Two-bite brownies

Is there anything more pitiful than a toddler getting his second set of molars? Reader, there is not. Both my kids have gotten their teeth hard and fast, and this (for now) final round of teeth for M is being especially rough on him. He's refusing most solid foods and he's whiny and unhappy all day. All he willingly eats is chocolate. Chocolate chips (from Lily's, with a syringe of oil on the side), chocolate ice cream from Rebel, macadamia milk with a bit of Lakanto chocolate syrup... just chocolate. He's definitely my kid. But I need to get more nutrients into him when he's like this.

Enter these chocolate brownies. Much like the chocolate muffin recipe, this is adapted from a Food 52 recipe that uses steamed eggplant for moisture. These are fudgey brownies, which is exactly what I prefer but if you're a cakey brownie person, (1) what is wrong with you, I bet you like those all-crust brownie pans too, you weirdo and (2) these may not be up your alley. But M seems to think they're pretty good, even though they've got eggplant, plenty of protein, and Brazil nut for selenium

Note: there are a few keto-friendly versions of chocolate out there you can use for this. Lily's baking chocolate is popular for keto and often easily found in grocery stores; if you use this, you'll need to serve each brownie alongside some oil or heavy cream to get into higher ratios. I recently got pointed to ChocZero, which is much better ratio-wise; this exact same recipe made with 200g ChocZero instead of 200g of Lily's dark or baking chocolate is 3:1 by itself and doesn't require me to add any oil or cream for each serving. I'll offer both recipes below, since ChocZero isn't as easily found in brick-and-mortar stores, but if you'd like to give it a try, I've become a brand ambassador for them - you can use my code THERATIOEDTODDLER for 10% off.

Ingredients:

240g eggplant, weighed when raw, then steamed until soft

200g ChocZero dark chocolate or Lily's dark baking chocolate

30g unsweetened cocoa powder

50g Brazil nuts, ground in a food processor

80g coconut oil

100g powdered MCT oil (I use unflavored Garden of Life Organic)

100g raw egg, mixed well

20g whey protein isolate

12 drops Lakanto vanilla monkfruit sweetener

0.5g baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grease a 9x9 brownie pan.

Combine the warm steamed eggplant with the solid chocolate and coconut oil in a large bowl, stirring to combine and allowing the chocolate and oil to melt. Continue stirring until all solids are melted and the mixture is well combined. Use an immersion blender to blend the mixture in the bowl until completely smooth.

Add the dry ingredients to the mixture and blend until combined. Add the eggs and sweetener and blend again.

Pour batter into the brownie pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool, then divide into equal portions to serve.

If you used Lily's chocolate, this batch by itself is 2800 calories at about 1.8:1, so I calculated out a syringe of oil to go with each one to get it to M's 3:1 ratio. I divided the batch into 30 toddler-snack-sized portions of brownie, each of which is served with 5.5g of oil for just over 140 calories per brownie-and-oil serving. In lieu of the oil, you could serve each of the 30 brownies alongside 20g of 40% heavy cream for a ~170 calorie snack.

If you used ChocZero for an all-in-one 3:1 recipe, this batch is approximately 2800 calories. I divided it into 20 toddler-snack-sized portions of about 140 calories each.

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