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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.
  • 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? Hell.to.the.no. 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.

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.

How To Store These Avocado Brownies

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

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 13 reviews

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!

  • 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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186 Comments

  1. Hey, I was just curious. If I substitute regular all purpose flour for the coconut flour (my local store doesn’t sell it) would I get similar results?

  2. Hi Davida!

    I was so excited about this recipe and then became a little nervous at the (mostly rude) disparaging comments about it. I ended up trying it this evening and just wanted to let you know how much my husband and I enjoyed it! The people saying that they aren’t sweet are crazy! We typically do Betty Crocker box mix brownies and I still thought these were plenty sweet (They have 1/2 a cup of maple syrup, for crying out loud, lol!) Even my husband, who loves his junk food, thought they were good, and said that they taste like cake. They do have a *tiny* bit of a grainy texture, but I expected that since they are gluten-free, and GF flours tend to be a bit more grainy. Anyways, just wanted to say thank you and that we loved the recipe! 🙂

    1. Hey Allison! Thanks so much for your feedback. I totally agree, but people have a lot of opinions on everything haha. I figured out that certain types of coconut flour require sifting. I used the same coconut flour for years and it was totally fine, but I recently changed it up and it contributed to them being grainier. Reminds me why it’s important to change up your ingredients every now and then!

  3. I cannot find Dutch processed cocoa anywhere! Do you have a link to what you buy or any suggestions? I made these with regular cocoa and not that good ( just as you warned.)

    1. I tried them! I thought they were great, and plenty sweet. They do have a tiny bit of a grainy texture, as most GF desserts do, but it didn’t really bother me. After reading the comments, I was prepared with walnuts and chocolate chips to doctor them up if necessary, but I didn’t need anything! They were delicious on their own. 🙂

  4. Hi Davida!

    Thanks so much for the recipe. I’m more of an improvisational cook, but I decided to try baking with your recipe.
    The first time I didnt have apple sauce, so I just chopped up some apples instead. Turns out, you can’t do that.
    The second time I was more confident with my newly purchased apple sauce, so i decide to make a double batch. This time, instead of the maple syrup, i used equal amounts of stevia to sweeten. Turns out, that tastes like shit.
    This time, I’ve got all the right ingredients, but still substituting maple syrup with coconut nectar (amber) to make it even lower carb that it already is. I’m looking forward to making this batch!

    Thanks again for your post, and all the other creative recipes!

    Jesse

  5. Made these today. For a healthy chocolatey dessert, these are great! I used 3/4 cup maple syrup (instead of the recommended 1/2 cup) and 1/4 tsp of stevia (because I feared bitter brownies after reading others’ reviews), and was pleasantly surprised– just the right sweetness. After baking for 20 minutes as recommended for the fudgier version, however, mine turned out with a moist cake texture. Maybe should’ve added something to balance out the additional maple syrup. Thanks so much for this recipe!!

  6. I made these last night and they are amazing! The only change I made was to add more maple syrup (an additional 1/4 cup). After they cool in the fridge they taste like perfect moist brownies, thanks for the recipe!

  7. I’m excited to try this receipe! Can I replace coconut flour with almond meal or regular unbleached APF? If yes, would it be the same amount? TIA!!

    1. Hi Madhu. I wouldn’t recommend substituting coconut flour. It’s a very absorbent flour and replacing it will throw off all the other ratios. Sorry!