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A healthy and delicious recipe for avocado brownies! Replace oil or butter with heart-healthy avocados for a delicious and nutritious dessert. These rich and chocolatey brownies are actually good for you!

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Brownies with Avocados!

You can have your brownies and eat them too with these healthy avocado brownies!

In place of more traditional fats like butter or oil, we’ve used avocado which keeps them 100% dairy-free and also saturated fat free.

We also swapped regular wheat flour for coconut flour making these brownies totally paleo (technically not keto because of the maple syrup) and low carb. Not to mention using maple syrup for sweetener – honestly these brownies are delish!

Ingredients in Avocado Brownies

  • Avocado – one large, ripe avocado.
  • Applesauce – you could also replace with 1 large, mashed banana if you don’t have applesauce.
  • Maple Syrup – for sweetness. You could replace with honey, if desired.
  • Vanilla extract – for flavor.
  • Eggs – I know 3 eggs seems like a lot but it’s necessary for the ratio with coconut flour.
  • Coconut flour – do not skip or replace! I’ve never had any luck making these with a different type of flavor so proceed with caution if replacing. Coconut flour is also a great source of fiber.
  • Dutch-processed cocoa powder – do not use regular cocoa powder or cacao, they will be too bitter!
  • Sea salt – helps to amplify the sweetness. Omit if watching sodium levels.
  • Baking soda – to help these avocado brownies rise
  • Chocolate chips – you can also use chocolate chunks. Highly recommend!

Learn how to make Avocado Brownies Step-by-Step

 

Are these avocado brownies healthy?

Love it or hate it, these avocado brownies are healthy! Will these taste like Betty Crocker boxed brownies? Nope. But they will taste totally delicious! Better yet they’re made with super healthy swaps like:

  • Avocado for butter
  • Coconut flour for regular all-purpose flour
  • Applesauce for fudgier texture (you can also replace with 1 large banana if you don’t have any)

This is probably the most controversial recipe I’ve ever posted. If you read the comments you will see that people love them or absolutely hate them! At the end of the day it comes down to taste buds. Like I said, if you like a super decadent and sweet brownie, these are not for you. However, if your tastebuds are acclimated to not that much sugar and grain-free recipes, you will love this avocado brownie recipe.

I’m often asked “are these keto avocado brownies”? No they are not. I use maple syrup to sweeten these brownies. For a full keto recipe you’ll need to use erythritol or monk fruit to sweeten them and a sugar free chocolate chip alternative.

Tips for Making Avocado Brownies

  • Make sure your avocados are ripe – but not TOO ripe. They should be green and creamy inside
  • Coconut flour is essential to keep these brownies paleo – do NOT replace with another flour (even almond flour) unless you know how to adapt flours
  • SIFT YOUR FLOUR! I’m a #lazybaker so I often skip this step but if you watch the video above you’ll see that these avocado brownies come out clumpy if you forget to sift your flour. Still delicious but the texture is off.
  • Use dutch-processed cocoa powder. Because these brownies are already rich, using unprocessed cocoa will make them too bitter.
  • Depending on how you like your brownies adjust the baking time for texture. At 25 minutes they come out on the fudgier side but if you prefer more fudgy bake for less or more cake-like bake for longer
A healthy and delicious recipe for avocado brownies! Replace oil or butter with heart-healthy avocados for a delicious and nutritious dessert.

Storage Instructions

I prefer to store leftovers in the refrigerator though they’ll last for 2 days on the counter in an airtight container.

My favorite way to eat these though is directly from the freezer! I know…sounds gross but it tastes like fudge. Just cut into 16 brownies (or desired amount) and once fully cool place them in a sealed ziplock bag or airtight container to freeze. Take one out and enjoy right away or let sit for 5-10 minutes to thaw up a bit. They’ll last up to 6 months in the freezer (though they never last that long here!)

More Healthy Brownies!

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Avocado Brownies

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5 from 13 reviews

A healthy and deliciousย recipe for avocado brownies! Replace oil or butter with heart-healthy avocados for a delicious and nutritious dessert. These rich and chocolatey brownies are actually good for you!

