a healthy bite-sized brownie loaded with a creamy cookie-butter center. you would never know they are loaded with protein and made without oil or butter!! eating just one of these little treats is nearly impossible.
i’m not really much of a sharer.
you know, the person that pours out every minuscule detail of their life every time you see them. #aintnobodygottimeforthat! ;)
we all know at least one person like this… and if you don’t… well, then… you know who you are.
i’m sharing this with you now because i was first introduced to this “cracked” nut butter 6 weeks ago on my very first trip to las vegas…
…where i competed in a national level npc [national physique committee] bikini contest. :)
aannnndddd now that you’re up to speed on my life… back to what i was telling you about this “cracked” nut butter! you’ll soon realize the -ed is totally unnecessary once you taste this stuff… “crack” is a much more accurate description.
it all started a few hours before the competition in vegas, my coach hands me a rice cake with this stuff slathered all over it…
i’ll be perfectly honest; i wasn’t instantly sold. not because it didn’t taste like heaven in my mouth (trust me, it totally does!), but after dieting for a show, just about everything tastes amazing. so i naturally assumed my opinion was biased based on depletion and i needed to give it another shot… just to be fair! ;) duh!
the crack butter was just as incredible as i remember… plus, it’s made of all natural and organic ingredients, contains no sugar, and has 12 grams of protein per serving!
make that–even better than i remember!
experimenting in the kitchen immediately ensued and the end result was this:
after falling in love with this stuff and making these brownies, i could hardly wait to tell everyone about them on my blog! i soon realized that although we have 5 different ultimate sport nutrition stores (my favorite!) in the dallas/fort worth area that sell cracked nut butter, it is not available to readers everywhere. :(
(however, if you live in nebraska, check your local hy-vee!)
my solution?? substitute my {gluten-free & vegan} cookie-butter cookie dough in place of the ‘crack’! in reality, you can fill these babies with any nut-butter of your choice… can you really go wrong mixing chocolate with peanut butter?? nah. :)
i experimented with a few different variations when baking these and they were all just as good [as crack]. i actually ended up mixing all the brownies together for these pictures!
plus this recipe gives yet another answer to this question… :)
enjoy!
i love eating these cold... they have an amazing chewy, fudgy texture that just melts in your mouth!!
ingredients
- 1 box of brownie mix {i used ghirardelli}
- 1/4 c (~1 scoop) chocolate protein powder
- 1/4 c + 1 tbsp egg whites
- 1/4 c + 1 tbsp {unsweetened vanilla} almond milk
- 1 and 1/4 c cracked nut butter or cookie-butter cookie dough (make sure at least 1/4 cup is at room temperature)
- 1/4 c enjoy life chocolate chips as topping
instructions
- preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- combine brownie mix and protein powder.
- add in egg whites, almond milk, and 1/4 cup (room temperature) smooth nut butter; stir until mixed.
- spray mini muffin tins well, then spoon brownie batter {or use a small cookie scoop} - about 1 heaping teaspoon - into each cup.
- bake for 10 minutes then remove and set mini muffin tins on cooling rack.
- take the convex side of a teaspoon and lightly tap down the center of the brownie to create a home for the crack ;) --allow brownies to cool in tins for 10-15 min before next step.
- place approx 1 tsp of nut butter into each brownie center... this can be done 1 of 2 ways...using cold nut butter and scooping it into brownies or using room temperature nut butter and putting it into a plastic baggie/piping bag and squeeze into brownies.
- place in refrigerator to finish cooling (i am impatient so i shove these in the freezer to speed up the cooling process...)
- top with mini chocolate chips (if you put these on before the brownies are cool, it becomes a runny, chocolatey mess!)
Notes
if you don't wanna make all 48, you can make a "mini batch" by using a slightly modified version of this recipe! just mix 1/2 cup of brownie mix with 2 tsps of each of the other ingredients...then continue according to recipe... it should make about 6 or 7 this way! :)
{your “cracked” nut butter alternative}
Leave a Reply