CHEWY BROWNIES

Gary tends to think if the recipe is loaded with healthy ingredients then he can eat as much as he'd like. Not true. This recipe makes a really delicious, chewy dark brownie but it's not exactly calorie-free, which means I still need to stay vigilant and count the number of brownies consumed each day.

There’s a wonderful recipe book full of sugar-free desserts, Sweet & Natural Baking by Mani Niall. This recipe is basically his Deep Dark Brownies with the slightest of tweaks.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9x13" baking dish with olive oil spray and then dust with flour.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt:

1½ sticks Earth Balance natural buttery sticks

3. Remove from heat and add:

1 (10-oz) bag of semisweet chocolate chips, grain-sweetened

4. Let stand until chips are softened. Place in large bowl and whisk until smooth.

5. Whisk in:

1 cup Wax Orchards Fruit Sweet

1/3 cup maple sugar*

1 cup egg whites (Egg Beaters or Egg Starts)

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ tsp salt

6. Stir in:

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

7. Spread batter evenly in prepared baking dish, and bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 2" from the edge of the pan comes out clean (do not over-bake). Cool completely before cutting into bars.

*NOTE: The only type of maple sugar we could find was coarse and hard, and didn't dissolve while baking ... so we process it for a few seconds in a high-powered blender and keep a supply on hand.