Eggless oaty brownies

The long summer days are still continuing in our neck of the woods. We are not complaining though; after the extreme and bitterly cold winter that we have had, these long , sunny days are so welcome. It’s nice to out and about without having to think if the next step is the one that’s going to make me slip and twist my leg.

Coming back to the kitchen, every time I’m packing the kids’ lunchboxes, I’m greeted with “What’s for dessert mummy?”  Like me, both Rengoni and Agastya have a sweet tooth . Can’t really blame them, it’s in the genes!

Anyways, with school trips and picnics ruling the days, the following  eggless oaty brownies were made to satisfy those cravings and  as a sweet relief to the rest of the ‘healthier’ parts of the lunchbox. Not that the brownies were entirely ‘ naughty’ treats. After all, the whole wheat flour and oats did occupy centre stage. And they tasted so good. Forget about the lunchboxes, myself and Dinesh were to be found tucking into them at night. I had made them after the kids had gone to bed and we couldn’t stop ourselves from ‘trying’ them out. They were fudgy, chocolaty, yet did not leave us with a heavy feeling. I love adding nuts in brownies, but as they were going to be added to the kids’ lunchboxes, I left the nuts out ( so as not to affect those children in school, suffering from nut allergies).  But we still loved them enough to count the pieces left over, for later. So let’s hurry to the recipe-

What’s needed-

1 and 1/2 C of whole wheat flour (atta)
3/4 C oat flakes
2 tblsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
150 gms of dark chocolate, melted and cooled
4 tblsp of dark brown sugar
2 C of milk
5 tblsp of sunflower/vegetable oil

How to-

1. Pre heat the oven at 180 deg C and line an 8 inch square pan with foil.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, oats, cocoa powder and baking powder.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil and sugar.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and tip in the milk mixture. Fold in.
5. Fold in the melted chocolate.
6. Tip the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. Place the pan in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 30 minutes . It will be soft at this stage.
8. Place the pan on a rack and cool completely in the pan.
9. When completely cool, cut into 16 square and serve on it’s own or with some ice cream/whipped  cream.