The day before Christmas, my brother walked over to my house around midday to keep me company during a baking session. Grandma and Dad had planned to pick up a classic bûche de noël as a fancy holiday dessert, so because of my brother’s egg allergy, I offered to whip up a couple of different homemade goodies for him so that he’d be able to enjoy something sweet after our Christmas feast.
When he arrived, he requested these cookies (literally our all-time favorites… we’re completely obsessed!!) as well as brownies. He mentioned that it had been years since he had eaten one of those classic rich and fudgy dessert bars because it was nearly impossible for him to find any decent store-bought options, and as an incredibly busy graduate student, he really didn’t have much time to try baking his own.
I immediately agreed to bake both, and once I had whipped up a double batch of our favorite cookies and put the mixing bowl in the fridge so the dough could chill, I turned to the brownies. I offered to add whatever fun mix-ins my brother wanted to the batter, and his eyes lit up as he started pawing through my vast pantry of ingredients.
He ended up pulling out mini pretzels, milk chocolate covered caramel bites, dark chocolate covered pretzels, pecans, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and mini M&Ms… And just like I had promised, I folded all of them into the bowl of batter.
Well, except the pecans… With them sitting on a different counter, we accidentally forgot about them — but at least he didn’t mind!
After a quick trip to the oven, the pan of my brother’s special candy-laden and egg-free brownies sat cooling on the countertop in all of its incredibly rich, decadent, chocolaty, and fudgy glory. Because the brownies needed to cool and set for at least eight hours, we left them at my house for the evening…
But after baking the dough, I brought over a few of our favorite cookies for my brother that night when we headed to Grandma’s for Christmas Eve!
The next afternoon when we sliced into the brownies after our Christmas dinner, my brother excitedly reached for the first one while the rest of us looked on, waiting for his verdict… And the biggest, sweetest smile spread across his face as he licked the fudgy chocolate remnants from his fingers and reached for a second.
I’d call those brownies a big success!
And today, I made an even better version! Not only are these Healthy One-Bowl Fudgy Chocolate Chip Brownies eggless… They’re also flourless and dairy-free!
That’s right! No butter, eggs, cream, refined flour or sugar in these yummy brownies, yet they’re still incredibly rich and decadent. They literally taste like big squares of fudge! And they’re 72 calories too!
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