  • Author: Davida Lederle
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 16 brownies 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Bake
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 large avocado
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (replace with 1 large banana if you don’t have any)
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened dutch-processed cocoa powder**
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with coconut oil or line with parchment paper.
  3. In a blender or food processor blend avocado, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla.*
  4. Add these wet ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk in eggs.
  5. In a separate bowl, sift your coconut flour and dutch-processed cocoa powder. Mix in sea salt and baking soda.
  6. Slowly add your dry ingredients to avocado mixture and stir until well-combined.
  7. Stir in chocolate chips.
  8. Add batter to baking dish and spread so top is even.
  9. Place in oven to bake for 25-30 minutes (slightly less for fudgier brownies or slightly longer for more cake-like brownies).
  10. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before cutting into 16 brownies.
  11. Keep them on the counter in an airtight container at room-temperature for up to 2 days or for a longer shelf-life store in the fridge or freezer (see notes above).

*You can also mash these together by hand but make sure that you mash it up very well and there are no clumps.

** Make sure you use dutch-processed otherwise your brownies will taste bitter – this is the step that people often forget!

Meet the Maven

Hi! I'm Davida and welcome to my corner of the internet. I'm a wellness blogger, yoga teacher, certified herbalist, and green beauty lover.

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187 Comments

  1. after wasting all that money on the ingredients. i had to try one. and I couldnt even get it down my throat. Worst Recipe i have ever tried . Now i know why i dont trust recipes and wing stuff instead. Im not sure how some people say these were delicious they must have cut the ingredients in half.

  2. First time making a paleo desert recipe and very sad to say this recipe was a horrible start. this recipe called for way toooo much coconut flour and cocoa used. my mix was super griny and spongelike not liquidy at all even after following the instructions to a T. NEVER AGAIN !

    1. Hi Melissa, I know what you mean. The first time I baked anything with coconut flour, I was surprised by how dry the mix seems. It’s just the nature of the flour and how absorbant it is. That’s why other recipes may call for more than a cup of regular flour, but you need so little coconut flour! I hope this helps.

  3. Hi! Love these brownies. We don’t have a taste for super sweet and I found these to be perfect. I want to make these in a 2L rectangular baking dish for my son’s birthday. So, want to determine the volume of the pan that the recipe was designed for. Can you tell me the volume of your pan? Alternatively, can you tell me the depth of the 8×8″ pan you used? Thanks!!

  4. I just made these. The house smelled amazing while they were in the oven – and it still smells amazing actually. They taste pretty darn good too! I added the ingredients into my fitness pal app to get the calorie count and they come up to 74 calories and 2.8 grams of fat (16 serving count). That makes these guilt free and delicious at the same time. I will make these again, thanks for the recipe!!

  5. I made these this afternoon.
    I tried other recipes using chick peas as well as zucchini, so I wasn’t sure how these would turn out.
    I seem to have an issue with gluten, not diagnosed but I know when I eat things with flour in them I get pains in my stomach. So I’m trying to eat better.
    I have a sweet tooth too. The other recipes were pretty good, so I expected the same for this one. I have to say they are quite tasty. I like a little crunch, so I added almonds and for my sweet tooth – sprinkled chocolate chips on the top.
    Now to test them on the family. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  6. Not exactly a recipe that I would utilize for a large gathering, because the taste does stray a bit from a regular brownie. However, I would certainly make them again for myself because I enjoyed them! Also enjoyed the experimentation aspect of trying new ingredients ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. HI There, these look delicious and not too complicated but I’m allergic to apples! Is there anything I can use to substitute the applesauce?

  8. Could we omit the eggs? We have an egg allergy in our home and typically substitute applesauce for eggs. But since the recipe already calls for applesauce I wasn’t sure if it would work? Thank you!

    1. I wouldn’t recommend substituting the eggs with applesauce. I think some people have had luck with flax eggs so you could try that out!