Thursday, August 26, 2010

Let me eat cake: sugar-free pot brownies

I had a tightly wrapped 1/2 cup of the BC Compassion Club's sativa butter in the fridge and a jones for a sugar-free dessert that wasn't fruit-based [Fruit crisp, I love you, but sometimes a woman needs some alone time with her chocolate. You understand, right?]
I tweaked this recipe which was originally from a Splenda recipe booklet. The single review mentioned the resulting brownie's "flatness", but I figured an extra scoop of baking powder would help. That, and doubling the recipe. And using pot butter.

When baking with cannabis butter ["cannabutter"], it's a good idea to go half cannabis butter, and half regular butter. Partly because it's potent and that's all you need, and partly because pot-infused butter tastes like, well, pot-infused butter. It can be overpowering if used straight [why I usually use the cannabutter in a garlicky bruschetta; to hide the taste, and because I love garlic. Pervertedly].


These turned out great; when cooled, it was a moist, dense sugar-free cake - and the applesauce and walnuts make it practically good for you. The cocoa masked virtually all taste of the cannabutter. I was so focused on getting to the end product ["whee, pot brownies!"] it wasn't until I had the more-cakey-than-chewy brownie moist chocolate cake with walnuts cooling on a wire rack that I realized I had made my first cake from scratch! Go me!
Best of all, I still had 1/4 cup of unused cannabutter in the fridge for the next attempt; I'm thinking of using darker cocoa, omitting the walnuts, and spooning preserved cherries over the cake. Oh my.

I tweaked the recipe from Food.com and doubled their version. My doubled, tweaked, pot-infused version [which can be halved and/or made with plain butter only, if that's the way you roll] is below:

Ingredients:


  • 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 1/2 cup Splenda granular, sugar substitute
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped
  • 1/4 cup plain unsalted butter, softened
    AND
  • 1/4 cup cannabis butter, softened
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 4 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Tip: butter will soften quickly if cut into small cubes [pictured]. If you want to make this without cannabutter, make sure the total amount of regular butter you use is 1/2 c. for the doubled recipe shown here, or 1/4 c. if halving the recipe.

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 8" x 8" baking dish with butter
  • Combine flour, cocoa, Splenda and baking powder in a large bowl
  • Stir in walnuts
  • In another bowl, combine butter(s), applesauce, eggs and vanilla extract mixing well with a wire whisk [I went to town with my newly-acquired $20 electric mixer...the power! No more sore wrists! Mwahahahaha!]
  • Add wet mixture to dry mixture and mix gently to combine.
  • Fold in chocolate chips.
  • Spread batter in dish and bake for 35 minutes.
  • Cool on wire racks.
  • Nom with a cold glass of milk. Enjoy smallish portions until you know where you're at; overdoing it on cannabis edibles can be uncomfortable. Just FYI.

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