Sunflower Butter Banana Chocolate Brownies

If you ever took a gander at my This is What I Eat page then you know I'm obsessed with Emily's recipes over at Daily Garnish.  I had THIS recipe bookmarked for a while when I was sitting around Sunday afternoon deciding what to bring to my friends for dinner I looked up the recipe and decided that I had most of the ingredients on hand.  Emily makes being a vegetarian/sometimes even vegan look delicious and these brownies are NO exception.  They are actually vegan for any of my vegan loving friends out there and I'm sure you could make them gluten free with some GF flours. 

I made a couple changes to the recipe based on what I had and the fact that sunflower seed butter makes everything more delicious.  I halved the original recipe and used an 8x8 square pan.

Sunflower Butter Banana Chocolate Brownies

based on: http://www.dailygarnish.com/2011/04/chocolate-chip-banana-brownies.html

Serves: 16 brownies - depending on your friends addictions to sweets that could mean anywhere from 2-16 servings

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup coconut milk (or whatever milk you have on hand)
• 1 medium ripe banana, mashed
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tablespoons sunflower seed butter (or other nut butter of your choosing)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix together flours, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt
3. In another bowl mash the banana and add milk and vanilla
4. Add wet to dry and stir until just combined
5. Spread in greased 8x8 pan
6. Dollop tablespoons of sunflower butter in each corner of pan
7. Use a knife to swirl butter around to each brownie gets a delicious bite of sunflower seed butter
8. Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean
9. Remove and let cool for at least 10 minutes or until you can't stand it anymore before cutting and eating.

Dry ingredients

Smash that banana

Dollop the sunflower seed butter

Swirl it around

I served these to my friends that evening and they both like them.  One friend said it was more like banana bread than a brownie and I think I would partially agree.  They do need to a be little more chocolaty and I'm pretty sure next time I would add the chocolate chips.  My co-workers loved the leftovers the next day and were pleasantly surprised when I told them how relatively healthy they were!

Check out Daily Garnish for other delicious recipes! I have also made and LOVED Coconut Oil Almond Butter Cookies and White Cheddar Yogurt Cornbread.

QUESTION: Do you have a go-to sweet treat that you always make or are you like me and just figure out what you have and make something from it?