Deceptively Delicious Brownies
I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a long time. It’s the spinach and carrot brownies from “Deceptively Delicious” by Jessica Seinfeld. I know there are many newlywed wives who have picky eaters for husbands and a cookbook like this one can help keep their hubbies healthy without them even know it. There are some people have moral objections to sneaking foods into their loved one’s meals. I consider myself lucky that hubby will eat basically anything. So I would never have to think about sneaking veggies into his meals, but I was still very intrigued by the idea that you can put veggies into a dessert and they supposedly go unnoticed.
I made these last night and let them cool overnight. I realized as I was falling asleep that I used unsweetened baking chocolate instead of semisweet or bittersweet. When I tried one, the chocolate taste was a bit harsh. I think that was due to the unsweetened chocolate. I did like the texture and how well they baked up. I had hubby try one and he had a very similar critique. I told him about the chocolate mishap ahead of time. Although he didn’t say anything about it tasting weird (other than the chocolate tasting a little off). When I told him there were veggies in the brownie, he said he couldn’t even tell.
Deceptively Delicious – I got the recipe from Not Quite Nigella
Nonstick cooking spray
3 oz/90g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup carrot puree*
1/2 cup spinach puree*
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp. trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup oat flour or plain flour – I bumped up the baking powder and salt to account for not using self-rising flour as suggested on Not Quite Nigella
1/2 tsp. baking powder – I used a heaping 1/2 tsp
1/2 tsp. salt – I used a heaping 1/2 tsp
Preheat the oven to 350° degrees.
Coat an 8″ x 8″ baking pan with cooking spray or line with baking paper.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or over a very low flame (or in microwave) In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.
Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.
Created by Jessica Seinfeld
From the book Deceptively Delicious
Makes 12 brownies
I used about 6 oz of spinach which yielded 3/4 cup of spinach puree. For the carrots, I used 3 large handfuls of baby carrots and it yielded about 1 1/4 cup of carrot puree. I’m not sure what I’ll do with my leftover puree, but I’m sure I’ll find something to do with it…
How to puree spinach
PREP No prep at all for baby spinach. For mature spinach, fold leaves in half lengthwise with the stem outside, then strip the stem off the leaf.
COOK Steam for 30 to 40 seconds, or cook in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of water for about 90 seconds, or just until wilted.
PUREE In a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
How to puree carrots
PREP Peel, trim the ends and cut into 3-inch chunks. 
COOK Steam for 10 to 12 minutes.
PUREE In a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes, with a few teaspoons of water if needed for a smooth texture. 
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Jen, I think I just died and went to heaven! Long live the Ring Ding!! LOL
http://www.simplysweeter.blogspot.com
Love this theme, so fun! The whole menu sounds delicious 🙂
Hi Jen,
Wow! These babies look really authentic. I’ve seen a lot of faux Ding Dongs in my day, and yours rank right up there. Very nice job!
🙂 Jane
Oh, I LOVE Ding Dongs!!! And yours look fabulous!
Even at 8a on a monday morning, I feel like I could eat a whole stack of those. Great job, they look delicious!
There is a local baking partnership here in the Los Angeles area that makes individual sized cakes and treats. They also recreate classic favorites such as the Ho-Ho. Thought you might enjoy the link. http://www.cakemonkey.com/
Oh your Ding Dongs look perfect. Absolutely perfect!! They make me want to jump up and make them now. Goodness!! Thanks for sharing the photos and recipe with us. I’ve yet to make the 7-minute frosting, so I’m looking forward to that.
Oh my, what a great recipe!
You’re killing me! Now I have to think about when I can fit Ring Dings into my schedule this week! They’d be so much better from scratch than they would out of the box…
These & oatmeal creme pies were my absolute favorite as a kid. I think they were called King Dons when I ate them. I definitely need to try this!
Oh, how fun. WIsh I had a couple right now.
Ring Dings! :)But that’s what they were called when Drake’s made them and we lived in NYC. Once we moved to FL they were Ding Dongs. Or do I have that backwards, hmm now I’m not exactly sure. Either way it wasn’t I that ate them but my Mom. I’ll have to give them a whirl for her and score some brownie points, hee-hee!
Hope you have a safe and Happy Memorial Day weekend!
~ingrid
omigosh YUM!! they sure do remind me of hostess cupcakes
Your ding dongs look perfect! Great job!
