This past Sunday, I was a Tasmanian devil of energy, whirling around in productive circles of chores and checklists. From washing dishes and scrubbing kitchen counters to folding laundry baskets of clothes and fixing the shower drain (the curse of long hair!), I was go-go-going from when I woke up clear through the last few moments of afternoon sunshine.
Just before dinner, I darted out to drop by the bank and the upscale grocery store across the parking lot. Although I’ve wanted to try tinkering with a few specialty ingredients for a couple of months, I’ve been putting it off because my normal supermarket doesn’t stock them, but my fit of productivity ended that procrastination.
As I strode purposefully into the store, walking as fast as I could to find those items and return home, my Tasmanian tornado caught up to me just before I reached the baking aisle. It created a little breeze, fairly imperceptible to other shoppers, but that breeze picked up a familiar aroma from the end cap display…
Coffee. That warm, rich, earthy smell, deeply cozy and reminiscent of home. Especially the small counter where my dad fills his coffee maker with grounds every night and leaves a mostly drained mug every morning. It’s a smell of love, rest, relaxation, and comfort—a few things I’ve recently neglected in my hectic, productivity-focused days.
So when I arrived home and had put away the groceries, I devoted the remainder of the evening to a few of my favorite things: reading a book, nibbling on cookies, and baking something chocolaty. Which resulted in these Healthy Raspberry Mocha Brownies.
The recipe is fairly similar to the most popular brownie recipe on my blog, these clean & fudgy dark chocolate frosted ones. They’re made with whole wheat flour, sweetened with maple syrup, and richly decadent from lots of cocoa powder. But today, we’re skipping the frosting and replacing it with…
Raspberries and coffee. Two of my favorite things! (And now I’m craving homemade raspberry mocha frappuccinos… Whoops.)
Instant coffee provides the rich background coffee taste. You can find instant coffee on the coffee and tea aisle near the regular coffee grounds, but do not substitute those regular grounds! We need the instant kind because it dissolves in liquids — or in this case, Greek yogurt. Regular coffee grounds would taste gritty and, well, not so nice.
When it comes to berries, most of the time I bake with frozen because they’re cheaper and readily available year-round. I do make exceptions though! But because these brownies are meant to be as easy as possible, we’ll go that frozen route. I mixed in a cup of frozen raspberries straight from the bag without pausing to chop them—like I said, lazy and easy!
Because of the raspberries releasing juice into the batter, these brownies bake for longer than traditional plain recipes. To make sure they stay extremely fudgy, we’ll bake them low and slow. I always hoard the moistest, fudgiest squares in the center because they taste like pure fudge to me!
Here’s to slowing down and relaxing with a plate of brownies. You deserve it! ♡ And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy raspberry mocha brownies!
Healthy Raspberry Mocha Brownies
Ingredients
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp instant coffee
- ¾ cup (90g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- ¾ cup (60g) unsweetened cocoa powder (measured like this)
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120mL) pure maple syrup
- 1 cup (140g) frozen unsweetened raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F, and lightly coat an 8”-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, stir together the Greek yogurt and instant coffee until smooth. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup. Mix the Greek yogurt mixture into the egg mixture until no large lumps remain. Mix in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Gently fold in the frozen raspberries.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 300°F for 21-25 minutes (21 minutes yields the fudgiest brownies; 25 minutes yields slightly cakier brownies). Cool completely to room temperature in the pan, and let the brownies sit for at least 8 hours at room temperature for the fudgiest texture before serving.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ Healthy Peppermint Drizzled Chocolate Fudge Brownies
♡ Healthy & Fudgy Dark Chocolate Frosted Brownies
♡ Healthy Coffee Loaf Cake with Dark Chocolate Drizzle
♡ Healthy Mocha Chocolate Chip Scones
♡ Healthy Mocha Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins
♡ Healthy Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffles
♡ …and the rest of Amy’s healthy brownie recipes!
i have seen that you used greek yogurt in a lot of recipes…is it just for taste of some purpose like it helps in baking or anything.
Bdw i love your creativity with baking
Thanks Rashida! The Greek yogurt provides the same amount of moisture and texture to baked goods that excess butter or oil would, but without the extra calories. It isn’t just for taste! 🙂
I love how fudgey these brownies look – and raspberry + coffee +chocolate are such a great combo!
Thank you so much Jeanette! I need to work with this flavor combo more often!
How do you think these will do without the instant coffee? My mom loves brownies, and these look delish, but she does not like coffee (weird right? lol).
Usually coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate and is a subtle addition to a recipe. I also don’t like coffee (unless it comes with chocolate like a mocha something or other :)). I would probably try it once with the coffee granules and see how much it actually stands out before eliminating it….but we can also see what Amy recommends. 🙂
You’re right Melody, coffee can enhance the taste of chocolate, but only when added in very small amounts (i.e. ¼ teaspoon or less). Because there is a full 2 teaspoons in these brownies, you can definitely taste the coffee, but if you enjoy mochas, then I think you’ll like these!
They’ll taste just fine Katelyn! Like regular fudgy dark chocolate brownies with raspberries. And that isn’t weird at all — I hated the taste of coffee until about 2 years ago!
I love the idea of these brownies and I can love them even more because of the low calorie count! Yum!
Thanks Shelby! Low-calorie chocolate treats are my favorite. I’m too big of a chocoholic! 😉
You know I love me some coffee recipes! Your ability to eat cookies while baking an entirely new treat is impressive. I eat half the batch of new baked goods so eating cookies too would be dangerous.
Yes, I know how much you love coffee Brittany — and I SO wish I could drink as much as you get to! I want to learn your amazing taste-testing skills. 🙂 And the only reason I could eat cookies while baking brownies is… Because brownies take so long to bake, cool, and set until they reach maximum fudginess. I needed a sweet snack to tide me over! 😉
I LOVE berries and chocolate together. And as far as brownies go….the fudgier the better. These look pretty amazing! Your photos are just incredible!
Thank you so much for your sweet words Anne! I’m definitely the same as you when it comes to brownies!
What other berries or fruits can be used in the 10 minute jams?
Berries like raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries would all work wonderfully Leela! Here is my raspberry version. The instructions are slightly different than with cranberries since raspberries contain more water and natural sugar. I hope you enjoy either recipe if you try them!
I made this with frozen blackberries (just because I’d run out of raspberries), subbed the maple syrup with brown sugar, and halved the quantity of blackberries to 70g since I was trying this out for the first time. LOVE the resulting combo! It wasn’t too sweet, had a lovely tangy berry flavor, and the coffee took this to new heights. I have no words… Thanks Amy, for the many brownie variations. I honestly cannot decide which one of your brownie recipes I like best!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these brownies Kinny!! Can you believe I’ve never put blackberries in brownies yet?? That definitely needs to change, after reading your rave review! 🙂 And that means SO much to me that you’re enjoying all of my brownie recipes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!