Flourless Healthy Brownies made with 4 basic ingredients are a moist, fudgy brownies treat with benefits! With no added flour, sugar, oil, dairy, or grains, this easy brownie recipe will surely be a staple in your home!
A few weeks ago, I decided to cut out all excess sugars, including less refined sugars like coconut sugar, honey, even sugar-free sweeteners, etc. While for me sugar cravings do lessen with time, chocolate cravings really hold strong.
You could say chocoholism runs thick in my blood veins.
My father ate chocolate mousse every single day when he was in his twenties, still drinks chocolate milk, and will destroy a bowl of raw chocolate chip cookie dough if given the opportunity…so you could say I just can’t help it.
And boy oh boy do I fiend.
And I’m thusly always looking for chocolatey goodies that I can regularly enjoy without a lot of added sugar.
Enter: these Flourless Healthy Brownies.
Made with 4 ingredients, zero of which are natural or refined sugar, ultra fudgy and moist, grain-free, dairy-free, oil-free, basically free of everything but these 4 ingredients…let’s chat about them.
Ingredients for Flourless Healthy Brownies:
Ripe Banana: The majority of the sweetness and much of the bulk of these brownies come from ripe bananas! Be sure the bananas you use are ultra ripe, meaning they have many brown spots or are even fully brown. Yes you can taste the banana!
Almond Butter: Creamy unsweetened almond butter takes the place of flour and oil in this brownie recipe. It serves as the ingredient that binds everything together, makes it nice and creamy, moist, and fudgy. Almond butter is a miracle ingredient in this recipe! You can also use peanut butter, cashew butter, tahini, or sunflower seed butter. Just be sure whatever you use is well-stirred and is all-natural (doesn’t contain added oil or sugar).
Egg: 1 egg makes these fudge brownies nice and light, similar to mousse! It also helps stabilize the recipe so that it bakes evenly and holds together well.
Sea Salt: Just a pinch of sea salt helps bring out the sweetness of the banana and also adds a well-rounded richness. Don’t skip it, especially if the nut butter you’re using contains no salt.
Cocoa Powder: The chocolate portion of this adventure. I like using raw cacao powder, but you can also use regular unsweetened cocoa powder. It adds that rich chocolatey niceness to these brownies…essential!
Optional Add Ins: Add ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans for a texture infusion. If you’re looking for a sweeter brownie, add 2 to 4 tablespoons coconut sugar or sugar-free sweetener (like Swerve, Monk Fruit Sweetener, Truvia, etc). Add ½ cup sugar-free chocolate chips if you dare!
I’m going to give it to you straight – these brownies do not taste like actual brownies by any stretch of the imagination. They are more like banana chocolate fudge bars if there is such a thing.
Are they sweet? Yes, but not overly so. Are they rich? Absolutely. Do you make these when you’re craving something sultry and decadent? No…you make these when you’re looking for a treat made with zero added sugar. 😉
Now that you’ve been debriefed, let’s bake a batch!
How to Make Flourless Healthy Brownies:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 8” x 8” baking pan with parchment paper.
Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl until creamy. It’s okay to leave the bananas chunky if you’re okay with it.
Whisk the egg and almond butter into the mashed bananas and stir well until very well-combined.
Add the cocoa powder and stir well until combined. Note that the cocoa powder won’t want to stir into the batter easily, so it will take a little bit of elbow grease to get it to all combine together.
Transfer the batter to the parchment-lined baking dish and smooth into an even layer.
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes until the brownies feel firm when gently poked in the center.
Allow brownies to cool at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Make Them Vegan!:
Simply omit the egg and add 1/4 cup of additional almond butter to make these brownies vegan! They hold together very nicely without the egg and there is no need for an egg replacer 🙂
Enjoy!
More Healthy Brownies Recipes:
- Gluten-Free Rolled Oat Pumpkin Brownies
- Espresso Keto Brownies
- Flourless Avocado Brownies (Paleo)
- Paleo Sweet Potato Fudge Brownies
- Black Bean Brownies
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Healthy Flourless Brownies
Ingredients
- 4 ripe bananas about 1 1/2 cups mashed
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup unsweetened creamy almond butter
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 8” x 8” baking pan with parchment paper.
- Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl until creamy. It’s okay to leave the bananas chunky if you’re okay with it. Whisk the egg and almond butter into the mashed bananas and stir well until very well-combined. Add the cocoa powder and stir well until combined. Note that the cocoa powder won’t want to stir into the batter easily, so it will take a little bit of elbow grease to get it to all combine together.
- Transfer the batter to the parchment-lined baking dish and smooth into an even layer.
- Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes until the brownies feel firm when gently poked in the center.
- Allow brownies to cool at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Nutrition
I made these last night with a few substitutions and thought I would post here in case anyone wanted to do something similar. Didn’t have almond butter on hand so subbed it out with greek yogurt and also added ~1/2 tsp baking soda. Baked at 350 on a fan oven and these turned out pretty nice! Definetly will be making again. They taste exactly like what’s in them…banana and chocolate 🤣 I love how you claim that this isn’t going to be a blow your socks off best brownie ever
as well!
Thanks so much for reporting back, Emily! I like the idea of trying Greek yogurt…I may just give this a whirl myself! xoxox
Is it possible to add unflavored protein powder to this recipe? How would that change the texture? This looks SOOOO good but I’m also hoping I can get some protein in while eating them 😁
I love that idea! I haven’t tried the brownies with protein powder, but my guess is a couple scoops would work. It may change the texture a bit, but I’d start small and see what happens. xo
If I separate and beat the egg white until soft peaks, then fold the rest of the mixture in, would it make the brownies a bit fluffier?
Hi Anon,
I haven’t tested the recipe trying that method, but I believe it would make them fluffier, yes. Let me know if you try it! xoxo
Hi, I would love to try this! Can you use unsalted butter instead, does it make much difference to the taste? I always have these ingredients stocked but can easily get almond butter. Thanks 🙂
Hi Samantha,
Are you wanting to replace the almond butter with regular butter? I’m not sure I understand what you mean..
@Julia, yes regular unsalted butter
Hi Samantha,
I haven’t tested it with unsalted (or salted) butter yet, but I’m assuming it won’t work. Nut butters have more mass/solidity to them than butter so I think the brownies would be too oily and not hold together if you were to replace the nut butter with regular butter. That said, any nut or seed butter should work great 🙂 xoxo
@Julia, thank you for your wisdom. I will get the nut butter as I don’t want soggy brownies 😊
Oh great!!! I hope you enjoy them, Samantha!! xoxo
Do you think it would work if I sub almond butter for sunflower seed butter ?
Absolutely! I’ve made them with sunflower seed butter and love them that way too! 😀 xoxo
Can you use bananas that have been in the freezer?
Hi Alicia,
That’s a great question! I’m not sure because I haven’t tested it. In my experience, bananas that have been frozen and thawed tend to be much wetter than ripe bananas that haven’t been frozen. If you try it using frozen bananas, I would thaw them all the way and not use the excess liquid that comes out from thawing. Let me know if you try it!
I made these last night and can’t believe how fudgy and yummy they are! Came out looking exactly like the picture too! Great recipe, well enjoyed!
I’m so happy you like them, Brandy!! Thanks so much for reporting back! xoxo
Adding a banana is adding sugar and a good amount of it. Still ends up high carb food that will spike blood sugar
Hey Sal. The post says “no added sweetener.” Bananas aren’t considered a sweetener (unless I’ve missed something and they’re condensed down and packaged up and sold at the grocery store in granulated form…in which case, I want in) Those with blood sugar issues are aware they need to stay away from fruit in high quantities. Nowhere in the post did I suggest diabetics eat these muffins, and nowhere on my site do I claim every single recipe is meant for people with high blood sugar. Common, man!
@Sal, this comment is useless and unproductive. Bananas are sweet, we all know this! The beautiful part about this recipe is that it relies on the natural sugars rather than adding them. If bananas get your pants in a wad maybe go eat some celery?!
Thanks so much for the support, Kelly! xoxo
We have also eliminated all sweeteners except fruit. We will use sweeteners on actual holidays and birthdays, but not other days. I think my kids will love these, thank you for the recipe!
My pleasure! I hope your family enjoys them! xoxox