Best Unique Brownie Recipes - Add Fruit, Nuts or Candies
Brownies can be brown or blonde, plain or frosted, sprinkled with coconut, or sparked with interesting inner ingredients - raisins, craisins, walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, and other fruits and nuts that you enjoy.
A Little Spark With the Chocolate
When I was a child in 1960s America, I liked the large plastic wrapped brownies from the grocery store for their walnuts (if they were chocolate) or for their pecans, if they were the blonde variety. Both were good and today, they are not available as widely as before. I have seen them in IGA Stores and small town markets, in case you need to find some.
As a youngster, I also liked Chunky brand candy squares for their fruit and nuts -- Chocolate alone was simply not enough! Today, if I have chocolate, I still want it wrapped around a nut, a raisin, or an orange or raspberry gel of some sort. The combination of fruit and chocolate is a good one.
The following recipes combine chocolate and various fruits and nuts for filling, good tasting brownies that are excellent to serve during the holidays or anytime you can find the ingredients at reasonable prices.
The second recipe below is the healthier of the two I have offered here, yielding brownies at fewer than 100 calories each - that is nearly a miracle!. The first recipe is calorie intense and rich, about 300 calories each - but enjoying them once or twice a year is OK.
Blond M & M Brownies for Christmas or Hanukkah
Makes 24 heavy, rich Brownies.
For lighter fare, you can use lower-calorie ingredients, reduce the amount of chocolate chips, or eliminate the nuts. However, the M&Ms make it fun.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 Cups Self-Rising Flour
- 1 Cup Melted Margarine
- 2.5 Cup Light Brown Sugar, packed firm
- 3 Whole Eggs, beaten well
- 1 TBSP salt
- 3 tsp Vanilla
- 1 to 1.5 Cups chocolate chips for topping
- 1/2 Cup M & Ms
- 1 Cup chopped pecans
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, pour melted margarine and sugar and mix lightly.
- Add beaten eggs and mix.
- Sift together the flour and salt into the mixing bowl and stir.
- Add vanilla, nuts, and M&Ms.
- Spoon batter into a large baking pan. If you use glass, reduce heat by 10 degrees.
- Scatter the chocolate chips over the top of the batter in the pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and cover to retain moistness.
For other fun Holiday dishes, see the Christmas breakfasts I have, with one especially to leave for the reindeer with Santa's cookie and milk by the Christmas tree.
Try Other Candy Chips On Top
Brownies for Passover, with Bananas
This recipe makes 24 Brownies at fewer than 100 calories each.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 4 TBSP potato starch
- 6 TBSP water
- 2 Cups white sugar
- 1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 Ripe Bananas, mashed
- 1/2 Cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 Cup matzo meal or matzo crackers that are ground fine in a blender
- 1/2 Cup raisins soaked in hot water to plump. After plump, discard water.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325° F.
- Using a large glass baking dish, spray with cooking spray. If you use a metal pan, raise cooking temperature about 10 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine potato starch and water, stirring well.
- Pour in the sugar, cocoa, and salt and mix well.
- Carefully mix in mashed bananas, applesauce, matzo meal, and raisins.
- Spoon batter into baking dish and bake 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven, cool and cut into servings.
