Carob Banana Brownies

     These carob brownies brought back some delightful reminiscence of my family because the recipe that inspired these brownies came back into my life this week. I will admit I did not do a lot of baking when my kids were growing up. I managed the boxed cake mix for birthday cakes and there was one year I was influenced by Martha Stewart and made the perfect decorated Christmas cookies. I love cookies but don't make them often because I am like a Cookie Monster and will devour way too many. The cookies I did make I recall being very 'health conscious' about the ingredients, using whole wheat flour, substituting fruit purée for sugar and low fat alternatives for butter. I was very much under the spell of what was considered healthy during the 70's which carried into raising my family. Those cookies weren't winning grand reviews but as a Mom I felt like I was doing my job to provide healthy treats. No wonder my daughter has fond memories of these brownies and the Christmas cookies as these were two recipes I didn't use any alternative ingredient substitutes!  

     For the past few months my daughter has been focusing on a low histamine diet for herself and her children because of their diagnosis for Mast Cell Activation Disorder. They are still in the learning and adjustment phase with the changes required in their diets. I am trying to help from a distance with recipe ideas and was thinking that since chocolate is a high histamine food then carob could be an alternative. This had us excited and reminiscing of the carob brownies. The recipe was one I had gotten from the back of the carob powder canister sometime in the 80's. I did a search for the recipe in my file folder and couldn't find it. The next day I was talking with my daughter on the phone and she recalled seeing it in a cookbook I had left her when I moved to Guam. Funny how excited we both got, like we have found an old favorite blanket. She took a picture of it with her phone and emailed it to me.

The found brownie recipe! 

The original recipe is more like a very moist cake. 

I never did frost it as the brownie was very sweet.

I like both versions although my revised recipe

is more like a traditional frosted fudge brownie.

     Yesterday afternoon I revised the recipe to meet their current dietary needs. For this I needed to omit the dairy and eggs. I used EnerG egg replacer for the eggs and mashed banana instead of the yogurt. I could have substituted coconut yogurt but it wasn't something I had on hand and I wasn't going to the store for one ingredient. For a while my grandson, Landon, was allergic to wheat but has now outgrow that.  They all seem to be tolerating wheat fine so I didn't make this a gluten free recipe. If you are interested in this recipe being gluten free then test it out by substituting the wheat flour with an all purpose gluten free mix. I did replace some of the wheat flour with coconut flour because I am interested in incorporating it more into things I bake. I was very happy with the end result. The banana flavor was apparent but I rather liked it in this recipe. I can see experimenting with some other things like applesauce, mashed yam or puréed black beans that might have a more neutral flavor in the end. When Landon was 2 yrs old, we made gluten free brownies for him and wanting to sneak more veggies into his diet and would used a carton of baby food spinach or squash instead of the applesauce :-) Well, brownies are easy to sneak in mystery ingredients-lol! 

     Unfortunately my brownie happiness bubble was burst today as I made a discovery. The low histamine diet starts as an elimination diet then reintroduces foods one at a time after 4-6 weeks of elimination to see which ones cause a histamine reaction. With the holidays coming up my daughter was looking for safe treat options. When considering a recipe for them I review an eight page print out of histamine foods. There is no precise list of foods but several sources have attempted to provide a list that categorizes foods in a ranking order based on how much histamine they can produce. The foods on this listed are categorized into groups by numbers 0-4. The 0 foods are completely fine to eat while the 4 foods are absolutely not tolerated. Everything else inbetween is questionable. Some individuals may do fine eating a number 1 or 2 food while another may have a histamine reaction. So I was glancing down the list again today and I see that banana's and carob powder are a number 2 food! How did I miss that before?!! Carob was equivalent to chocolate as a number 2 food! I had glanced at that list and did not even see carob on it so I thought it was safe. My daughter hadn't made anything with carob yet and did question me on it. Unfortunately she took my word that carob was fine and didn't check the list. Ooops, at least they didn't eat these brownies yet! Looks like I'll be brainstorming other ideas for safe treats. Perhaps later when they reintroduce chocolate or carob back into their diet they will find it is an okay food for them. Meanwhile don't let this discourage you from trying this recipe!! It really is a yummy brownie recipe. Of course this uses carob powder but feel free to use cocoa powder as well.

If you aren't familiar with carob powder, here are some of my thoughts on it:

     Carob powder can be used in recipes as a substitute for cocoa powder. That is the standard recommendation for people looking for an alternative to chocolate. Okay, let me stop here and tell you this is partially a false statement. For those that can not eat chocolate this could be a delightful alternative! The main thing that cocoa powder and carob powder have in common is that they are both a brown powder. I am not going to tell you it is a substitute for chocolate because then you will be expecting it to taste like chocolate. Chocolate and carob each have their own distinct tastes. As far as baking with carob powder it is true that you can substitute it in recipes in place of cocoa powder.

     Carob powder will function the same as cocoa powder in a recipe without making any other alterations to the recipe. Inside a carob pod are seeds, similar to a watermelon seed, that get roasted before it is ground into a powder. The amount of time the seeds are roasted will effect the flavor of the carob powder. That is why different brands of carob powder can each have a different flavor. Like cocoa powder, carob powder tastes awful by itself. I find carob's strong roasted flavor can be overpowering in a recipe if to much is used so I think the secret to a successful carob recipe is finding a balanced ratio with the other ingredients. In chocolate recipes, sometimes a tiny amount of instant espresso can enhance the chocolate flavor. This is similar with carob recipes, sometimes a little something else will round out the flavor better. Often it is recommended that you need to use 1 1/2 - 2 times more carob powder to get a similar balance to cocoa powder. I find this just makes 'carob over kill' in the recipe and a taste so strong people often will dislike the item. Instead look for ways to add hints of another flavor to the recipe. I think there is a distinct 'roasted' taste to carob, similar to coffee but that isn't saying it tastes like coffee. You will just have to try these brownies! :-) 

Carob Banana Brownies
Vegan, dairy-egg-nut free
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

½ cup all purpose flour*

¼ cup coconut flour

½ cup organic sugar

½ t. baking soda

¼ t. salt

6 T. carob powder

3 T. coconut oil

½ cup water

1 EnerG egg replacer

¼ cup mashed banana

½ t. pure vanilla extract

*If you want to use only all purpose flour, omit the coconut flour and use 1 cup all purpose flour.  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper. The parchment paper should come up two sides of the pan so that you can lift the brownies out.

1. In a medium bowl add the dry ingredients. Whisk to thoroughly combine.

2. In a small saucepan add the carob powder, coconut oil and water. Bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat when ingredients are combined.

3. Add the carob mixture, egg replacer, banana and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Mixture will be thick. Spread the batter into the baking pan.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool in pan on top of a wire rack.

Optional Frosting:

¼ cup organic sugar

1 T. carob powder

1 T. coconut oil

2 ½ T. nondairy milk

6 T. organic powdered sugar

¼ t. pure vanilla extract

In a small sauce pan add the sugar, carob powder, coconut oil and nondairy milk. Bring to a slow boil, stir constantly for 3 minutes. You want the sugar to completely dissolve.

Transfer this to a medium bowl. Allow to cool down so it is just slightly warm. Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread on top of the brownies while they are in the pan. When completely cool, lift the brownies out with the parchment paper and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into desired size.