Cooking With Chemistry

By: Vincent Perez

Cooking With Chemistry

Baking Two Different Batches of Brownies with Chemistry

• Using healthier fats: avocados contain heart-healthy fats that can potentially lower bad cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease compared to saturated fats found in butter.
• Nutrient boost: avocados are rich in potassium, fiber, vitamin E, vitamin K, and B-vitamins.
• Moisture and creaminess: similar to butter, avocados in my brownies will add moisture and creaminess while reducing the saturated fat content.

One batch will be a classic recipe for brownies. The other batch will be the same; however, instead of using butter, I will replace it with avocados. While this may alter the taste slightly, conducting this experiments offers several benefits:

Why Two Different Batches?

Ingredients for each batch:

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking power
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit and grease an 8x8 baking pan
• In a mixing bowl, mash the avocado and add sugar until smooth
• Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract until well combined
• In a sepaerate bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder
• Mix dry and wet ingredients, stirring until well combined
• Add chocolate chips
• Pour batter into pan and spread evenly
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes
• Allow brownies to cool and cut in squares

• Preheat oven to 35o degrees Farenheit and grease an 8x8 baking pan
• Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat
• Remove the melted butter from the heat and stir in the egg, vanilla, sugar until well combined
• In a seperate bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder
• Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stir until combined
• (optional) add in chocolate chips
• Pour mixture into pan, spread evenly
• Bake in the preheated oven 20-25 minutes
• Allow brownies to cool and cut in squares

I've never baked anything before, so following the instructions exactly was important.

Baking Instructions:

Taste: the taste between the two were overall not too different. You could definetly taste the avocado in the brownie but it wasn't repulsive or distateful. Not terrible, and especially for the added benefits it was definetly worth baking. One change I would have made would have been add more sugar to the avocado brownie.

normal brownie avocado brownie

Comparison

Results

Ultimately, this was a great experiment and I hope to tweak the recipe if possible to make them sweeter and more delicious. More sugar with the added benefits of less saturated fat will make a delicious and healthy brownie.

Eureka!

Thanks!