Applesauce Brownies (No Beans!)

These double-chocolate ultra-fudgy Applesauce Brownies are made with no oil, no butter, and no refined flours! But the great news is – no veggies, strange ingredients, or beans either. These brownies are incredibly tasty – you won’t even miss all the butter and oil! 

Try some of our other healthy baked goods like these Flourless Banana Muffins, this Healthy Ice Cream, or these Healthy Chocolate Cookies.

What To Expect From These Applesauce Brownies

These healthy Applesauce Brownies are ridiculously tasty and made with much–better-for-you ingredients than you’ll find in most brownie recipes. I mean, I will admit they are significantly less healthy with a big scoop of ice cream and drenched in hot fudge sauce (like pictured above), but all things in moderation, right? 🙂 

I’ll chat more about the ingredients in these applesauce brownies below, but I will say here they are made with peanut butter, so they’re more of a peanut butter-chocolate brownie. For the best fudge-like, pure-chocolate (no peanut butter) brownie recipe, check out these Healthy Brownies. That recipe also includes an optional chocolate frosting, so if you’d like to frost these Applesauce Brownies, use the frosting recipe on that post for these brownies!

As far as texture goes, Applesauce Brownies are fairly fudgey but like more of a gooey cake-like brownie. 

There are no black beans, no vegetables, and no strange ingredients that will have you searching the aisles of a health food store. So let’s discuss what is actually in these brownies!

Applesauce Brownie Ingredients

• Creamy peanut butter.Use smooth peanut butter for these muffins, not chunky. If using natural peanut butter, make sure it’s well mixed and not oily. Choose a peanut butter you enjoy on its own. We like dry-roasted and lightly salted ones.
• Honey.We add some honey for sweetness, but we also use brown sugar. Using too much honey can make the brownies too wet.
• Brown sugar.This recipe has less brown sugar than usual for brownies. You can adjust the amount of sugar; see the “quick tip” below.
• Vanilla extract. Vanilla adds a nice flavor to the brownies. 
• Unsweetened applesauce. If you use sweetened applesauce, use less brown sugar. The recipe is based on unsweetened applesauce, which helps control how sweet the brownies are. Different brands of sweetened applesauce vary in sweetness, so unsweetened is best for consistency.
• Egg. These brownies need one large egg.
• Oat flour. More on this ingredient in the section below!
• Cocoa powder: Use natural cocoa powder, not a Dutch-process cocoa powder. I’ve tested these brownies with Dutched cocoa, and it does not work out well — the consistency and flavor are off! 
• Baking soda, baking powder, salt. Here’s how to make sure your baking soda and powder are fresh.
• Dark chocolate chips:To make Applesauce Brownies healthier, we use dark chocolate. It has good fats and lots of antioxidants.

I mentioned that Applesauce Brownies don’t have refined white sugar. So instead of using white flour, or even whole wheat flour, we use oats. The oats are blended into powdery oat flour. No need to buy this from the store, since it literally takes seconds to make it yourself.

How To Make Oat “Flour”

1. Place old-fashioned or quick oats in a food processor or small blender jar.
2. Blend the oats until they turn into a fine powder, like flour (as shown in the photo above on the right).
3. Stir the oats around to be sure that all the oats have been finely ground. 
4. Measure the oat flour for these muffins after it’s been turned to flour and not in the original whole-oat form. 

Tips

• Put parchment paper in the pan with extra hanging off the sides. This makes it easy to lift out the brownies and cut them on a board.
• Check that everything is really gluten-free. Even though the brownie ingredients should be gluten-free, look at the labels to make sure they weren’t made in a place that uses gluten. This is very important for people with celiac disease who can’t have gluten at all.
• Put some dark chocolate chips on top. Before baking, I add a little more chocolate chips over the brownie mix. This way, every bite has a chocolate chip in it!

More Healthy Baked Goods

• Healthy Zucchini Muffins with Greek yogurt
• Healthy Caramel Sauce with almond butter
• Chocolate Energy Bites with protein powder
• Chewy Granola Bars with mini chocolate chips
• Healthy No-Bake Cookies with coconut

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5 from 32 votes

Applesauce Brownies

By Chelsea Lords

These double-chocolate Applesauce Brownies are ultra-fudgy and made without oil, butter, or refined flours! And don’t worry—no veggies, beans, or weird ingredients here. They’re so delicious, you won’t even miss the butter and oil!

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 16 bars

Equipment

• Baking pan 8 x 8-inch, see note 1
• Small blender or food processor

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1/4 cup oat flour old-fashioned oats that have been blended
• ▢ 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• ▢ 2 tablespoons honey
• ▢ 1/4 cup brown sugar lightly packed, see note 2
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• ▢ 1/4 cup cocoa powder not Dutch-process cocoa powder
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips divided, or semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 350℉. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper..
• Pulse oats in a food processor or small blender until ground into a flour consistency. Measure 1/4 cup after blending.
• In a large bowl, mix peanut butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, egg, and applesauce until smooth. Once smooth, stir in oat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips until combined.
• Transfer batter to the lined baking pan, smoothing it evenly. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips and gently press them in. Bake for 20–22 minutes or until lightly puffy. Check doneness by seeing if the batter pulls away from the edges slightly or a toothpick inserted in the center (not in a chip) comes out clean or with moist crumbs or clean.
• Remove and allow to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about an hour before cutting and serving. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Only use an 8x8 baking pan, and don’t forget to line it or these brownies won’t come out well.

Note 2: If you are new to healthier desserts, you may want a bit more sugar in these brownies. If you make a lot of healthier recipes and don’t mind the brownies being less sweet, you can slightly reduce the sugar. We like these brownies best with a lightly packed 1/4 cup. If you'd like them sweeter, add 1/3 cup.

Gluten Free: To have gluten-free brownies, make sure all ingredients are, in fact, gluten free. While the ingredients called for in these brownies are naturally gluten free, make sure to check all your ingredient labels to verify they weren’t processed in a facility with gluten.

Storage: Store cooled brownies in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to a week. These brownies are best enjoyed within 2–3 days of being made.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 140kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 110mg | Potassium: 187mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 20IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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