Yoghurt Brownies

Recipe taken from here

A couple of weeks ago I was watching Michael Smith, from Chef at Home on tv. His theme for the day was Indian food. The dessert for that episode was a mango lassie... in a lassie there is plain yoghurt. I had never had plain yoghurt before, but it seemed all my European friends really enjoyed the flavour of this yoghurt. I decided to buy some since I really wanted to try this lassie. It looked really good as I poured the mix from my blender to my cup, I brought my mouth to straw and started sucking... oh boy. I was so disgusted by the taste I almost started to gag. I checked the expiration date... thought that that was the culprit. Indeed it wasn't. I tried the yoghurt by itself, oh did I regret doing that. I am not one for throwing food out. I will pretty much use stuff until it's oozing with greenery. This however was something far worse than a little bit of mold, it was awful. How people consume this food without gagging, and actually enjoying it is beyond me. It's like buttermilk, it works divine in baked goods, but on it's own, oh it could make me take my life.

I had found this recipe a while back. It was definitely in my mind when I had bought the plain yoghurt. Am I ever thankful the lassie didn't work out, because this gave me tons of yoghurt to work with! I was really apprehensive while making these brownies because I could smell the awful smell of the yoghurt and I knew what it tasted like. I didn't think that chocolate could even banish that awful taste, but boy what I wrong. These were some of the best brownies I have ever had. Mind you, I'm not a gigantic brownie fan unless it's in a molten lava cake. This however, it tasted great, and I didn't feel bad pigging out because for starters there WASN'T ANY BUTTER! How great is that? In a brownie recipe, no butter? Amazing! And it taste great, I don't think I would of ever thought brownie + no butter = good. But this proved otherwise. It was delicious, rich and moist. Unfortunately none of my grocers were carrying candy covered sunflower seeds which was a little disappointing since I had seen them the week prior and was hesitant on whether to get them or not. Instead I used mini M&M's, these were okay, but the colour leached from them almost instantly which was pretty disappointing. Oh well, they still tasted great.

This is definitely a winning recipe for one who is careful about watching their weight or someone who just wants a sweet little treat without feeling too guilty. I would for sure recommend this recipe to anyone, young or old!

Ingredients:

• 1-5.3 oz cup plain yoghurt
  1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• Candy coated sunflower seeds
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Stir in the chocolate morsels. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish. Sprikle with candy coated sesame seeds

Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting.

Enjoy :)