Chocolate Ricotta Protein Brownie

Home-made Protein Brownies

Alison Murray Baking, High Protein, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian 11 Comments

The most popular post on my blog is by far my Home-made Protein Cookies. It far outshines the stats of any other post on Om Nom Ally, and I love that I’m not the only one that hungers for an alternative to the artificial (and expensive) protein snacks on the market.

Chocolate Ricotta Protein Brownie

So why a ricotta based chocolate protein brownie? It’s a high-calcium, high-protein, low-carbohydrate, low-fat, low-sodium musclefood. The perfect base for a protein-dense snack. A wholefood as well as a fermented food, ricotta means “recooked” and refers to the fermentation and cooking of leftover whey from cheese-making. The whey found in ricotta cheese is digested quickly and is high in BCAA’s, great for the post-workout hunger pangs.

If you like experimenting with protein powder in your baking you could use some in place of the almond meal or replace up to 1/4 of the flour to boost your muscle recovery further.

Chocolate Ricotta Protein Brownie

Packing a 9g protein hit per brownie, ricotta, almond meal and quinoa flour make for a pleasantly chewy and dense chocolate brownie. It’s also better to undercook than overcook this snack; the light texture of the ricotta creates a moist and almost gooey centre when enjoyed warm or at room temperature. You can also eat them straight out of the fridge (where they will keep for up to a week), for a chewier bite.

Chocolate Ricotta Protein Brownie

 

Chocolate Ricotta Protein Brownies
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
(egg-free, gluten-free, soy-free, vegetarian; dairy-free, nut-free and vegan with substitutions)
Author:
Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 4 cups ricotta
  • 6 tbsp cacao powder
  • ½ cup coconut sugar (or any other unrefined sugar)
  • ½ cup coconut oil
  • 2-4 tablespoons milk of choice
  • 1 cup quinoa flour
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 4 tbsp almond meal
  • Additions: 1 tsp vanilla extract OR 1 tsp citrus rind OR 1 tsp peppermint extract
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven 200C and line a deep, rectangular slice baking tray with parchment paper.
  2. Blend ricotta, cacao, sugar and oil until well combined. In a large bowl sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour almond meal and ricotta mix into flour bowl and stir well with a wooden spoon. Add milk by the tablespoon until batter reaches pouring consistency.
  3. Pour mixture into parchment lined baking tray, smoothing top with back of wooden spoon. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until brownies look dry and set on top and are pulling away from sides of tray - test firmness with a finger by pressing at edges or pierce with skewer. A few moist crumbs should be on skewer when removed.
Notes
<strong>Nut-free:</strong> Use protein powder instead of almond meal. Use soy or rice milk.

Comments 11

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      I hope you do try them, whole wheat flour would be a perfect option (I’ve recipe used spelt with great results) and canola would be an easy substitute for the coconut oil. Let me know how you go!

  1. Do yuh think you can up the protein powder content to bring these bars around to 25-30g’s of protein a bar, and maybe adding plain greek yogurt in it somewhere and using like pumpkin spice or ground cinnamon to add some flavor to it? This recipe really helps yeah.

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      Author

      I absolutely think you could make the protein amount higher – but I’m not sure about 30g per bar. I’ll have to get out my nutritional content tool and work out what the originals were – I’ll get back to you!
      For whichever flour you use, reduce it a half cup and then I would probably try using 1/4 cup almond meal and 1/4 cup protein powder. The small almond meal amount I originally used was to give the brownies more structure. There was so much moisture from the ricotta that I wanted it to be a bit firmer. Almond meal of course has a good protein content, so using more of it and then protein powder would definitely give the protein content a boost!
      In the weeks after that post I actually made a choc-orange batch that had fresh orange rind and juice and they were spectacular. I took them to work and they were wolfed down. I’ve also been wanting to make a choc-mint batch soon too as I’m out of snacks currently. I think cinnamon and pumpkin spice would make such a delicious combo, let me know how you go with it!

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