My dearest, most beautiful Starlings!

Happy Almost Summer! Today, I’ll share with you two recipes for quick and easy summer baking: a classic brownie recipe as well as a blonde brownie recipe, which can be made in the form of chocolate chip cookies! Everyone loves a baked treat in the summer months, but nobody likes to slave over a hot stove! Back in the day, I shared with you a simple recipe for a Nut Butter Brownie. It’s a super delicious recipe, but it wasn’t vegan, and I’ve been trying really hard to move towards a completely plant-based diet.

In addition, while we all crave sweet treats from time to time, we also don’t want to be piling in those heaps of sugar, so why not bake with a natural alternative like bananas? Did I mention the recipe takes a total of half an hour if you’re doing it really slow, and that it is completely vegan? These three-ingredient treats will put all the joy and ease and health back into baking! Enjoy!

Before we start, let me just give you the basic formula for sweet treats: starch + sugar + binder + fat. Both the cookie and brownie recipes will follow this general formula. The starch comes from the oatmeal (cookies) or the cocoa powder (brownies). The sugar and the binder come in the form of the banana. And the fat comes from the peanut butter (thankfully, it adds to the binding as well). You could substitute any nut or seed butter for peanut butter if you want.

This recipe makes about 12 large pieces of each kind of treat. All the ingredients, except for the oatmeal, is naturally gluten-free, but do check the labels anyway. For the oats, please buy certified gluten-free oats, but hey… you knew that already! 🙂

Let’s start with the Classic Brownie recipe…

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (or 60 ml) of pure, plain cocoa powder
• 3-4 medium bananas
• 1/2 cup or 120 ml of nut butter, e.g. peanut butter
• Cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla for flavour (optional, but oh-so-yummy)
• Chopped nuts, raisins, berries or chopped chocolate pieces (again, optional but please add it! Super yummy!) 

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 Celcius.

2. Lightly grease a baking dish – I use a glass one! – that’s about  8″ x 8″ or 9″ x 9″.

3. Mash the bananas. Add cinnamon, vanilla and/or nutmeg. I do this quite generously, because it makes the brownies so fragrant when they come out of the oven!

4. Add the peanut butter (or nut butter). Mix by hand.

5. Add the cocoa powder. Batter should be thick, but not too heavy. Add a dash of water if too heavy.

6. Pour into baking dish and plop it in the oven! Bake for ~20 minutes… until a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest for awhile, and then serve it up!

Now, for the Oatmeal Cookies or “Blonde Brownies”:

The ingredients are almost exactly the same as the regular brownies, but substitute oatmeal (oatmeal, regular oats, or muesli is fine) for the cocoa powder. Increase the quantity to about 2 cups (or 460 ml). I’d especially encourage that you use chocolate chips in this case. You can also reduce the amount of nut butter used.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (or 460 ml) of oatmeal or oats (haferflocken in German); IMPORTANT: make sure it’s certified gluten-free! 
• 3-4 medium bananas
• 1/4 cup or 60 ml of nut butter, e.g. peanut butter (note: you’re using less than with the brown brownies!)
• Cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla for flavour (optional, but oh-so-yummy)
• Chopped nuts, raisins, berries or chopped chocolate pieces (again, optional but please add it! Super yummy!) 

Method:

Surprise, surprise! Also exactly the same, except that you use a baking sheet and form little discs with your hand if you want to make cookies, and cook the mixture for approximately 12-15 minutes only (less time than the basic brownies).

I hope you have fun with this super easy yet healthy sweetie recipe!

Peace,

Daisy