Yes, you read that right! I made brownies with cauliflower! It’s kooky and over the top, even for me! But before you call the men in white coats to take me to the funny farm, hear me out! These low carb brownies are surprisingly delicious! At least this batch was – the first attempt…not so much! Hubs spit it into the garbage, as did my four year old who pronounced them “gross!”
I have to agree – batch one was pretty nasty – tasted like… well… pretty much what you would imagine cauliflower and chocolate might taste like when mixed together! And the texture was way off. So I tossed them into the trash and made some adjustments – less cauliflower, more chocolate, more coconut flour, and some cinnamon, among other things.
It was with a considerable amount of trepidation that I cut into version 2.0 – I really had no idea if they would taste better than the first round. It kills me to waste ingredients, but I just had to try this recipe again because I knew it could work! I’m so glad I didn’t throw in the towel on this one! I knew as soon as I cut into them that they would be good – they had a nice “crumb” to them but also a fudgy texture, that for me, is critical to a good brownie. Intensely chocolatey, slightly sweet, and not a hint of cauliflower to be found, these low carb brownies are definitely among my most unusual and successful recipe creations!
And how did my husband (sworn hater of cauliflower) like them? He said: “I’m not planning to give up regular brownies any time soon, but these are actually really good! I’d never have known they had cauliflower in them if you hadn’t told me.” Win!
I can’t wait to see how many of you are intrepid enough to try them, and find out what you think! I triple dog dare you! ;)
Cauliflower Brownies (Low Carb and Gluten Free)
- Yield: 36 brownies 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1 cup raw cauliflower puree
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 6 squares Lindt 90% chocolate
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup SF chocolate flavored syrup
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup ground almonds
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tsp stevia or splenda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- Puree the raw cauliflower in a blender, then add your almond milk and puree together for another 30 seconds or so. Make sure its completely smooth and there are no chunks!
- Put the butter, chocolate squares and cream cheese into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for one minute. There may be a few small chunks of chocolate still not melted and that’s ok.
- Scrape the chocolate mixture into the blender with the cauli. Puree for about 20 seconds until well blended. Add the chocolate syrup and eggs and blend well.
- Add all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Pour the wet ingredients from the blender into the bowl containing the dry ingredients (scraping to get as much out as possible) and stir to combine thoroughly. The batter will be thick, almost mousse-like.
- Grease a 9 x 9 baking pan and spread the batter evenly into it. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees (F) for 35 minutes. Remove and cool before cutting.
Notes
Use the best quality chocolate and cocoa powder that you can get for the best results. I used Torani brand sugar free chocolate flavored syrup but you can use Davinci or any other brand as long as it’s sugar free. In the recipe I call for almond milk because it’s easily found, but I used an almond/coconut milk blend that I found that is sold by Almond Breeze. If you can find it, try it, but if not you can use either almond or coconut milk beverages found in the dairy section – just be sure to check the carbs (should net out to zero after you subtract fiber) and make sure they are labeled as unsweetened – the original flavor is sweetened and loaded with carbs.
The serving size for these is about 1.5 inch square, because they are so rich and chocolatey you really don’t need much. But if you are making a low carb brownie sundae out of them, which I highly recommend (try my sugar free mint ice cream with these), you might want to cut them a little larger. This recipe is pretty low in calories, so feel free to splurge if you want to!
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Brownies
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 brownie
- Calories: 69
- Fat: 6g
- Carbohydrates: 1.5g net
- Protein: 2g
Now I’m off to make some cauliflower ice cream. Ha ha, just kidding! Or am I??? ;)
For more great recipes, download your copy of The Gluten Free Low Carber today!
I think this will be a keeper (waiting for them to cool off in the fridge). A question for you have 3 teaspoons of sweetener listed midway in the dry ingredients. My powdered sweeteners would take waaay more than that to sweeten that much unsweetened chocolate. I used the 3t as liquid and then added powdered to taste. So the question is: liquid or powdered sweetener? Mine seem to be REAL crumbly. After trying some crumbs, lol, I’m going to freeze the rest in the pan, take them out frozen and bag them separately. Do you have an idea what might be wrong? Only “change” was the fact I had Irish Cream SF syrup rather than Chocolate, that should’t be a issue.
