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These Avocado Brownies are moist, fudge-y, chocolatey, and secretly nutritious! They’re flourless, paleo-friendly, refined sugar-free, and take just 10 minutes to prep!
Easy and Healthy Brownie Recipe
Avocado in brownies? Heck yes!
These flourless brownies are the perfect sweet treat to end a meal or to pack in a lunch box for the kiddos (or for yourself!)
They have a not-so-secret ingredient that creates a super fudge-y texture. No one would ever guess you snuck avocado into them. Avocado brownies for the win!
Can I Use Avocado for Brownies?
Absolutely! Avocado has a super mild flavor, so it adds a boost of nutrition and creates a super moist and fudge-y texture without really changing the flavor of the brownies.
Ingredients Needed
- Butter: I use grass-fed butter, but coconut oil will work too.
- Dark Chocolate: You can use chopped dark chocolate or your favorite variety of dark chocolate chips.
- Avocado: You’ll need one extra ripe avocado.
- Eggs: Eggs bind everything together so the brownies can hold their shape.
- Sweetener: Maple sugar or coconut palm sugar are both great options.
- Cocoa Powder: Use a good quality cocoa powder for the best chocolatey flavor.
- Baking Powder: Keeps the brownies lighter and fluffier.
- Maple Syrup: A little bit of maple syrup adds another layer of sweetness.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds flavor depth.
- Sea Salt: Cuts the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the brownies.
How to Make Avocado Brownies
This healthy brownie recipe comes together so quickly and easily…and it’s made with ingredients you might already have in your kitchen.
- Melt the chocolate: Use a double boiler to melt the butter and dark chocolate together until smooth. Alternatively, melt in the microwave at 20 second intervals, stirring after each interval. Cool slightly.
- Make the batter: In a food processor, combine avocado, eggs, maple syrup, cocoa powder, baking powder, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt. Blend until smooth, then add in the chocolate mixture. Blend again until smooth.
- Bake: Transfer the batter to a greased baking dish lined with a parchment paper sling. Bake at 350ºF until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Cool, then slice and serve.
What Does Butter Do in Brownies?
Butter serves a couple of purposes in brownies. The first, and likely most obvious, is that it adds delicious flavor depth to the batter.
Additionally, the lactic acid in butter reacts with the leavening agent (aka the baking powder) in brownies to create a lighter texture.
Tips and Notes
- Use extra ripe avocado. The best texture and flavor comes from a perfectly ripe avocado. If the avocado is hard, it won’t have that same smooth, velvety texture and buttery flavor.
- Grease and line the baking dish. This makes it so much easier to to remove the brownies from the pan once they’re done. I like to create a parchment paper sling so I can easily lift the brownies out of the pan.
- Blend the batter. Previously this recipe was made by pureeing an avocado in a blender, then transferring it to a bowl. Now, I like to just blend everything together at once. It makes for a smoother brownie and dirties fewer dishes!
- Check for doneness. To make sure that your brownies are done, insert a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean, then they’re good to go!
Variations
- Add mix-ins. Add some nutty flavor and a crunchy bite with the addition of chopped walnuts, pecans, or macadamia nuts OR mix in your favorite chopped candy bar, M&Ms, you name it.
- Make nut butter brownies. Try swirling in your favorite peanut butter or almond butter.
- Add caramel. Use a knife to swirl in paleo and vegan caramel for a gooey flavor twist.
- Frost them. Add an extra layer of sweetness by cooling the brownies completely, then topping them with 2-ingredient paleo chocolate frosting.
How to Store
These paleo brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week. They can also be wrapped tightly and stored in the freezer for up to 4 months.
When you’re ready to serve, simply thaw on the counter if frozen.
More Brownie Recipes You’ll Love
- Fudgy Paleo Brownies
- Raspberry Swirl Brownies
- Gluten-Free Funfetti Blondies
- Peanut Butter Stuffed Brownies
Watch the Video Here:
Avocado Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup grass-fed butter
- 1 cup dark chocolate chopped or chips
- 1 ripe avocado
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup maple sugar or coconut palm sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- One pinch fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare an 8″ baking dish by greasing it and lining it with a parchment paper sling.
- Melt butter and dark chocolate using a double-boiler method: Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil with heatproof bowl over the top. Add the butter and chocolate to the bowl and slowly melt and stir the chocolate until all of it has melted. Remove from heat, let sit a few minutes and then whisk it all together. Alternatively you could melt them together in the microwave at 20 second intervals, whisking in between until it’s fully melted.
- Add ripe avocado to a food processor and blend until smooth. Add in eggs, maple sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, maple syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- Add the slightly cooled chocolate mixture to the processor and pulse until fully combined.
- Transfer brownie batter to the prepared baking dish and smooth over the top.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Cool completely before slicing.
Avocados come in large and small different sizes – what size avocado? It would be helpful to know, too, an actual measurement such as 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup mashed avocado. Thanks!
These were seriously delicious! I love brownies and I love avocados, but I’ve never tried them together. I’m so glad I did!
So happy!
Made these to use up some avocado. Fantastic texture and really straightforward recipe 😀 You would never know there’s avocado in them! I found them a bit lacking in sugar though, but mainly because I used only date sugar and I have found it to be very unsweet in the past! However, the next day I spread a really thin layer of my own homemade coffee-infused caramel onto a slice and it was perfect 😃
This is a great recipe. I used flaxseed eggs instead of regular eggs and it was amazing. The brownies were so fudgy! I like these as a weekday desert or something to calm that afternoon sugar craving.
Love to hear it!
How big of an avocado? The bigger ones that you buy individually or smaller ones that come like 5 or 6 to a bag?
Would this recipe work with an egg substitute, like flax or chia?
We can’t advise as we haven’t tried! Let us know if you do.
Why half cup butter… 2 times? I’m confused.
Sorry for the confusion Mindy–that typo has been updated. Just 1/4 cup of butter or coconut oil.
These are AWESOME! Brought them in to work for people to try and everyone was asking for the recipe.
Amazing! It is soooo yummy!! Thank you for this delicious recipe
Can the Maple Syrup ratios be changed to substituted for the Sugar in the recipe?
How long do they last fresh ?
& can they be froz n and then warmed up???
A week, and yes, they’re great frozen!
How many calories per serving?
Oh my goodness!!! These are delicious! I’m recently trying to give up sugar with lots of resistance from kids who have grown up with me making choc chip cookies and saving them dough for an after school snack. My kids LOVED them! No one would ever know there was hardly any sugar in these.
I am going to make the brownies today. Sounds so delicious! Thanks so much for sharing your recipes. Do you know what the nutrition data is on the brownies?
These were absolute heaven! My kids had no clue that there was avocado in them. My husband asked me what I put in them because I kept asking everyone what they thought…lol! This was my first time eating an avocado as well. I am trying to expand our menu. I have to say these topped any brownie I have ever eaten and that is saying something! If you are a gooey brownie lover..these are for you!
I am so happy!!!!