• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • about me and belleau
  • contact me
  • pr & demo’s

Belleau Kitchen Homepage

Recipes from my Lincolnshire kitchen

  • Home
  • Chicken Thighs
  • Bread
  • Cakes
  • Eggs
  • Vegetarian
  • Everything else

beetroot and chocolate brownies – celebrating #FairtradeFortnight

2 March 2014 by Dominic Franks

… 24th Feb – 9th March is fairtrade fortnight, a whole two weeks to celebrate the amazing work that the good people at the fairtrade foundation have achieved over the past 22 years.  Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of decades, fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.  It is a sad fact that even now since those 22 years, developing countries still have massive problems with all of these issues, so much so that the fabulous Foncho from Colombia has started his own campaign to ensure the stability of banana farmers all over the world… you can read all about his project and sign his petition here.

… of course as a foodie, for me fairtrade is a mark of reliability for not just food grown with humanity but of exceptional quality… and there’s a great range of products available from many of the UK’s leading supermarkets, from spices to fruit and veg and of course chocolate…

beetroot and chocolate brownies
as many of you will know I debuted my premier London demo-cooking session at Westfield Stratford yesterday.  It was an unusual experience and I felt thrown to the wolves somewhat as it was unlike any of the other demo experiences i’d done… I really had to work the crowd and during my first session I made meatballs which took a long time to pique anyone’s interest but on the second session I whipped up these glorious brownies, adapted from a recipe from the River Cottage Every Day book, and they went down an absolute treat, so much so that I changed my third session to make these again… the kids seems to love the pink icing and the mums love that they can fool their kids into eating vegetables and of course everyone loves chocolate…

for the brownies
250g 70% dark chocolate – all the The Co-Operative own brand chocolate is fairtrade
250g slightly salted butter – diced
230g light brown soft sugar
3 large free-range eggs
160g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
250g beetroot – cooked until soft

for the icing
the juices from the beetroot
roughly 200g icing sugar
2 or 3 tablespoons TOTAL greek yoghurt

grease and line a shallow brownie tin roughly 20cm x 25cm

you can either buy raw beetroot, peel it and boil it until soft or I discovered that most supermarkets sell 250g packets of pre-cooked beetroot which works superbly well and saves a lot of mess… make sure you purchase the beetroot cooked in natural juices not pickled, that would not be nice…

break the chocolate and place it into an oven-proof bowl with the butter and pop the bowl into your cold oven and turn it on to pre-heat to 180C… the chocolate will gently melt as you warm your oven but keep an eye on it, the bowl gets hot, melting the choc and the butter and after about 8 mins you can simply take it out of the oven and stir until it’s melted and gloriously glossy

place the eggs and sugar into a bowl and whisk together until blended and smooth then pour in the chocolate and beat together gently

sift over the flour and baking powder and using the same balloon whisk fold it in to the chocolate egg mix a couple of times

in a separate bowl, grate the beetroot.  Squeeze out most of the juices and retain the bowl with the juices in it

place the grated beetroot into the brownie batter and fold it through gently until all the flour and beetroot has been evenly dispersed

pour into your brownie tin and bake on 180C for 25 – 30 mins… you want a skewer to come out slightly clean but retain a little moisture – set aside to cool

to make the icing simply add the icing sugar and yoghurt to the beetroot juices and beat until you have the desired consistency… you may need to reduce the amount of juices you have before you add the sugar… then simply drizzle this with wild abandon over the brownies

eat and of course, enjoy!

Share this post:

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn E-mail

Filed Under: Everything else Tagged With: beetroot, brownies, chocolate, fairtrade, fairtrade fortnight

Previous Post: « random recipes round-up #37
Next Post: dukkah-crusted chicken thighs »

Reader Interactions

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Comments

  1. Jean says

    2 March 2014 at 9:17 am

    What absolutely fab looking brownies!
    I love the pink icing……..must give these a try!

  2. Karen S Booth says

    2 March 2014 at 2:40 pm

    I love beetroot in chocolate bakes and especially brownies Dom! And yours are as pretty as a picture too, far too many pieces for you and the Viking, think you'll need to send me some! K xxx

  3. Mark Willis says

    2 March 2014 at 4:20 pm

    Interesting to hear about the attitude of the crowd at your demo. Healthy, nutritious meatballs? Nah, we want chocolate with bright pink gooey stuff on top!!