★★★★★
It’s been YEARS since I’ve made these but pretty sure I was using powdered Stevia at the time and it didn’t measure cup for cup like sugar because it was so intense.
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★★★★★
I made these exactly as written, except I used THM Super Sweet blend for the sweetener. The texture was pretty good but I think they needed more sweetness. Maybe I’ll make frosting for them. They take a LOT of ingredients and prep work, but it’s all stuff you’re likely to have if you do much low-carb baking. The only think I had to buy special was a fresh head of cauliflower!
I tried this recipe but substituted the Sf syrup for Walden Farms Chocolate Syrup and really liked the outcome! I whipped whole cream and served it on top. My friends thought it was gluten free but they didn’t know it was sugar free. Thank you of the recipe! I will add it to my collection of go-to sweets.
★★★★★
Eww Gross. I respect those who like the brownies and all, but ewwwwww… looking at the ingredients made me want to barf
Wow. Can’t take you seriously when you didn’t even try them.
Can you use almond flour instead of ground almonds? Seems like it would be the same thing.
What can you use in place of all the “nuts”? Cream for the almond milk? What about the ground almonds? Flax? Extra coconut flour?
One of the happiest things I’ve read I. Avery long time… Accept I’m allergic to coconut. Any recommendations on a substitution?
OK Melissa.. I’ve been eyeing these for years and I may just have to try these out. I had been thinking of making up my own batch and I was like – why? Someone already has a recipe! Will report back when I do – my food processor went missing so I have to buy a new one. Oye!
9×9 pan & it’s supposed to make 36 servings? How small are these brownies? 2″ square is what I would consider a serving. I wouldn’t even be able to get 36 using a 13×9 pan.
You can cut them to whatever size you prefer Carly.
Sorry, I’m a little late to the cauliflower party, but I had a couple questions that I don’t think were totally addressed.
First, I want to say that I saw this while at work. Since I love to bake, I’m always bringing in baked goods. My boss saw your post and had this horrified look on his face and said “NO!” LOL He said I’m not allowed to bring these in and “experiment” on my coworkers. hahaha
Since I’m not Keto or Paleo or diabetic, can I use real sugar, honey, maple syrup, or something else instead of (what I call) “diet” sugar? And if so, how much more would I use? And if I use a liquid sweetener, do I need to increase the coconut flour to off-set the extra liquid? (I just really don’t like the artificial taste of SF stuff.)
Can I use regular whole milk? I saw where you told someone heavy cream wasn’t a good substitute, but what about regular milk? Or even coconut milk? I don’t normally drink/use almond milk and I’ve never seen it in smaller than 1/2 gallon cartons, so I’d hate to get a 1/2 gallon and only use 1/2 cup.
Otherwise, I can’t wait to try it. My husband has a HUGE sweet tooth and I’m trying to lower our carb intake. This recipe fits both needs. :D
Thanks!
I am trying these today! I’m obsessed with finding new things to make with cauliflower, and I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to only cauliflower recipes! One question: can I use sugar free Hershey’s chocolate chips instead of the Lindt bar? It appears that 6 squares of the bar are about 2 ounces. Would I be able to substitute 2 ounces of the sf chips? Other than that, I have everything on hand, and my oven is preheating!
Sorry I didn’t get to this sooner and hopefully you went ahead with it because I would say the sugar free chips should have worked ok if it’s what you had on hand. It’s a much lower cocoa content than the lindt though, so my only concern would be that the chocolate flavor wouldn’t be intense enough to mask the cauliflower flavor. How did they come out??
I made them with the sf chips! Delish! I definitely want to try it again with the lindt bar, but my husband, who does not like super-rich desserts, thought it was great too. I didn’t tell him there was cauliflower in it until he tasted and judged it good :) I didn’t taste any cauliflower, but I blended a lot. I also didn’t have Torani’s sf chocolate syrup, so I used Torani’s sf salted caramel syrup. They are better cooled in the fridge, like someone else mentioned. We will most definitely finish off this pan, but I am looking forward to making it again with the right chocolate and the right syrup. This one is a keeper! Thanks.
