Healthy Butterfingers? Healthy Brownies? What? I know, hear me out—these, believe it or not, are made with no refined sugars and are gluten free. The Butterfingers candy is even vegan. Not that I really care about that, but my son who is vegan does and he admitted these taste great and just like the candy bars! While deciding to start blogging again, I thought of an idea. I collect cookbooks and love following along with favorite bloggers. With my diet changes, I can’t just make every recipe I want anymore. Well, I can make them, I have just chosen not to eat certain things. It’s been kind of boring. I’ve missed just indulging! My new idea is to make something in a cookbook or from a blog that I think looks great and make the recipe as written once, then change it up to suit my needs another way and share it here.
I recently got to purchase The Recipe Girl Cookbook from one of my longest known food blogger friends, Lori from Recipe Girl. Looking through her cookbook, which you can still get on the link I left for Amazon, besides drooling at all the pictures, I was drawn to one that I remember from way-back-when that I made when she first came out with the recipe not long after I started blogging in 2008 for these Butterfinger Brownies. I remembered that they were so good and decided I wanted to make them again. I made her full recipe for Butterfinger Brownies as written in her book and found on her blog (linked). Here’s the Recipe Girl’s Butterfinger Brownies.
They are great and were eaten up by others around here. But I decided to take the idea and make some I could eat, too. I did a little homework on finding some Butterfingers that were made healthy, I knew I could find some from somewhere online as there are a lot of fantastic bloggers and recipes for candies made healthier out there. I found these Healthier Homemade Butterfingers at Megan’s blog, Detoxinista. She mentions they can be made with either honey or maple syrup. I tried them with both. I definitely like them better with maple syrup and made them twice that way. The honey ones didn’t set up the same. Maybe I didn’t let the boiling honey come to the correct temperature, but the maple syrup Butterfingers taste GREAT! They ARE healthier, but probably should still be eaten in moderation!
I made just a few small changes in the way I made them so I will post that, but all inspiration and detailed instructions that I used came from Megan’s post, so definitely read it before just diving in to my simplified version. Once you add the peanut butter to the boiled maple syrup, it begins hardening to that crispy Butterfinger goodness. I realized I was adding natural peanut butter that I store in the fridge to that hot syrup and it would seize up quickly. So I now warm the peanut butter so it is smooth and a little runny and it mixes a lot nicer and is easily spread into the pan. Megan scores hers before chilling so they are easily cut into bars before dunking them in melted chocolate, but since I was just using mine for chopped up mix-ins, they didn’t need that. I just spread the melted chocolate over the whole panful, then removed it from the pan and foil and broke it into pieces and chopped the pieces with a knife.
I tried a few different brownie recipes that I adapted, but ultimately chose one that I adapted from my favorite brownies. These are made with coconut oil, coconut sugar, a little raw honey and a gluten free flour blend. I’m telling you, I don’t think anyone would have a clue if you didn’t tell them. I love how these brownies turned out, so I made them again and added the chopped Healthy Butterfingers. Heavenly! They are fudgy and have a perfect chocolate and peanut butter ratio. I was actually going to put a chocolate-peanut butter drizzle on the brownies, but decided they didn’t need it.
Healthy Gluten Free Butterfinger Brownies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!
½ cup coconut oil
½ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup maple syrup or honey (I liked the results with honey better but both worked)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
¼ cup gluten free flour blend
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
¾ cup, divided, *Healthy Homemade Butterfingers candy, chopped
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8x8 inch baking pan with nonstick foil. Spray lightly with coconut oil or brush it on. Set aside. In a medium sized saucepan, melt the coconut oil and cocoa powder over medium-low heat. Remove it from the heat when just barely melted. Let sit for a few minutes. Add the coconut sugar and honey or maple syrup and the vanilla and whisk together. Whisk in the eggs and combine well. Stir in the salt and flour. Fold in ½ cup of the chopped Butterfingers. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Scatter the remaining ½ cup of Butterfingers over the top of the batter. Bake for 23-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Let brownies cool completely on wire rack. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until ready to cut and serve. Refrigeration not necessary, but gives them a great fudginess.
*Healthy Homemade Butterfingers, (vegan) by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Detoxinista
1 cup Grade A or B pure maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup natural peanut butter, warmed and stirred until smooth
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips (or chocolate of your choosing), melted
In a tall saucepan, combine the maple syrup and cream of tartar. Attach a candy thermometer to the saucepan. Set heat to medium. Let the mixture come to a boil, do not stir, this could take 5-10 minutes. Prepare a 9x9 inch square pan with nonstick foil. When the syrup has reached 300 degrees on the thermometer, remove from heat and add the warmed peanut butter and salt. Stir quickly to combine well. Spread mixture in the prepared pan. Spread the melted chocolate over the top of the Butterfinger mixture. Cool/harden in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Remove from pan/foil and break into desired sized pieces for sharing and snacking.
