I read this incredibly funny blog post from Full Time Foodie about her quest for the perfect brownies and immediately started craving brownies. I was not about to attempt her brownies after all the trouble she had plus I didn’t feel like going out to pick up ingredients. I searched on a couple of websites for a brownie recipe but got tired of looking for the perfect recipe rather quickly. So, I started rummaging through my cabinets to see what I had for ingredients and found half of a box of 
Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Chocolate Squares… and there was a recipe for brownies on the inside of the box… and the recipe called for exactly the amount of chocolate squares that I had. It was meant to be! The recipe for Soft & Chewy Chocolate Drops on the back of the box is pretty great too.
At the store this weekend my 4-year-old declares in the produce section “Mom, I’ll get the zucchini” and picked out three of them. How could I say no to such a healthy choice? I was really making these brownies for the kids and decided to add some nutrition in the form of shredded zucchini. I was inspired by my sister-in-law who mixes in ground up cannelloni beans into her brownie mix and her kids are none the wiser. Brownies can really mask almost anything. I opted to tell my kids about the zucchini. My son tried a brownie right away but my daughter resisted all afternoon. She eventually tried them too after I explained over and over that you can’t taste the zucchini. She even asked to take one in her lunch for school. These brownies were obviously a great success and I’ll definitely make then again and again. My perfect brownie is a little more crisp around the edges and chewy and these turned out a little more cakey than I like but if the kids liked them then I’m happy.
Baker’s One Bowl Brownies (with zucchini)
-
Silicon muffin tin greased with Crisco.
4 squares Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup shredded zucchini
Heat oven to 350 degrees. (I was inspired by Muffin Tin Mania to make these in muffin tins. I was hoping they would be all edges, my favorite part of brownies.) Grease a 13×9″ pan or a dozen-sized muffin tin. (I used silicon muffin tins.)
Add the zucchini to the batter.
Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on high 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour; mix well. Then add the zucchini and combine. Spread into prepared pan or muffin tin.
Bake 30-35 minutes (20-25 minutes for muffin tins) or until toothpick inserted at center comes with fudgy crumbs. Cool completely if you can wait that long. We didn’t.
A little apprehensive at first but she tried it and she liked it!
Try It You Might Like It 
I’m glad I inspired you to bake some brownies! I’m telling you, brownies are the food of the baking gods.
It’s so nice to put healthy ingredients in brownies. I really love the idea. If kid loves it, then it’s yummy guaruntee! Thanks for sharing.
They look really soft and delicious… I want one too.
I bet that zuchinni keeps the brownies extra moist, too! It’s a win-win situation.
That’s true the brownies were very moist.
I had some ripe bananas that I needed to use up, but didn’t want to make a banana bread. So I used this recipe and substitued bananas for zuks. Then, becuase it was father’s day, and becuase they came out looking more like cupcakes, I frosted them with a white-chocolate fresh raspberry icing on them. Turned out awesome. Thanks for your inspiration Janna!!
What a great idea! Would you send me your recipe for the icing? It sounds great!