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Zucchini Brownie Recipe made flourless with almond butter and chocolate. These low calorie brownies are light, super fudgy and chocolatey! A low fat brownie that make healthy eating easy!
This Zucchini Brownie recipe was originally published April 2016.
I love sneaking nutrition into recipes. Brownies with vegetables especially just to make them slightly healthier and lighter like these low calorie red velvet brownies, and brownies with spinach. Oh, and we can’t forget these sneaky ingredient flourless brownies and this quinoa dessert recipe!
I’ve decided I need to plant a zucchini garden. This is a scary thing people! Everything I’ve ever planted dies. Hence, why I live in the dessert and plant cactus. You have to try really hard to kill a cactus. BUT for as many recipes as I make with zucchini, I thought I should at least try because I really do use zucchini in everything.
The only problem? I don’t have a garden nor do I have room for a garden because I have a small courtyard. So I asked my all knowing, green finger garden planting mother for advice but even she wasn’t sure. So I looked to my friend Google for suggestions and found out I could grown them in pots.
After consulting with Mom, she suggested I buy pots that are low to the ground so the vines could spread onto the patio. I remember her planting squash on the side of the house when I was younger and it literally grew like a weed.
Vines everywhere! Growing up, I mowed the lawn and was always fearful I’d run over a squash and become victim to Mom’s wrath.
So now I have a large pot sporting two zucchini plants and already in two weeks the leaves have doubled. I’m taking that as a good sign. Bring on the zucchini!
That means a lot more zucchini oatmeal, zucchini oat cookies, zucchini parmesan fries, zucchini red pepper frittata, zucchini turkey burgers, low calorie zucchini muffins, zucchini pancakes, low calorie zucchini bread and Zucchini Espresso Chocolate Brownies will be happening a lot more around here!
WAIT…back up. Did someone say brownies???
Why yes I did! Healthier Zucchini Brownie recipe to be exact!
Low Calorie Brownies with Zucchini
And these aren’t just any brownies people. They’re made with zucchini, cocoa, nut butter, oats and espresso powder. OMG yum! Someone call the chocolate police now.
Now the secret to making these Zucchini Espresso Chocolate Brownies extra creamy is to use creamy almond butter and the key to getting that holy grail chocolate-y chocolate taste is in the espresso powder. If you haven’t used it before, I highly recommend it! BUT a little does go a long way. You don’t need much and it lasts for-EVER.
Ingredients for low fat zucchini brownies
- Zucchini
- Almond Butter (creamy)
- Maple Syrup
- Applesauce
- Vanilla Extract
- Gluten Free Oats
- Espresso Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
Recipe Tips
Allow the brownies to cool completely before removing and slicing into bars. Because they are flourless, they will take slightly longer to cool and firm up.
Use a knife dipped in warm water to slice the brownies into bars and wipe the knife with a towel in between slicing to ensuring you get a clean cut.
I have not tested anything but oats with this recipe, but if you try something new please comment below. This helps others who make the recipe. Now let’s bake!
Low Calorie Zucchini Brownie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups zucchini, ~2 small zucchini shredded
- 1/2 cup almond butter, creamy and unsweetened or peanut butter
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons espresso powder
- 3/4 cup Gluten Free Rolled Oats, or regular oats
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons almond butter , for swirl
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F and prepare an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper.
- Place gluten free oats in food processor or high-speed blender and process until ground.
- In a large bowl, mix together almond butter, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth.
- Next add zucchini, cocoa powder, ground oats, baking soda, espresso powder and salt and mix ingredients together until well combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking pan. With a toothpick swirl in the 2 tbsp of almond butter into the batter.
- Bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick can be inserted into middle of the brownies and comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan 30 minutes prior to slicing into 12 brownies and devouring!
Notes
- I have not tested other flours with this recipe. If you do, please comment below to help others!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are so good! I used peanut butter instead of almond and it worked beautifully. Thank you for another awesome keeper recipe.
You’re welcome! Glad you loved them.
I am soooo thrilled to have found this blog! GF recipes that look amazing are hard to find. Can’t wait to try everything!!!
Should the zucchini be squeezed of as much moisture as possible or do I use the wet stuff as is?
I’ve never had any moisture in my zucchini to need to squeeze it out. If you do, then yes you should squeeze it out.