EYE LOVE YOUR BLOG!!! Your recipes are AMAZING!!!!!!!! I just made a double batch of these, which ALMOST didn’t fit in my blender, and they are INCREDIBLE!!!!!! I bought 2 heads of cauliflower, thinking a recipe called for 1 head…i have a head and a half left over, but will be using ALL of it to make more brownies!! Gotta go back to the store for more of the other ingredients! LOL!
Can I use regular flour IF I can’t find coconut flour?
No heather, regular behaves differently so I don’t think it will work!
Thank you Melissa. And can you use egg whites? and raw cocoa powder instead of all the chocolate?
and can’t do diary; in ref to the cream cheese..?
Thanks so much for your reply.
★★★★★
I made them and I’m not a fan. The texture was very off and it wasn’t sweet enough. I may give it another go. Not sure because it’s a lot of ingredients to waste. But I love a lot of the recipes on this website!
What an awesome idea! I’ve been combing your site for a few days now since my best friend, husband, and I are kicking off a keto period (trying to see how it’ll affect gains in the gym, although I’ve had great success in the past for skin and sleep issues). Anyway, thank you so much! You’re making everything so much easier than just eggs, bacon, and avocados :-)
these came out great and i’m not a baker
(i play it far too fast and loose with measurements, never had the patience for it)
I couldnt get SF chocolate syrup without waiting for delivery and didnt want to wait
So used a SF maple syrup that has (no after taste shockingly enough and goes great with the cream cheese pancakes recipe from this blog)
i used Dr Oetker 90% chocolate. Same 6 cubes even though i had no idea of the size of the Lindt squares.
(Though a quick search online suggested it was sold in 100g packages same a Dr Oetker so couldnt be too different)
i also used liquid surcalose 6 drops (bottle says 1 drop=0.5 of a sugar cube which i estimate to 0.5 of a teaspoon)
i also used a tart tin thinking it was shallow enough
great results…have been searching for a keto friendly dessert to go with my coffee
the mini kitkats in my fridge have remained untouched lol
have had to do extra small portions so i dont go too nuts
I’m confused..
The carb info you give is 1.5g net carbs but the info given by Yummly is 9-1=8.
Being a diabetic means these numbers mean everything to me.
So, please, which is the correct carb count??
Also, “Subscribing” was mentioned a few times .. To what do I subscribe to see more of your recipes?
I am viewing your recipe via Yummly if that makes a difference.
You mentioned that you used a Nutribullet to do your cauliflower.
I would like do the same.
In the recipe it calls for adding all the other wet ingredients to the veg.
So your bullet was ok with that? Did the chocolate mix stay liquid enough to be able to go into the Bullet even though we are told NOT to put anything hot into it??
I like things really sweet, how would I increase the sweetness in this recipe?
I am going to save this article so I can reread it a few times so I can pick up on what everyone has said about any tweaks to the flours since Almonds and I don’t always get along and coconut flour is a HUH moment in this little rural WA town…lol
Does anyone have like a ballpark figure on the cost of these little yumms?
Most of the the ingredients are pretty pricey so am curious. Down to “Just how much do I realllly want some choco-loty goodness..lol
Thanks from this poor deprived Chocoholic :)
These tasted kind of weird when I first tasted them straight out of the oven. I could taste the cauliflower and they had a cakey texture that kind of turned to powder in my mouth. I almost just declared it a fail and tossed the whole pan, but decided to save some in the fridge just in case. I decided to give them another try the next day…and oh my goodness. Completely different! For a sugar free – low carb brownie, they were really really good! I didn’t know you could get a healthy brownie that delicious! And the cauliflower taste was gone and the texture was a lot more melty. These may be the only brownie that taste better when they AREN’T fresh. These would taste really good with some sort of frosting, but I’ll leave it to the professionals to come up with a low carb recipe for that. :)
I made these and they were OK. I’m not sure if it is because I used EZ Sweetz liquid sweetener and maybe the sweetness was off. I might add some sort of frosting. I will definitely make them again. I think I just need some more experimentation. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Cooking mine how-to made a few changes…Will let you know how it turns out.