I’ve been thinking of making these for my mother for her birthday next week…but since she LOVE chocolate peanut butter, I thought I would fill the cakes with a peanut butter version of the white cream. Any suggestions on what peanut butter cream I should fill them with??
I would love your input, I trust you more than myself in this matter, haha.
FYI for anyone interested, I made mine into cupcakes since I don’t have round cake pans. The cupcakes take about 25 minutes to bake at the same temp. Really good but tons of work! Oh yeah I got 32 cupcakes using 1/4 cup batter in each cup. I had plenty of filling but I had to made a little more ganache, BUT I was a little heavy with it in the beginning so if you keep that in mind you could have enough.
Love these…I am an East Coat gal and I knew what you meant lol! I will NOT buy these for my kids with what is used for ingredients, but you have inspired me to make them! Thanks!
Sorry to say but mine fell apart and it was entirely to much work. Much better to just go to the store and buy them.
These look just like the original, but I bet they’re so much more tasty. Great job!
beantownbaker — January 5th, 2013 @ 11:44 pm
They sure are better than the original – a lot more work though, but definitely worth it!
Can the coffee be substitutes with anything else?
beantownbaker — January 17th, 2013 @ 4:51 pm
The coffee just enhances the chocolate flavor. You can just use water instead if you don’t have any coffee or don’t like coffee.
I just made these for my mothers birthday(ring dings are the only dessert she enjoys) they came out great! Awesome recipe
beantownbaker — February 3rd, 2013 @ 9:46 pm
So glad you enjoyed them. Happy birthday to your mother!
hey.. made these.. testing recipes for a summer camp job I start this June.. so good, but might stick with cupcakes for kids..
took cake chunks and extra frosting.. made cake balls! Rolled in melted peanut butter then dripped chocolate over… YUM… love your site.. looking for more camp ideas.. kid friendly!
beantownbaker — February 24th, 2013 @ 10:28 am
Cupcakes definitely would be less messy for kids. I really like the portability of bars and brownies. I have tons of those on my blog too.
Making cake balls with PB and chocolate on top sounds amazing!
Never had these before but look good! I might just use the whole cake and cut out rings with the cutter and fill them up in the whole cake then cover in choc. What if you put marshmallow filling? Do you think it would be to soft to cut into pieces of cake?
OMG Jen, just saw this recipe linked from HuffPo article! Sorry, can’t get the link on my phone. 🙁 Slide show on manufactured foods that taste better homemade.
beantownbaker — August 4th, 2013 @ 6:43 pm
Thanks for letting me know! I found the post.
Amazing results. Rarely do I find the recipes that claim to be “just like” the original actually live up to those claims. This one did. LOVE.
beantownbaker — August 27th, 2013 @ 7:58 am
So glad you enjoyed them!
The recipe says to use filling same day. I need to make the cakes a day or 2 ahead of party. If I fill them right away, will they hold for a day or so in the refrigerator ? I don’ t want them to get soggy.
Can these be frozen?
Made these for a friend’s birthday party. Definitely time intensive…assembly took me forever. I made 16 cupcakes and 24 mini-cupcakes and had lots of extra cake batter. The cake is amazing, super moist and flavorful…but fally-aparty so hard to work with when dipping in ganache or spreading ganache over it. After I spent hours making these, they ended up smashed together in one side of the pan that I packed them in to the party. i would highly recommend transporting them in a cupcake tin or something where they will not move. The ganache never “dried” for me so mine were gooey on the outside too, and pretty much a mess to eat. Don’t get me wrong, they taste amazing and everyone enjoyed eating them…but if I was to do it over again, I would just use the ingredients to make a cake.
Do you have to use hot coffee? Can you just use plain hot water.
I don’t know what happened. I made Red Velvet “Fwinkies” (fake Twinkies), but covered them with chocolate so basically a hybrid or a Fwinkho. I have a delectovals pan. After piping in the 7-minute frosting, I dipped the bottoms in melted chocolate to seal and then covered the top in chocolate. The next day, I took them to a sorority luncheon as a treat. Well, the cream filling disappeared and I have to wonder did sealing the bottoms with the warm melted chocolate basically disintegrate the cream filling? I want to make something like this for a gender reveal next week, but I may have to change up the cream filling because I can’t leave the bottoms bare. Any advice?
Thank you!