Paleo Zucchini Brownies

Summer is zucchini season...abundant zucchini season.  I remember brown paper bags showing up at our house full of zucchini from the gardens of the more domestic of my parent's friends (you would NEVER lump Peg and E. Larry in that bunch...rural upbringing does not guarantee rural talents!).  And we'd have to figure out what to do with them all.

Usually, that meant skillets of zucchini and yellow squash with onions, butter, salt and pepper that ended up on every plate as a side dish.  But on the rare occasion that my mom baked - it was zucchini bread.  It never occurred to me not to try bread made out of zucchini - the benefit of my generation, I think.  My kids, on the other hand, were a little weirded out when I told them I made zucchini brownies.  (I think they had flashbacks to some black bean brownies during a 'weight loss craze' that went horribly wrong...sigh...)

Anyway, I am not a baker.  I am a cook.  I love to cook and it comes naturally to me.  I also love the idea of baking, but the rules make me a little bit nuts and the results require more effort that any dish I choose to cook.  But I can't help myself.  I fancy myself one of those women who whip up a batch of some delightful baked good....so I bake.  Occasionally, the results are so awful it's a complete bust, but usually, we find a way to eat the experiments or less-than-successful batches of whatever.

I find paleo baking to be easier than classic flour & sugar baking...it must be the gluten that hates me even in the kitchen!  So, I am getting a little bit bolder as a baker.  Not always more successful, but definitely more willing to give a recipe a go.

My one rule of baking is - follow the recipe exactly the first time.  Then tweak.  On a good day, the first time is all I need.  Sadly, there aren't as many good days as I would like.  I have a very specific set of taste buds and a couple of picky eaters, so usually a tweak is required.

I can say that I adored these zucchini brownies made exactly from the recipe.  I also felt the need to tweak them for a couple of reasons - one:  cost.  and two: a tad sweeter.

The best part about these - one bowl, one baking dish, one spatula!  Not even a full sink of dishes!!!

If you'd want to try the original (which is the one I took pictures of) - here is the original post from FastPaleo.  They were so moist and yummy...I did have to bake mine for about 5 minutes longer, but my oven is not screaming hot.  I used coconut oil to grease my baking dish and I used an organic 85% cacao dark chocolate bar and chopped it instead of using chips or chunks.

Then yesterday, I tweaked it just a tad and really enjoyed the results.  I substituted cashew butter for the almond butter (which made the brownies a bit lighter in color and saved me about a dollar in cost), added an extra teaspoon of vanilla and 1 Tablespoon of maple sugar (to make it sweeter).  For my taste - this will be the version I make from now on.

Paleo Zucchini Cashew Butter Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 cup cashew butter
• 1 1/2 cup grated zucchini (about 1 large or 1 1/2 medium zucchini)
• 1/3 cup raw honey
• 1 large egg
• 2 t pure vanilla extract
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t allspice
• 1 T maple sugar
• 1 cup chopped dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9 X 9 baking dish (I used glass) with coconut oil.  Combine all ingredients in large bowl and mix well with a spoon or spatula.  Pour into prepared pan.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.