Healthy Brownies

From Delicious Wordflux

Some days you just crave something delicious and comforting.  Whether it is sadness or stress, everyone experiences problems and everyone deals with them differently.  I am experiencing both of these right now and I started craving some comfort.  Typically, a good quart of Ben and Jerry's Phish Food ice cream does the trick, but I also have decided to work on being healthier and exercising more.  So, I recalled a recipe for Olive Oil Brownies that I found on Delicious Wordflux.  They looked amazing and they were whole wheat and used olive oil instead of butter.  I found this really interesting and so I saved the recipe.  Today I turned to that recipe to bring some comfort into my life without forgetting my health.  I also decided to make a few changes to encompass my personal comfort favorites.

While in Door County this winter break, my family found a bag of dark chocolate/mint chips in the grocery store.  We had never seen these before and it was very exciting.  We bought them and brought them back home.  We figured that they would be great in basically any of our favorite recipes.  Today seemed like a great day to use them! I substituted half the chocolate chips in the original recipe for these dark and minty ones.  For the other half, I decided on Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips.  I just know that these healthy brownies will turn out amazing.  How can they not? They have the best chips in them!

I hope that this recipe is as enjoyable for others and that it brings comfort to anyone who needs a little at this time :)

Dark and Minty Olive Oil Brownies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup extra light virgin olive oil
1/3 cup milk (I used skim)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 cups dark chocolate chips
1 cup dark/mint chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a square 8x8 inch baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a mixer, beat eggs with sugar until well mixed.  Then, add in olive oil, milk, and vanilla.  Slowly add in the dry ingredients and beat until just combined.
4. Melt the 2 cups of dark chocolate chips in the microwave.  I did one cup at a time and microwaved for 30 second increments until melted.  Pour melted chocolate into the brownie mixture and quickly whisk to combine.  Using a spoon, stir in the mint/dark chocolate chips.  Pour into prepared baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Enjoy :)