Is it possible to create this low calorie high fiber brownies?

Question

I have been looking at some of the low calorie brownie options online and have not found one I can sink my teeth into, without worrying about my hips. So I decided to think up a whole new recipe of my own:

Ingredients for your average Brownie

1. Soft Butter, for greasing the pan
2. Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
3. 4 large eggs
4. 1 cup sugar , sifted
5. 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
6. 8 ounces melted butter
7. 1.25 cups cocoa sifted
8. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
9. 1/2 cup flour, sifted
10. 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

Ingredients for my low calorie high fiber Brownie

1. Peanut vegetable oil for greasing the pan
2. Flour for dusting the buttered pan
3. 4 large eggs
4. 1/4 cup No Calorie sugar
5. 1/4 cup wild honey
6. 2 ounces melted I Can't believe it is not butter
7. 1 ounce Peanut vegetable oil
8. 1.25 cups cocoa, sifted
9. 1/4 cup flour, sifted
10. 1/4 cup Oatmeal, finely blended, and sifted/
11. 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

I also thought of adding blended Cabbage(high fibre) to make more brownies and increase the fiber.

Please tell me what you think. Is this possible to make brownies with all the substitutions I made or will any of these substitutions adversely affect the results of what one would refer to as a normal brownie?

Answer 1

It depends a lot on what you expect. I wouldn't call it a mess. The result will be edible, and will have a similar flavor to a brownie. The texture will be very different from a brownie. It will be dry and dense. Personally, I wouldn't eat it.

First, the fat plays important roles in baked goods besides taste. I am surprised to see a recipe which uses melted fat (so no creaming) and no baking powder. This thing (the original one) is going to be denser than chewy cookies - maybe OK for you. If you reduce the fat from the original recipe, you will get a very dry result. An airy cake which is dry is not too good, but can be eaten when combined with e.g. yogurt or other wet things. Something which is both dense and dry will taste like chicken food mix run through a dehydrator. If you have a recipe for baking, don't reduce the fat. Also, never use spreads or margarines or anything else which is not real fat. It does not act like real fat, so it doesn't work the way it should. It is likely to contain lots of water and gums, and melt into them when baked. For baking, always use butter, lard or shortening. (It is OK to use vegetable oils for dense recipes which direct you to melt the butter). You will need your full share of fat. Some people replace part of the butter with applesauce, but you can't replace all of it. Also, I don't know how it will act in a non-leavened recipe.

Second, you need the sugar the same way you need the fat. It retains moisture and makes the brownies soft. Honey is already a risky proposition, but partial replacement will work. But do not reduce the sugar by half, it will make dry, unpleasant brownies. Also, I don't know what "no calorie sugar" is, but it sounds like some artificial sweetener dispersed in a filler. I don't know what the filler is made from, but it may not be good for baking.

You can't always replace wheat flour with other flours, but finelly milled oats should work for brownies and cakes.

Using a vegetable or fruit puree in place of the liquid is normally a good substitution, but your recipe doesn't have liquid. Just adding cabbage will destroy the liquid balance. You could theoretically replace part of the eggs with an equal amount of cabbage puree by weight, but because eggs also have important roles in baking (they lubricate and set the dough), you shouldn't nomrally replace them.

So, the replacement will bake into something you can bite and chew and swallow, but I wouldn't call it brownie. It also wouldn't be a tasty non-brownie, at least not in my eyes. Also, if you go ahead and make the stuff, you don't even win much in calories. Your original recipe is about 2950 kcal, and you get 820 g of brownies, resulting in 359 kcal/100 g. Your replacement recipe is 1610 kcal but only 530 g of brownies, which makes it 302 kcal/100 g (still a very caloriedense food) - and that if you use these substitution products, which are bad for baking. So, you only lose 15% of the calories overall, but you get something which tastes nowhere near the original. It will have cocoa flavor, but it won't be moist and creamy. I would rather eat 100 g of real brownies than 115 g of brownies made with your recipe.

Answer 2

If you make the proposed recipe it will taste nothing like a brownie, will probably taste pretty awful and dry. It won't save many calories either. Mixing in cabbage will also not work.

I know the above recipe won't work, because I've made similar attempts myself.

Sugar substitutes like Splenda usually produce a yucky result in brownie recipes. You need to use actual sugar to get a tasty result, but you can usually use 2/3 of the amount called for. And it can be a natural unrefined sugar such as maple sugar, Sucanat, palm sugar, etc. Or you could use dates, which are high in natural unrefined sugar.

You can replace some of the fat in the recipe with applesauce and/or black beans, this also increases the fiber content of the recipe.

You can replace some or all of the eggs with ground flax seeds or ground chia seeds. This increases the fiber content of the recipe and reduces the fat content slightly.

See this high fiber, reduced calorie, brownie recipe which uses dates instead of sugar and almond butter instead of butter:

http://www.doctoroz.com/recipe/fudgy-black-bean-brownies