I Made This TikTok Dessert That Has An Insane Magic Ingredient And It's Unbelievably Delicious.
No. Not sweet potato. Weirder.
by Carolyn Firestone
Hello. I’m Carolyn, a writer and editor here at The Candidly. I tend to be more of an incognito presence, typing away in the background, cropping my face out of photos - that sort of thing. But in this case, I feel like I should introduce myself. And I’ll do it by way of two confessions.
In my off hours, I’m almost always baking something cartoonishly indulgent - recipes rich in brown butter and no fewer than three kinds of cream.
Does this make me a fraud? Like a doctor who smokes? Or a wellness editor who bakes stuff like this on the weekend because she feels like it?
I mean could my face ever look more in love than when I’m posing next to a sweet?
It’s pretty preposterous, knowing sugar is akin to poison (I read that on this very website). Not to mention, I’ve been closely watching our Editor-in-Chief get healthy and lose 60 lbs, making beautiful, nutritionally bountiful meals like this:
The point is indeed, I can do better. Practice what I preach and so on.
But I need indulgences. Or at least I want them. And while the occasional truly indulgent dessert is something I can incorporate into the landscape of my health goals, what about the rest of the time? The Tuesday evenings after “eating clean” and speed-walking for 60 minutes on my walking pad? Is there actually some hackish, healthy yet deeeeeply decadent dessert I can sink my teeth into?
Enter this off-the-rails TikTok for a healthy dessert recipe that our Editor-in-Chief, Audie, sent me, knowing my weakness for the white, granulated stuff.
The recipe is for a brownie that looks about as deep, dark, and delicious as any traditional brownie. Now the world is rife with very silly, often sad “healthy dessert hacks.” And this one has an ingredient you’d absolutely never imagine.
I’d love to keep you in suspense about the secret ingredient, but here is the TikTok, because you kind of have to see the gooiness to get the intrigue. (Also, say what you will about TikTok diet culture jargon, “hottie body, fatty brownie” is pretty delightful.)
Ok, in case you didn’t watch, the insane ingredient was none other than butternut squash. Madness!
And long story short (am I allowed to say that after droning on for this long in what should have been a get-to-the-recipe article?), I made the brownies. And here is my honest review:
THE INGREDIENTS:
You’ll notice in the TikTok this entire recipe is in grams. So for those who don’t have a food scale, I did my best to convert it into quantities you can actually measure using items from your kitchen.
I decided to use pure maple syrup over artificial sweetener or outright sugar for no other reason than it’s less processed than white sugar and retains some amount of antioxidants and minerals as well as a lower glycemic index. But don’t be fooled, it’s still an added and unnecessary sugar, so quantities should be watched.
I also opted for oat flour instead of blending my own oats because my blender has been a real b__ch lately. And I used cacao powder because it has more nutrients and tastes amazing. Also, it’s what I had in my pantry.
THE RECIPE:
2.5 cups butternut squash
1 cup egg white - I bought them in a carton but you can also get this quantity of egg whites out of about 8 eggs
1/3 cup cacao powder
1/4 cup oat flour
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
THE PROCESS:
Bake the butternut squash. Just chop it in half and bake on 350 F for about 45 mins to an hour.
Cool the squash, then shovel its insides into a bowl. I chose to use THIS whiz of a handheld tool to whip it into a puree, but you can also use any food processor or blender.
Add all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips to the bowl of squash and mix by hand or with an electric mixer. Either works.
Stir in the chocolate chips
Poor into a greased or parchment paper lined baking pan. I chose to springle a little more salt and choco chips on the top.
Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes.
The baking visuals weren’t quite as pretty as I’d hoped, but the smell of chocolate filled the air. This is how they looked when they went in,
And this is how they looked when they came out. My whole house smelled blissfully like brownies.
And with that first bite, I was … floored. There was:
Richness
Decadence
Chewiness
Gooiness
Deep chocolatey flavor
It wasn’t as sweet as a brownie, and the texture was sort of fluffier, which made it almost a hybrid between a brownie and a chocolate mousse. In short, it was divine.
I sprinkled another pinch of sea salt on the top, which added A LOT to the flavor so be sure to get the good, flaky stuff.
The experience felt indulgent and satiating. I ate a great big brownie at 11 and then forgot to eat lunch, and I’m not someone who forgets to eat lunch.
I cut the whole pan into 9 pieces because I don’t do tiny slivers, but you could easily get 12 brownies out of it.
That said, here is the nutrition breakdown for each brownie when cut into 9 pieces:
160 calories
5g protein
4g fiber
10.5g sugar
Make of that what you will. For me, it was pretty exciting to actually satisfy a ravenous sweet tooth and to choose something healthier than whatever garbage I may have reached for instead, to find a way to get my 12-year-old to eat squash, a veggie he’s called his “food nemesis,” and to have yet another recipe to make for friends and family, because if food is love, brownies have to be the most devout form of it.
Carolyn firestone
Carolyn is a freelance writer and editor. Her favorite thing to do is to write about her favorite things, especially when they have even the slightest chance of making someone else’s something (mood, relationship, travel plans, or toiletry kit) a little better. You can find more of her articles here.
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We have to eat.
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