Double Chocolate Olive Oil Brownies

My current favourite brownies! These chewy olive oil brownies have a little more (coconut) sugar than a typical OE recipe, but it’s well worth it here.

A hint of hazelnut flavour from hazelnut flour, cocoa and dark chocolate, and a touch of olive oil make for some very interesting brownies. These are no bland white flour brownies, with only sugar to make them tasty – there’s a lot going on here, in a good way.

This recipe was also shared as part of a sponsored post with gebana on Instagram, featuring their organic extra virgin olive oil from Palestine.

Ingredients

• Dark Chocolate: some melted right into the brownies, and some chopped throughout.
• Olive Oil: baking with olive oil is a dream, and it pairs wonderfully with the bitter chocolate.
• Eggs: you could try subbing a flax egg, but they are key for the right texture.
• Vanilla: if using powder or paste, halve the amount.
• Coconut Sugar: quite a lot, but these are brownies, and it’s needed to balance out the chocolate and cocoa.
• Spelt Flour: light. As always, sub all-purpose if preferred.
• Hazelnut Flour: if you can’t buy this, make your own by grinding raw hazelnuts into a fine meal in a food processor.
• Cocoa: not to be mistaken with drinking cocoa. There should be no additional ingredients such as milk powder or sugar in your baking cocoa.
• Baking Soda and Sea Salt

Step by Step

Tips and Notes

If you don’t have a 20×20 cm tin, a 15×20 or another that is slightly larger or smaller will work fine. The baking time will change slightly so keep an eye on your brownies.

This is a thick batter and must be pressed into the tin. It’s normal, you haven’t made a mistake.

Use 70% or higher chocolate. Sweeter chocolate results in a less desirable texture, and makes the brownies far too sweet.

Substitutions

Sub cane sugar for coconut if it’s all you have on hand. I haven’t tested this and it does contain more water, so you may get softer brownies.

I haven’t tried to make this recipe vegan. Presumably a flax or other egg substitute would work, but I can’t speak on it.

If you need a gluten-free option, I recommend just going with my almond flour brownies instead. The texture is obviously different, but they were developed as GF, so it’s a safer option than trying to change this recipe.

I haven’t tested this recipe with Dutch process cocoa powder, just natural cocoa, and I am a bit concerned with how it might react. It’s a concern when using baking soda. In this case, I would recommend using natural cocoa to be sure.

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