I tried making these tonight, and something went very wrong. I made it as described, aside from finding out I didn’t have a 9×9 pan, seems someone left it out recently and our cats decided it wanted to be on the floor in pieces… The closest I had was a 6×10 and they came out bitter and dry. I probably ended up over-baking causing the dryness, but I can’t explain the bitterness. I used Torani brand chocolate syrup as well as Target brand stevia. Aside from getting the right size pan, any ideas on what could be tried next time to get them to come out right?
I’ve heard that stevia and chocolate can turned bitter when cooked together so that may have been part of it. Sorry it didn’t work out – this is a tempermental recipe and it seems from the comments that any deviation (even in pan size) can cause an epic fail. :(
I’m definitely going to give it another shot, this time with the right pan size. If it doesn’t work again then I know it is something else. Do you know if the sugar you used originally was a stevia/splenda blend? Some quick googling showed that they each possibly sweeten different parts.
I think I was using Ideal at the time which is a blend of sucralose and Xylitol (toxic to dogs so be careful.) A lot of people love Swerve sweetener which is Erythritol based. Sometimes I use Splenda granulated because my husband prefers the taste of that over the others – and it seems to work well in baked goods though it’s not the healthiest of the options. Let me know how they come out – hopefully this next batch will work out!!!
So 3tsp of trivia that is all the sweetener you use
The Sugar Free Chocolate Flavored Syrup is very sweet so the truvia or splenda is just to supplement that Cindy. You’ll need both to make it work!
Hi! Can I substitute GF all purpose flour or rice flour for the coconut flour? I don’t have any :/
Can’t wait to make these, thanks!
You can certainly try Denae but since I haven’t worked with them I can’t guarantee the results – these brownies seem to be particularly unfriendly to experimentation so do so at your own risk! Please do let us know if you try it and how it comes out though!
Very interesting recipe. Have you ever tried cauliflower in a cookie? Thinking of tinkering around with that for a Paleo cookie recipe.
If it works in a brownie it should work in a cookie as well, just make sure you have strong flavors to mask the cauliflower!
I made these again today (they are a staple in my house!!!) and added a teaspoon of cayenne pepper! It was amazing with a little kick to it! Always fun to add little bits of variety. LOVE this recipe!
Thanks for letting me know, I love that cayenne idea – must try that soon, thanks for sharing!!!
Hi, Mellissa. My mom and I made the brownies yesterday. I love them. Ours didn’t turn out very sweet–which I really like! I don’t like overly sweet, artificially sweetened items. The aftertaste usually turns me off. These are really rich and moist. I was pleasantly surprised. I tried an avocado chocolate mousse a while back, that while it tasted dessert-like, I just couldn’t get past it being avocado (and I LOVE avocado). I don’t have that problem with the cauliflower in the brownies. I refrigerated them, and they are very good cold. I think I’m going to freeze the rest of the batch and enjoy them over time. Will definitely make again.
Thanks for the feedback Joy, so glad you like them!!!!
we dont have access to SF syrup here in NZ ( at least I dont think so) and our lindt is the 85% and thats as high as it goes… what do I substitute for SF syrup? and is the 85% ok?
I’m really not sure Elaine – you could increase the chocolate and sweetener to make up for the lack of SF syrup, but this recipe doesn’t seem to respond well to substitutions based on the comments. Without the syrup it might not work and I’d hate to have you waste ingredients. But if you try it and it works please let us know what you did!
I found this recipe on Pinterest and finally made it last night. I made only 2 changes to the recipe. I used Hersheys dark chocolate cocoa and I used an 8×8 pan to cook them. The product was just ok. Very moist, almost fudge like; not very sweet; and they did have a mild cauliflower tased. I blended my cauliflower in a blender but had to add 1/2 c almond milk to get it to puree. I used the lines on my blender and it was about 1.5 cups when all puréed. It could be that even a little bit over a cup can dramatically change the taste. I would use a food processor to purée vs blender then measure exactly 1 cup. Also, dark chocolate is a bit more bitter then regular so that could account for the lack of sweetness. As as far as using and 8×8 pan, I saw another post that said it affected there results also. Anyone made them in an 8×8 pan with success? How long did u cook?
