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!
| Clean & Fudgy Dark Chocolate Strawberry Brownies | | Print |
- ¾ cup (90g) white whole wheat flour (measured correctly)
- ¾ cup (60g) unsweetened cocoa powder (measured correctly)
- 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
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ½ cup (120mL) pure maple syrup
- 1 cup (140g) frozen unsweetened strawberries, thawed slightly and diced
- Preheat the oven to 300°F, and lightly coat an 8”-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- 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 Greek yogurt, mixing until no large lumps remain. Stir in the maple syrup. Mix in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Gently fold in the frozen strawberries.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 300°F for 20-24 minutes (20 minutes yields the fudgiest brownies; 24 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.
Regular whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted in place of the white whole wheat flour.
Honey or agave may be substituted in place of the maple syrup. Alternatively, ½ cup of brown sugar plus ¼ cup of milk may be used instead.
If using fresh strawberries, the bake time may be reduced by a few minutes. The brownies are done when the edges look firm and the center looks glossy but mostly set.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
These Look absolutely amazing! I have a massive sweet tooth and brownies are one of my fave!, will definitely be trying these!,
Thanks for posting the recipe!, I’ve just started my own blog and your post have inspired me to post some of my baking favourites!, amazing blog by the way!
Thank you so much for your kind words Rhianna! I really hope you enjoy blogging too! 🙂
These brownies look so delicious! I love how they’re healthier too! Healthier chocolate… Mmmm.
You had me at fudgy <3 Love the look of these, girl! And the fact that they're made with healthy ingredients just makes them even better!
Hi Amy, these look so tasty! I love practically anything with strawberries. I’ve been enjoying your recipes lately! I especially appreciate that your recent recipes don’t include artificial sweeteners (like Splenda and Truvia) or protein powders. I prefer getting sweetness and protein from their original sources. Thank you for your great recipes and your cute stories 🙂
Thanks for your kind words Amry!
Love brownies! Never tried them with strawberries before but it sounds amazing!!!
Thanks!
For the curious, I tried these using fresh strawberries, and it worked just fine! (I live in Santa Cruz, CA where we get the most amazing strawberries for 3/4 of the year, so it would be a crime to use frozen!!)
I’m so glad you enjoyed the brownies Carolyn! I’m slightly jealous of your long and delicious strawberry season! 😉
Thanks for posting this comment, Carolyn. I was just wondering about using fresh berries because I have five quarts in the fridge and need to get them used up.
I’d love to hear what you think if you try these brownies Annette! 🙂
Can the Greek yogurt be replaced by apple sauce (or some other non-dairy thing) by any chance? It seems like that’s feasible with bready things…
I’d recommend a non-dairy yogurt substitute! Silk makes some great soy-based ones, and I’ve been able to substitute them in recipes without a problem. Almond- or coconut-based yogurt substitutes would work as well. I hope you and your boyfriend enjoy the brownies! 🙂
Made these yesterday with mixed results. Ended up using coconut yogurt (the only non-dairy yogurt I could find other than almond, which should be avoided). I had to bake them a lot longer (25 minutes or so) than the directions indicated before they stopped seeming raw in the middle (I went with 18 originally due to using fresh strawberries). They’re okay… I love the dark chocolate taste, my boyfriend’s not as big of a fan, and we are both apparently not big on the chocolate and strawberry combination. lol And apparently he doesn’t like cooked strawberry. They get mushy and so sweet they taste rotten. He loves them raw for their sourness. First time I’ve ever made brownies, though, and I’m glad to know a way to make them dairy-free! I don’t do much baking, so this was a great learning experience all around. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
My pleasure! The brownies shouldn’t look fully set in the center when you pull the pan out of the oven, still somewhat glossy instead. The center will continue to cook through from the heat of the pan and the surrounding heat in the rest of the brownies as the pan cools to room temperature. Maybe this brownie recipe of mine will be better for you and your boyfriend because they don’t contain any fresh fruit!
I made the chocolate strawberry Brownies for a cancer patient. I didn’t try them though. But I had to increase the time by 10 minutes because they were still not set at 18 minutes. I don’t know if my electric oven or living in Colorado Springs played a factor in the increased time in the oven. I did use frozen fresh strawberries though.
That’s really sweet of you to bake these brownies for the cancer patient Patricia! They’re so lucky to have you! 🙂 How frozen were the diced strawberries when you added them to the batter? If they were still almost all the way frozen, that would’ve factored into it. You can try thawing the strawberries completely, then patting off some of the extra thawing liquid with a paper towel. The brownies shouldn’t quite look set in the center when they’ve finished baking, but you’ll know they’re done if the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan within 5-10 minutes of removing the pan from the oven.
Yummy! These were soooo good (and easy!) when I calculated the nutrition they came out even lower calorie and sugar! (possibly just because of the ingredients I used). Taste and texture is so perfect- thanks for an amazing recipe ?❤️?
I’m so glad you enjoyed the brownies Nicole!! 🙂
This recipe was complete…sorry completely great!
In my quest to teach my child the love of cooking and baking, I wanted to start off with a dessert, of course. Clean eating recipes are the only ones I want to use with my daughter. It’s important to teach her food is best when you use whole ingredients.
I searched for strawberry’s since they are in season, and brownie because my husband loves brownies. Saw this and decided this was the winner.
I had to substitute 2 ingredients, we only had nonfat strawberry Greek yogurt, so that was used and then I used Agave nectar.
I baked on the center rack for 24 minutes, after that time the center was still very/too moist. I left it in for an additional 13 minutes and it came out PERFECT!
Very fudgy texture, no flavor is over powering. Just completely perfect for anyone who loves fudge like brownies.
Thanks for doing what you do. We’ll definitely be using your website for ALL types of recipes.
PS: THANK YOU SO MUCH for putting the nutritional information AND the precise measurements. Not enough people do that!
I’m truly touched that you decided to use my recipe Melanie! That means so much to me that you thought it was worthy of making for your daughter. Thank you for sharing that with me! I’m happy to add the precise measurements and nutrition information, especially when sweet people like you appreciate them and find that useful. 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed the brownies, and I can’t wait to hear what you try next!