Beetroot brownies: A trojan horse to get vitamins into your kids

Resourceful chefs, nutritionists and bakers have come up with a trick for smuggling this vitamin-packed beetroot into your children: brownies.

Children generally aren't inclined to eat beetroot. But resourceful chefs, nutritionists and bakers have come up with a trick for smuggling this vitamin-packed veg into your children: brownies.

The creamy, soft and hopefully moist chocolate cake is cut into compact squares and is the perfect ruse to slip a few grams of the root vegetable into the diet of vegetable-averse children.

Beetroot is considered exceptionally healthy. It combines high nutritional density with comparatively few calories and has a naturally sweet flavour.

Beetroot contains numerous vitamins, including folic acid, vitamins B1, B5 and B6 as well as vitamin C, which are important for cell division, the immune system and nerve function. It also contains minerals such as potassium, iron and magnesium.

Nutrition experts advise choosing firm, smooth bulbs with undamaged skin. Smaller and medium-sized specimens are said to have a more delicate flavour, while larger ones tend to be earthier.

And now for a step-by-step guide to making (almost) healthy chocolate beetroot brownies. The recipe comes from Claudia Kursawe, head chef at the Donnersmarkt restaurant in the Almanac hotel in Vienna. – dpa

Recipe: Chocolate Beetroot Brownies

Ingredients for one baking tray:

•     150g butter
•     215g dark chocolate (55%)
•     135g sugar
•     3 egg yolks
•     250g raw or cooked beetroot, finely grated
•     10g flour
•     10g cocoa powder
•     3g baking powder
•     4g salt
•     50g hazelnuts

For the egg white:

•     3 egg whites
•     40g sugar

Method:

1. First, beat the egg whites with 40 g of sugar until stiff and refrigerate. Then melt the chocolate and butter in a water bath and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the sugar first, then the egg yolks. Then stir the grated beetroot into the chocolate mixture.
2. Fold half the beaten egg white into the chocolate mixture. Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder into a separate bowl and combine everything with the chocolate beetroot mixture. Finally, carefully fold in the remaining egg white.
3. Spread the batter evenly on a flat baking tray, scatter the chopped hazelnuts on top and bake at 180 degrees Celsius on the fan setting for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. If desired, the cooled brownies can be topped with fruit, nuts, sprinkles and cream cheese toppings of all kinds - known in the trade as frosting. One thing is clear, however: the more cream that comes into play, the smaller the health benefits become.