  4. Janice Pattie says

    2 March 2014 at 4:39 pm

    that pink icing reallys sets off the brownies, I'm not surprised that the shoppers were excited to try them!

  5. Kate@whatkatebaked says

    2 March 2014 at 5:59 pm

    Oh my Dom- those gooey fudges brownies look utterly delectable and I love the almost hot-pink beetroot icing. No wonder they were a huge hit yesterday

  6. Antonia says

    2 March 2014 at 6:07 pm

    Beautiful-looking brownies. I really, really want to like the beetroot/chocolate combination but sadly just can't seem to get on with it. The cakes I have tasted had chunks of beetroot in them though so perhaps I would like it better if the beetroot was grated as here. They really do look divine!

  7. Kate D says

    2 March 2014 at 8:41 pm

    What's not to love about brownies? I love the addition of the yoghurt in the icing. And for me, given the choice, it's Fairtrade every time!

  8. Susan Lindquist says

    3 March 2014 at 12:39 am

    Oh! That purple frosting drizzle! Perfect, dearie! XO!

  9. Magnolia Verandah says

    3 March 2014 at 2:15 am

    Great looking pink icing on those beetroot brownies. So clever of you to switcheroo and make double brownies. Never change a winning game (or so they say).

  10. Alexandra Bellavista says

    3 March 2014 at 9:45 am

    gnammy!!!:D
    http://duecuoriinpadella.blogspot.it/

  11. Ren Behan says

    3 March 2014 at 7:00 pm

    I love chocolate beetroot cakes and these brownies look absolutely glorious! Congrats on your debut demo – that's amazing! Love the beetroot icing – stroke of genius 🙂

  12. Elin says

    5 March 2014 at 1:07 pm

    Hi,

    We've recently launched the site myTaste.com, where users can search through hundreds of thousands of recipes from American food sites and blogs. We noticed that you have a lot of delicious recipes on your blog and we would like to suggest you have a look at our site: http://www.mytaste.com/.

    If you want to add your food blog to the list and have your recipes indexed on myTaste.com, all you have to do is follow these instructions: http://www.mytaste.com/add-your-food-blog.

    Hopefully your food blog will be up there in the top!

    Kind regards,
    – Elin, myTaste.com

  13. Sarah Trivuncic says

    5 March 2014 at 1:43 pm

    I spied these on facebook, incredible colour, really eye catching. I'd love to try beetroot in brownies, I did beetroot fudge in the very early days of my blog but not revisited since. So I'm long over due for some beetroot baking!

  14. Michele says

    10 March 2014 at 5:44 pm

    I LOVE the pink icing!! These look scrumptious and so unique.

  15. Rosita Vargas says

    11 March 2014 at 11:19 am

    Muy original su brownies se ve delicioso y atractivo,saludos y abrazos.

  16. Ana Blanca López says

    22 March 2014 at 11:35 am

    Que bonito color con la remolacha, esto ha de estar muy rico.
    Saludos
    Blanca de JUEGO DE SABORES

  17. beck @ Golden pudding says

    19 October 2015 at 5:43 am

    I made these on the weekend, really good! I like the texture of the grated bits of beetroot 🙂

  18. belleau kitchen says

    19 October 2015 at 5:44 am

    Thanks. Glad you liked them! I adore beetroot and chocolate x

Primary Sidebar

About Belleau Kitchen

My name is Dominic, I am a cook, food writer and creative event producer. I write the food blog Belleau Kitchen and also write a monthly recipe column for Lincolnshire Life Magazine and Good Taste Magazine. I also run creative event production company The Persuaders, producing global events for brands since 1997. I am based both in the small village of Belleau in Lincolnshire and the smaller village of London! Read More…

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Subscribe

Archives

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100
Tweets by @DomInTheKitchen

as featured in Lincolnshire Life Magazine

Lincolnshire Life
Belleau Kitchen Basics
Simply Eggcellent

creatively managed by

The Persuagers
Belleau Cottage

Footer

dominthekitchen

Sausage & Mash Pie - nothing quite hits the spot o Sausage & Mash Pie - nothing quite hits the spot on a cold and rainy miserable day!

recipe over on the blog soon - click on the link in my bio for the the picture you want the recipe for. It will take you to my site. 

