Sweets For My Sweet

I came up with an idea to combine my love for brownies and my love for Tim in a cute and chocolately (and kind of lite) Valentine’s Day recipe. I’m a big fan of this lite brownie bite recipe, and I’ve been looking for a reason to make them. I remembered Valentine’s day is coming up, and then I got to thinking how much strawberries resemble hearts. Just a little bit of work with a paring knife and viola, the strawberries turn into hearts! In the end, I got to make something cute for Tim, we ended up getting to eat brownies, and they were lite. That’s what I call a win-win-win!

As I was making the second tray of brownie bites, something magical happened. I decided to experiment with some peanut butter. After all, what goes better with chocolate than peanut butter? The peanut butter got all melty as the brownies baked and was encapsulated inside like a tasty little prize! See how delicious this looks?!

Although the brownie recipe itself is lite, the brownies bites taste as delicious and satisfying as any brownie. They turn out nice and fluffy and not too dense as some other recipes that use substitutions can get. I happened to have a portion of a bag of mini chocolate chips in my freezer that found its way into my brownie mix. I know, I know, the more stuff you add the less “lite” they are. So, it’s up to you if you want to add any extras or stick to the original recipe. Whatever you decide, you will love these little chocolatey treats!

Mini Brownie Bites

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix (21 oz., or mix for 9 x 13 pan)

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cup of applesauce (unsweetened)

2 egg whites, lightly beaten

6-8 small strawberries (optional)

peanut butter (optional)

Directions:

Empty the brownie mix into a large bowl. Whisk dry mix to break up any lumps so you’re not fighting with them once you add the wet ingredients. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Do not overmix. You will want to line you mini muffin tin with liners on this one. With some recipes, you can get away with spray, but not this one.

If you want to make the strawberry heart version, wash and dry a few small strawberries. Cut a V in the top to cut out the core and make the top of the heart. If the strawberry has a very rounded bottom, you can trim it up to look more like a heart, but I left most of mine as they were. They weren’t perfect, but I thought that was part of their charm. Slice the strawberries thinly – about 1/8 of an inch. Fill the muffin liners with the brownie batter and top with strawberry slices.

If you’re going for the peanut butter version, fill the muffin liner halfway with brownie batter, put in a dollop of peanut butter, and then fill the rest of the way with batter.