These secretly-good-for-you chocolate workout brownies are high in protein, gluten free, oil free, vegan, and they can even have no sugar added.
If you are one of those people who love healthy desserts and how amazing they make you feel, be sure to put these brownies on your “must try” list.
Made up of just six plant-based ingredients, without any refined sugars or flour, the clean eating protein brownies are super quick and easy to prepare.
Also Try These Keto Muffins – Just 6 Ingredients
If you’re bored of energy bars, this could be your new favorite workout recipe.
They are great for:
Runners
Dancers
Weight Lifters
Yogis
Cyclists
Swimmers
Sports Players
And basically everyone else who loves chocolate and wants to incorporate it into a healthy, on-the-go snack.
Brownies with superpowers.
It’s like grabbing a post-workout energy bar, but with cleaner ingredients than most packaged energy bars – no soy protein isolate, sucralose, or high fructose corn syrup.
I know it’s completely frustrating when a healthy-tasting recipe claims to taste exactly like a real hot fudge brownie… so I will tell you right now:
These are not supposed to be like a decadent dessert. Just as you wouldn’t serve a tray of Luna Bars at a fancy dinner party or bake sale, I wouldn’t recommend the workout brownies for a party either.
They are definitely more of a healthy snack or dessert meant for people who enjoy the wholesome taste and nutrition of healthy desserts.
If you are one of those people, hopefully you will love this recipe as much as I do!
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
If you want a good protein powder recommendation to use in the recipe, I really like the plant-based protein by ALOHA.
All of their products are organic and free of soy, gluten, dairy, and artificial ingredients, and they use a combination of pumpkin seed, hemp seed, and pea protein, with 18g protein per serving. I was also happy to see the protein powder doesn’t contain stevia, so you don’t get that weird aftertaste many other chocolate protein powders seem to have.
**Note: The link to their website is not an affiliate code. I don’t make any commission on sales of their products. I love both the taste and the company’s philosophy, and this was the brand of protein powder I used for the workout brownies.
So if you want to make the recipe exactly like I did, I know using ALOHA protein powder yields good results.
(Watch The Recipe Video Above)
Brownie Frosting Options:
Basic Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Or, if you want to keep these brownies super healthy like I did, you can make your own chocolate “frosting” by simply combining cocoa powder with an avocado and a little sweetener of choice – here’s how to make avocado chocolate frosting.
You can also top them with Coconut Ice Cream and fresh berries, for a healthy post-workout fudge brownie sundae!
Chocolate Workout Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup overripe mashed banana or applesauce (for low carb, try these Keto Brownies)
- 2/3 cup nut butter of choice, or allergy-friendly sub
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp chocolate protein powder (such as this one), OR sub additional cocoa powder
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave, OR additional banana
- optional mini chocolate chips, crushed walnuts, etc.
Instructions
- Notes: If using applesauce or unsweetened protein powder, or if planning to eat the brownies unfrosted, I recommend including the sweetener of choice. Using peanut butter gives a peanut-butter flavor, while almond or cashew butter taste more neutral. Sunbutter or pumpkin seed butter can be used for allergy-friendly brownies. You can use regular unsweetened cocoa or a combination of regular and dutch.Preheat oven to 325 F. Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper. If using natural nut butter, gently warm it until it is easily stir-able. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir until completely smooth, and spread into the prepared pan (see video). Bake on the center rack 20-25 minutes (20 for super fudgy brownies) – they will be undercooked when you take them out. Let cool, then loosely cover with a paper towel and place in the fridge overnight, during which time they will firm up without losing their fudginess. They are also much sweeter the next day! Frosting options are listed earlier in this post, and you need about 1/2 cup total. Once cut, the brownies can either be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to a month. You can even eat them straight out of the freezer if you wish! As mentioned, they are more of a healthy snack than a decadent dessert – if you enjoy healthy desserts and snacks, hopefully you will love these!View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
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I got to the end of this recipe and only then did I see “refrigerate overnight – they are much sweeter the next day!” I saw this as I was about to put the brownies into the oven, and am making them to eat tonight, not tomorrow. Please put warnings on your recipes at the top saying these need to be prepared the day before. I love your website and have been following you for years but that was disappointing – hopefully they are still Ok tonight! Thank you for all the amazing vegan recipes! 🙂
Hi Katie, The brownies were great after cooling for even half an hour 🙂
Have made these several times with banana. THey are my go to pre workout snack. Thanks!
I made these today. Excellent! I, too, am the person that would eat a Luna bar etc for dessert. I normally always follow a recipe to the tee the first time, then experiment. I love reading comments before making some things for the tips. We are between homes right now so I don’t have all my stuff. No brownie 8×8 type pan, so made cupcakes. Baked for 20 min. Perfect!! I used bananas, almond butter, raw cacao powder. I didn’t have any protein powder so used a little more raw cacao powder. I did add walnuts. They have not made it to the fridge yet and we’re already into them . This recipe made a dozen cupcake brownies.
I made these for a couple of vegan friends yesterday,one of whom eats no sugar. I used the chocolate frosting shots recipe for frosting. I absolutely loved them and the frosting worked brilliantly, and my friends loved them too. I used banana for sweetener in the brownies but ended up adding a little Stevia to sweeten it further. I’m vegetarian and always willing to try out a vegan recipe, and although my husband prefers the sugary egg-filled brownies with a honey-based frosting that I usually make him, he said he liked these a lot too 🙂
I can’t wait to try these? What kind of nut butter do you use?
Any! Almond, cashew, peanut, etc!
this sounds amazing who would say no to brownies.thankyou for this amazing hack.
I’ve made these probably ten times now. They are ALWAYS in my refrigerator!! They are amazingly delicious and super easy to make!!!
I made them yesterday.As cupcakes They taste really good but a little dry.
Diy I bake them too long?
Unfortunately we’ve never baked them as cupcakes so really don’t know how they’d turn out. It sounds like a fun experiment, but there’s just no way to know how long they’d take or how they’d taste if we haven’t tried it. Maybe we should ;). Good excuse to eat more chocolate!
Jason
Hi Katie, unlike most people here my brownies tasted like dog food and chocolate mixed together. To make sure I didn’t do anything wrong, I retried the recipe, and it came out the same. I would give it 0 out of 5 stars. Sorry but it just wasn’t good,
Not all recipes are for everyone. That’s okay. But just to check because so many others did like the recipe, what nut butter and sweetener did you use? And what protein powder?
This recipe is amazing. They are so chewy and delicious. Thank you.