Beetroot brownies

Mr Snowballs has decided he wants to juice! So I ordered a juice box from Abel & Cole and this lovely box of fruit and veg came with a ridiculous amount of beetroot. I can't bear beetroot - the earthiness is something I have never developed a taste for. Rather than force myself to drink gallons of pink, earthy juice (although I do have to admit that in moderation and seriously diluted with other things such as carrot, celery and ginger it's okay) I searched for recipes to use at least some of the remaining beetroot up. I came across a beetroot brownie recipe on BBC Good Food website.

The comments all say that the beetroot makes the brownies really moist, so I decided to make them using gluten free flour, in the hope that the moistness of the beetroot compensated for the dryness that is gluten free baking. I also didn't have the right amount of dark chocolate (the recipe states 200g of 70% cocoa) but did have 130g of 100% pure cocoa (the unbelievable Willie's Supreme Cocoa) which I thought would work well.

It is a very simple recipe to do and didn't actually take too long to make. I didn't sift the flour properly so the finished brownie had the odd tiny ball of flour but not enough to cause a problem.

And the verdict?

Really good!!! There was no hint of the earthiness of beetroot (I think the 100% cocoa probably helped drown this out) and they are unbelievably moist and sticky. They also have a delightful pink tint to them which is very appealing. I have tested them on a number of people and very few of them have guessed the secret ingredient. I will definitely be making these again - although this time it will probably be with the 70%  chocolate the recipe states as I have run out of my super strength cocoa. It will be interesting to see if this makes a big difference ...