Today I used @quorn_uk veggie sausages, & @sainsburys frozen mash and cooked it in my @falconenamel pie dish

#pie #sausages #sausageandmash #mashedpotatoes #mash #gravy #vegetarian #veganuary #winterwarmer #food #foodblogger #foodwriter
Mushroom & Kale egg ‘muffins’ ... such a simpl Mushroom & Kale egg ‘muffins’ ... such a simple and easy dish to prepare but SO tasty and healthy too! Amazing eggs from the wonderful folk @scamanseggs 

#recipe coming to the blog soon - check the link in bio

#eggs #eggsofinstagram #eggrecipes #fritatta #omelette #mushrooms #kale #brunch #lunch #healthy #healthyfood #healthyeats
Vegan roast vegetable gravy. The best gravy I’ve Vegan roast vegetable gravy. The best gravy I’ve ever made, easily on par with the roast chicken-wing gravy I made at Christmas. Served here with @quorn_uk ‘meatballs’ and two types of mash - regular potato and swede & carrot. 

#vegan #veganuary #meatballs #meatballsandgravy #gravy #vegetarian #mash #food #foodwriter #foodblogger #sunday #sundayroast
Cake! - is there such thing as a ‘healthy’ cak Cake! - is there such thing as a ‘healthy’ cake?

This fat-free orange and lemon cake is actually an adaptation of the infamous Clementine Cake by @nigellalawson . It’s one of my absolute favourite ‘go-to’ cakes.  If truth be told I usually make it at Christmas because its rich almond nuttiness and intense clementine fruitiness is perfect for the holiday season but looking back over the years I realise I haven’t actually made it for about 8 years! So now seems the perfect time to resurrect an old favourite.  It’s also a great cake to make if you have an abundance of citrus fruit left over from last year.  I always seem to have a few stragglers left in the bowl that really need eating.

#recipe on the website - click on the link in my insta bio for the recipe 

#cake #clementinecake #groundalmonds #baking #citrus #glutenfree #fatfree #food #foodblogger #foodwriter #weekend
vegetable stew with a creamy yoghurt sauce & chedd vegetable stew with a creamy yoghurt sauce & cheddar dumplings with @quorn_uk pieces and @fage_uk yoghurt

The challenge with making food or diet-related New Years resolutions is that it tends to be pretty damn cold this time of year and all we really want to eat is warming soups and stews which often tend to be quite naughty.  With this stew I’ve tried to cut down the fat but still make it unctuous and satisfying although the dumplings are a total cop-out but I’m thinking that this is a ‘one bowl meal’ and I’m not saving it with any other carbs so I’m letting myself off here!

#recipe up on the website now - link in bio

#stew #winterwarmer #dumplings #resolutions #vegetables #veganuary #yoghurt #food #foodporn #foodphotography
Roast Brussels Sprouts Fajitas with homemade Oat-F Roast Brussels Sprouts Fajitas with homemade Oat-Flour Tortillas

Not more Brussels sprouts I hear you cry! But like puppies, Brussels are not just for Christmas.  They are a very versatile vegetables and can be used in so many recipes, plus they’re packed with the good stuff. They’re high in fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, making them a nutritious addition to your diet. They also come with added health benefits, including the potential to reduce the risk of cancer, decrease inflammation and improve blood sugar control.  If all this isn’t good enough for your wellbeing then ive added some tangy Mexican-inspired spices and some homemade tortilla’s to remind us all of the sunshine and holidays… remember them?

recipe on the website - link in bio, by which I mean if you go to my profile page and click on the link, pictures will pop up. Click on the pic you want the recipe for. 

#brusselsprouts #healthy #healthyeats #heathyfood #NewYear #NewYearNewFood #food #foodblogger #foodwriter #fajitas #mexicanfood #tortillas #realbreadcampaign #campaignforrealbread #veganuary
Load More… Follow on Instagram

© 2010 - 2021 | All rights reserved | Website by Peckish Digital