Another brownie recipe, Lauren? Really?
On second thought, I doubt you guys mind. 🙂
Half a year ago, I finally bought some matcha powder online. Truthfully, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of matcha. I think it needs a lot of sweetener to taste good, and as you know, my digestive system can’t handle sweets. However, after spending all that money on it, and then seeing it camp out in the back of my cupboard for months, I felt guilty. I needed to make another recipe with it, or it was going to keep haunting me.
But what would I make?!
The answer came to me when I discovered my beloved new creation, Cashew-Yogurt Cream. I realized there were many possibilities, and one of them could be my matcha miracle. Et voilà , this brilliant brownie was born.
I should mention that I had last minute inspiration to cut my oatmeal in half and add some frosting as filling in the middle. Totally optional. To be honest, it’s an annoying amount of work, but if you want to copy it, here’s how I did it:
- Run a knife along the edges of the ramekin to loosen the oatmeal after it has cooled. You might need to try and “pry” up from the bottom a bit as well.
- Flip the ramekin over onto a plate. The oatmeal should slide out. If not, try patting the bottom of the ramekin. If that still doesn’t work, you’ll have to “pry” and loosen up the oatmeal more.
- Once you have the oatmeal out, pick your sharpest knife. Wiggle the knife in slowly until it starts to buckle (like the oatmeal is going to break into chunks). Slowly wiggle the knife back out.
- WIPE OFF THE KNIFE. This is very important to getting a clean cut; otherwise, all the gunk will make the knife less effective.
- Rotate the oatmeal and wiggle the knife in at another point. When it starts to feel like it might break, slowly wiggle it back out, wipe it off, and repeat. This will take many, many, many, many attempts (unless you have some sort of magical knife).
Attempt at your own risk. If your oatmeal falls into a thousand crumbly pieces, don’t say I didn’t warn you. 🙂
And don’t forget to participate in the contest to become December’s Oatmeal Enthusiast!
All you have to do is leave comments. See details here. Only two weeks left!!!
Random Recommendations:
- [vids] Here’s a playlist of TED Talks for “when you feel like no one appreciates you.“
- [vids] Here is Amy Schumer’s perfect spoof on Say Yes to the Dress: “Say Fine to the Shirt” from Inside Amy Schumer.
- [reads] Check out BuzzFeed’s piece, “Here’s What No One Tells You About Having Both Depression and Anxiety“
What you'll need:
- 1/2 cup's worth of peeled and diced zucchini*
- scant 1/3 cup milk of choice, or water
- slightly rounded 1/2 cup rolled or quick oats
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
- 2-3 tsp maple syrup
- 4 tsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup Cashew-Yogurt Cream**
- 1 scant tsp matcha powder
- sweetener, to taste***
How to make it:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a single-serving ramekin with non-stick spray.
- Puree all ingredients for the oatmeal together in a food processor. If it's too dry, add more milk one teaspoon at a time until it reaches a nice batter consistency. If it's too watery, add a little bit of oats. (It should not be as thick as cookie dough).
- Transfer mixture to prepared ramekin. Transfer to the ramekin and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until it no longer looks “wet” on top.
- While the oatmeal is baking prepare the frosting: mix matcha powder into Cashew-Yogurt Cream. Taste and adjust sweetener as you see necessary.
- After the oatmeal is out of the oven and has cooled for a few minutes, top with frosting. You can either spread it on, or you can “pipe” it like traditional frosting. If you don’t have a piping bag, put it in a Ziplock bag and cut off one corner on the bottom–pipe away!
Just an FYI:
*You can sub any other puree in place of the zucchini. Possible options include half a mashed banana, 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, or 1/3 an avocado, mashed. I like to use yellow squash instead of zucchini because you can leave it unpeeled and it won't leave green streaks. **Using the Cashew-Yogurt Cream is highly recommended, but you could sub any type of greek yogurt (So Delicious coconut Greek Yogurt is good) or plain cashew cream or some sort of whipped cream. ***I didn't need much sweetener because the Cashew-Yogurt Cream is already rich and somewhat sweet. I used just a tiny drizzle of maple syrup.
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