Nuttvia Lower Sugar Protein Brownies Recipe
I was so happy with my vegan Biscoff blondies the other day that I thought it would be worthwhile making a brownie following a similar recipe.
Quite simply, I followed that recipe to a T - other than adding Nuttvia’s new reduced sugar chocolate hazelnut spread. Because of the milk-derived products in this spread, it is not vegan, but it is reduced sugar, as using both Sukrin and this spread involves sugar alternatives. Each square of this (out of 12) has 5.4g of sugar, versus the 10g in the Biscoff version (which still manages to reduce sugar content versus many recipes anyway).
It’s another one where leaving it in the fridge allows the flavours to come to their own, too. Although I would usually opt for JimJams for a lower sugar alternative to Nutella, I was very impressed with how strong the hazelnut flavour was here. It gave the spread a praline-esque flavour.
I advise reading the vegan Biscoff blondie recipe for a bit of inspiration on how I came up with that recipe to start with (and thus, how I went about making this one). However, as this is not vegan, you could automatically use some other ingredients to achieve a similar effect.
For example, you could swap out the free from ‘soft cheese’ for Philadelphia or Philadelphia Light (I wouldn’t advise Lightest, as we do need some fat here). I would actually urr on the side of using the full fat variety, as it won’t be too much different macros wise and will make a superior product.
I used the apple and banana puree in the original recipe as a bulking agent and an egg replacement. So... you could sub out about 80g of the puree for a large egg. This should bind things well, and will keep the recipe moist without it being ‘watery wet’. I honestly have no other phrase for how recipes can go other than ‘watery wet!’ Too much water-based products can make it soggy, almost sponge-like (and not the nice Victoria Sponge kind of spongey), whereas fats and egg can make recipes gooier and fluffier.
If you’re not too worried about sugar, you could also sub some of the apple puree for honey (directly substitute this: so 20g apple puree should be removed for 20g honey, for example). The extra sugar will make this chewier.
Obviously, you could also use standard brown sugar rather than Sukrin low calorie sugar replacement.
If you increase sugar content via honey especially or remove some apple puree to add an egg, you’d want to keep this recipe at Gas Mark 5/180C and cook for 35 minutes. This recipe seems to cook slightly differently to the Biscoff variety so it doesn’t need to be reduced to 4.
I cooked this version (which I’ll share the ingredients for below) for 35 minutes at Gas Mark 5, but I think it actually could’ve benefitted from 5 or 10 minutes longer as it was slightly too moist for my liking. They were good once cool and refrigerated, though!
100g sukrin gold OR brown demerara sugar
200g Nuttvia (plus extra to drizzle on top of the cooked brownies)
50g free from soft cheese (Tesco)
300g apple and banana puree (baby food)
Optional: chocolate chips to mix in* or melt over the top, or frosting for the top after they’re cooked
*mix ins may increase cooking time, so lowering the temperature to Gas Mark 4/4.5 and cooking for 45 minutes may work best. I’d advise trying the standard recipe first.
1) Pre heat your oven to Gas Mark 5/180C.
2) Using one sheet of baking paper, like your tin with the paper so that it overlaps the sides, making the tin easy to lift out.
3) In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
4) Add in the wet ingredients and mix by hand until smooth and evenly combined.
5) Transfer the batter to the lined baking tin.
6) Put the tin, filled with brownie batter, in the pre heated oven.
7) Leave to cook for 20 minutes, then rotate the tin 180C so the far and near side of the tin are evenly browned.
10) Allow the brownies to cook for a further 15-25 minutes (try the lower side if they’ve got extra sugar added or reduced puree).
11) Remove the brownies from the oven. They should be gooey (so a skewer won’t come out clean), but if they’re allowed to completely cool in the tin they will solidify enough to pick up.
12) Let the blondies cool completely in the tin.
13) Carefully slice the brownies into 12 pieces (you don’t want to damage your pans).*
*skip this step if you’re going to be adding frosting
14) Without separating the brownies, lift them straight out using the convenient baking paper flaps you have poking out of your tin.
15) Ensuring the brownies are room temperature, transfer them to the fridge. You could also freeze some at this point for future consumption, or add frosting.
16) Once they have chilled in the fridge (I left mine overnight, but they’d be cold in an hour or two), dig in!
Altering ingredients will change nutritional information, but my brownies were as follows (per slice out of 12, without extra spread on top):
Let me know what you think!
You can buy Sukrin and other ingredients from MuscleFood. The code BNCBONUS gets you £5 off any order if you pop it in at checkout.