Moist, chewy, intensely chocolatey fudge brownies, on a site about healthy eating? You might think it’s a mistake, but happily, it’s totally on purpose: our Sugar Free Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies taste so luxuriously rich and fudge-y they make regular brownies jealous. And they’re not just sugar free – they’re dairy free, too. So how can something so free taste so expensive? Read on to find out how we turned a humble block of soft tofu and a few other ingredients into brownies too sinfully delicious to save – for later, that is.
Making It Work
If you’ve done some sugar free baking, you know that things coming out dry and crumbly is a common problem. That’s because sugar does a lot more in baking than make things sweet (and fattening) – it also contributes moistness and influences the texture and rise of your finished goodies. When you buy sucralose, the packaging will tell you that you can use it cup-for-cup to replace sugar, but if you expect it to behave like sugar on its own, you’re apt to be disappointed. The key to successful sugar free baking is finding ways to compensate for the qualities sugar is known for bringing to the party – and as it turns out, adding tofu to your recipes is one of the most useful tricks you can stash up your sugar free sleeve. In the case of these brownies, adding blenderized tofu to the batter made them moist, and helped them achieve the chewy denseness we expect from any fudge brownie worth taking seriously. Believe us, this is a fudge brownie worth taking seriously.
Strong Coffee, Soft Tofu
For this recipe, put your tofu in the blender and process it until it’s a thick liquid. You’ll need to scrape the sides down and stir it around occasionally. Don’t stop until your tofu is blended enough to thinly coat a spoon or a spatula or whatever type of kitchen tool you’re using, as shown. Soft or silken tofu is by far the best choice for this recipe, as it readily converts to a smooth liquid.
You’ll also want to have some strong coffee on hand, and not just for dunking your brownies in. We added coffee to this recipe because it really intensifies the dark chocolate flavor, and completely masks the slightly bitter aftertaste some people notice in artificially sweetened goodies. We went nuts and added a few tablespoons of instant coffee powder to our strong coffee, which really kicked the flavor of these brownies into dark chocolate overdrive.
Sugar Free Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies
2 cups sucralose (it’s Splenda, only cheaper)
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt or salt substitute
1 14 oz. package soft/silken tofu
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup strong coffee
2 tablespoons instant coffee powder (optional but recommended for serious chocoholics)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 7″ x 10″ baking pan. Get your blender ready to use, and put the coffee (and optional coffee powder) into a small saucepan; you’ll be bringing it to a boil later in the recipe.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and stir them together using your electric mixer on its lowest setting. Crumble the tofu into the blender (throw the extra liquid away) and process until it’s smooth. Dump the vegetable oil and the vanilla into the blender with the tofu, and process some more until they’re well combined, scraping the sides and stirring as needed.
Pour the contents of the blender into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Beat them together for about a minute with your electric mixer on a medium-high setting (the batter will be fairly stiff). Bring the saucepan of coffee to a boil, then take it off the heat right away and stir it into your batter until everything’s well combined and your batter is smooth.
Transfer the batter to your pan and bake for 45 minutes. Don’t bother testing your brownies for doneness; if you stab them with a toothpick, it’s going to come out messy no matter what. Let them cool completely, then put them in the fridge for at least two hours (overnight is better, if you can wait) – this lets the flavors mellow and makes the texture really fudge-y.
A great way to top these brownies is with a dusting of faux powdered sugar. All you need to do is combine a cup of sucralose, a teaspoon of cornstarch, and half a teaspoon of cinnamon in your blender and pulse until it’s a fine powder. Dump a few spoonfuls into a sifter or sieve, and dust it over your chilled brownies. Don’t be afraid to shake it on thick – the moisture in the brownies will slowly dissolve the bottom layer of faux sugar, so use plenty. The cinnamon gives it a wonderfully light, spicy flavor which perfectly compliments the dark chocolate flavor of the brownies. You could also top them with low sugar raspberry or cherry preserves, or spoon on a dollop of low sugar orange marmalade for a sweetly sophisticated flavor combination.
| Stuff That Works (we know cause we use it!) | |||
 silicone bundt pan 
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 Tornado Whisk 
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 9 in. springform
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 silicone baking set 
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