Olive oil & pistachio brownies with reduced sugar
Here it is a fabulous American treat with an Italian twist!
My children were nagging me for these for ages so I made them but I decided to swap butter for olive oil and add a bit of a crunchy bite to them using pistachios.
Compared to other recipes this one has reduced sugar too. To reduce sugar I normally use essences like vanilla and citrus to add extra flavour. You could also use orange peel instead of orange essence, it goes heavenly with chocolate.
Making brownies is ever so easy and it is instant happiness afterwards!
- Prep Time : 20 minutes
- Cook Time : 30 minutes
- Yield : 12
Ingredients
- plain flour sifted - 100 g - slightly less than 1 cup
- baking powder - 2 tsp
- dark chocolate - 200 g - 1 + 1/8 cup
- eggs - 4
- olive oil - 100 ml - almost 3+1/2 fl oz
- cane sugar - 150 g - 3/4 cup
- cocoa powder - 40 g - 3/8 cup
- vanilla essence - 1 tsp
- orange essence - 1 tsp (or the zest of 1 orange)
- chopped pistachios - 100 g - 1 cup
Instructions
Put the chocolate in a ceramic bowl and melt it over a saucepan of simmering water.
In a bowl mix the eggs with the sugar, the oil, the cocoa powder, the vanilla and orange essences. Add the sifted flour with the baking powder and mix well.
Finally add the melted chocolate, 3/4 of the pistachios and mix well again.
Line the bottom of a 23 cm or 9 inch tray with parchment paper and grease the sides. Pour the mixture into it and level it well. Sprinkle with the remaining pistachios and bake at 180C or 350F for approximately 30 minutes. Make sure you don't overcook it. Check with a toothpick after 25 minutes. It should be moist in the middle.
Slice it into squares and enjoy!
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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really lovely brownies cara, we louse Olive oil in same cakes too !! Baci!
Olive oil makes cakes so much lighter and easier to digest. I love it.
What a great idea!!! I love baking with olive oil… can’t wait to try this! Thanks for sharing Alida ♥
You are very welcome Maria x
I’m always trying to reduce the sugar…aarghhhh. Today I actually used coconut sugar. Thanks Alida. Xx
I like that too.
I find many baked recipes are usually over loaded with sugar…reduced sugar is great, Alida, and I love that you used olive oil here too. A wonderful chocolate dessert!
I find the same especially with shop-bought biscuits and cakes. They have a huge amount of sugar and sometimes it is even the first ingredient on the list!
Troppo golosi, da rifare, grazie!!!!!
Uno tira l’altro!
Do you think they’d work with a gluten free flour?
Yes, infact I have also made some with gluten free flour too. It works perfectly.
These are lovely. I don’t like anything terribly sweet, so I know I’d love these!
I am just the same as you, I don’t like things that are too sweet.
Buonissimi e golosi, anch’io cerco di sostituire il burro con l’olio d’oliva nei dolci, sono più leggeri! Baci
Sono buoni anche con l’olio, e’ solo un’abitudine
Love your twist Alida 🙂 Thank you !
These look divine Alida and the pistachios are so pretty. I agree that brownies are the way to instant happiness…. but only when home-baked! When you are GF, you are almost always offered ‘brownie’ for dessert (it’s probably the easiest thing to make gluten free) and most of them come nowhere near yours!
You are right about that. You often find GF brownies as the only choice in cafes for celiacs. Not sure why this is but they are certainly sugar laden. You really have to make your own.
I like olive oil cakes, they are so moist. Chocolate and pistachios, yes please.
So do I and they are so much lighter with olive oil too.
I love recipes that says, no sugar, reduced sugar or alternate sugar. These look wonderful and I am going to try them for sure.
Your recipes are very healthy I often find inspiration in yours too. I am pleased you like them.
Now doesn’t this sound delicious! I *love* pistachios and don’t love overly sweet desserts, so I’m sure I’d love these brownies, too.