Sorry you didn’t really like these Kathryn! You’d definitely have to cook them 10 minutes or so longer in an 8×8 pan – that’s why they were so moist. The extra cooking time will dry them out further and make them more brownie-like in texture. It’s possible that the dark chocolate powder also required more sweetness to offset it. Overall I don’t find the Hershey’s brand to have a strong or rich chocolate taste (even the regular tastes bitter to me) so if you make them again, try a dutched chocolate powder which will probably help mask the cauliflower flavor. Thanks for the feedback!
Is the chocolate bar sugar free too?
The Lindt 90% is not sugar free, but it’s very low in sugar – especially compared to other chocolate bars.
Hi Mellissa…just bought your kindle book yesterday and am really enjoying the recipes. I’m on a low carb, high fat diet. I’m wondering why you use almond milk as opposed to heavy cream? Also, can I use one cup of almond flour? Is that the same as 1 cup ground almonds? And finally, do you like the Walden chocolate syrup for this recipe?
Thanks so much for your help!
Hi Dave! Welcome to IBIH and thanks for purchasing the ebook! Ok in answer to your questions – the almond milk adds moisture but not calories and sometimes the heavy cream thickens too much during baking so for this the almond milk is best. You can use almond flour, it’s a little finer than the ground almonds but should work the same. Walden chocolate syrup will NOT work in this recipe – the chocolate syrup I’m calling for here is a chocolate flavored syrup, like what they use to flavor coffee (Davinci or torani brands are most popular) – it’s watery and not thick like a hershey’s chocolate syrup or Waldens. If you use the other stuff it will alter the texture and not in a good way.
Hope that helps and that you enjoy the brownies! Let me know how they come out!
I just put them in the oven. They smell heavenly and they look good to. I love trying new things.
Anything good does take work. My husband said: cauliflower and brownies no I can’t see thow that wourld work. I said you like cauliflower pizza. While I was putting them together he said: what smells so good. I said OH, you like the smell, wait until you taste them. Not done yet but they can’t be bad because they smell SO good.
Thanks for the comment Janice, I hope these passed the taste test for you guys! :)
What I am about to write is not meant to be insulting to this recipe or the blog!! Honestly, I must have royally messed these up because they came out so terrible I couldnt stomach them and I had to throw them away. First off, I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, they came out totally black like lumps of coal and not a lovely brownie color. Then I didnt have the proper syrup, so my friend & I thought that maybe a SF chocolate dip mixed with some vanilla SF syrup would work, apparently it did not. Ha…Those changes along with some extra Splenda added in made for some horrific brownies. I also let them cool overnight on the counter which may have been a bad idea. Even after refrigerated until cold they had a strange vitamin/healthy green like taste to them, they tasted almost like a vitamin smells, I am not sure if anyone else knows that I mean, but thats the only way I can describe it. Almost like a really bad protein bar, even though no protein was used…I am so sorry they didnt work out for me, it was completely my fault!
Oh dear! So sorry Gina! This is definitely a recipe that requires no substitutions to come out right. Don’t feel bad though, my first attempt at these was so horrible that it was outright gag-worthy! Talk about an epic fail! When i finally got the recipe right, it didn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for error I guess – let me know if you try them again (though I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t!) and how they come out!
In 1 million years I would not make a negative comment on anything I try this for the first time I followed the recipe it came out just like it was supposed to do these ingredients were not cheap the the nuts send all the other ingredients were pricey to purchase I was all excited to try these I just let them cool off and I cut myself a small piece this by far must be the most horrible thing I have ever tasted this no sweet taste to it I must say the texture is wonderful it’s cake like and the wonderful fabulous thing about it is that there’s no carbs perhaps I’ll get used to this I do not ever like to be negative I was disappointed but I think maybe I’ll have to eat another one with an open mind LOL
★★★
What kind of sweetener did you use? If it wasn’t sweet enough you can always sprinkle some over the top for this batch and then be sure to add a lot more to your next batch if you make it again.