Clean & Fudgy Dark Chocolate Strawberry Brownies

 
This past Friday evening, my guy and I put my parents’ season tickets to use and drove over to the stadium to watch my favorite team’s baseball game. With thicker traffic and more freeway accidents than usual, we barely made it to the off ramp before the scheduled start time, and we joined the long snail-paced line of cars eager to make it into the parking lot.  

As we crept closer, we spotted extra police cars and parking attendants directing vehicles straight past the entrance. We glanced over and noticed that half of the parking lot had been blocked off—for the deserted remnants of a kids’ basketball camp.

All of those empty spaces!
 

 
However, the parking attendants randomly selected our car to enter the very full regular parking lot, so we wandered up and down the rows of cars for half an hour, desperately trying to find a spot. Eventually, we gave up and made our own along the barricades separating the basketball camp (and after the game, we saw that tons of cars ended up doing the same thing!).

Finally inside of the stadium, we sank into our seats and settled in to watch the game. As I pulled out snacks from my purse, I noticed a dad and his 5-year-old son sitting to my left out of the corner of my eye, and the boy practically bounced up and down in his seats, begging for a treat.

His dad reached into their backpack, pulled out a plastic container, and as he snapped off the lid, the sweet smell of chocolate wafted over the seats. Being a huge chocoholic, I couldn’t help but glance over to see what it was: a big frosted store-bought brownie.
 

 
As much as I wanted a chocolaty reward too for circling the parking lot while searching for a space for so long, I didn’t try to ask for a bite… I knew I had these Fudgy Dark Chocolate Strawberry Brownies of my own at home!

Although these brownies are healthier than store-bought or boxed mixes, they’re just as simple to make! You’ll whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet in another; then stir them together and pop everything in the oven to bake. Easy peasy!
 

 
To make things even easier, all of the chocolate flavor comes from cocoa powder. That means no messy chocolate chips to melt! But because of this, it’s really important to measure the cocoa powder correctly using either a kitchen scale or the spoon-and-level method. Do not scoop it directly from the container. That results in adding 1.5 times as much cocoa to the batter, which would make them taste almost as bitter as 100% baker’s chocolate. We’re aiming for 72% ish chocolate flavor, so lightly measure!

To keep them clean-eating friendly, these brownies are sweetened with pure maple syrup. With how much cocoa powder goes into the batter, you won’t taste any maple flavor at all! It simply adds sweetness. If you prefer, honey or agave would work too, as well as brown sugar and milk. For those substitutions, see the Notes section beneath the recipe.
 

 
And now for the special star—the strawberries! I opted for frozen unsweetened strawberries because they’re generally cheaper and readily available all year round. (Plus I always seem to snack on the pints of fresh berries I buy and forget to save some to bake with…) We’ll add a full cup to the batter so every bite has a sweet bit of fruit!

Here’s my secret to extra fudgy brownies: bake them low and slow. Just 300°F. This ensures that the center of the pan sets without the edges turning crisp and crunchy. Just remember to pull the pan out of the oven when the center is still glossy! The brownies will continue to bake a little bit more as they cool on the counter due to the warm pan, so don’t overbake them.
 

 
And after letting them rest, it’s time to slice and dig in!
 

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