

You can change the nuts to whatever you like or have no nuts at all, dried cranberries and pecans can be good, up to you to be creative

Cooking the rhubarb (using one bunch)

Wash the stalks and remove the green leaves (they are poisonous), then roughly chop and place into a saucepan, just cover the bottom of saucepan with water and add 1/3 cup of raw sugar. Bring to the boil, then turn down and cook until all soft – should not take very long.

The rhubarb is great with plain yogurt or with your cereal.