The Best Protein Brownies

When you train/workout a lot, in order to get the necessary daily protein intake we have sometimes to resort to protein bars. There’s nothing wrong with it. Your body needs readily available amino-acids and these snacks do the trick.
However, most of the protein bars you can buy at the health store contain a bunch of stuff with unpronounceable names. In addition, the taste is often off-putting (personally, I still have to find one that I really like).
The solution? Make your own, simple as that. Maybe even in the form of brownies.
What about that?
I tried several recipes over the last couple years and perfected this one, which is has become a staple of my diet.
These are truly amazing brownies, loaded with protein!

The Best Protein Brownies                                                                      Print this Recipe!

[Updated 1/27/2013]. I’ve been baking these brownies for over two years and tweaked the original recipe several times.
This is the final version. I decided there was no need at all for flour, I also cut the sugar a bit and found that coconut oil (or butter) yielded better results than canola oil. Lastly, sprinkling the chocolate chips on top felt a like a chocolate redundancy.

Ingredients
Makes 16 brownies

1 cup / 2.6 oz / 74 gr protein powder (either unflavored or vanilla)
¼ cup / 0.8 oz / 22 grams oats, ground
8 oz / 225 gr +70% dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup / 4 oz / 113 grams coconut oil (or butter)
1 cup / 7.75 oz / 220 gr firmly packed brown sugar (or baking Splenda®)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs (or flax eggs or 8 egg whites)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional, to enhance chocolate taste)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C), place a rack in the upper third of the oven. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan. Line the pan with foil and grease the foil. This will help you remove the brownies.
Whisk together protein powder, ground oats, baking powder and salt and set aside.
Place coconut oil (or butter) and chopped chocolate in a medium sized heat proof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not otuch the water). Stir until the chocolate has completely melted. Remove the bowl from over the boiling water, let mixture sit for a few minutes.
In the meantime, in a large bowl mix sugar, vanilla, espresso powder (if using) and eggs (or flax eggs or egg whites). Whisk until pale and thick.Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture. Whisk until batter is smooth. Add the protein powder mixture all at once and stir by hand until all the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet ingredients and no flour is visible.
Pour batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes, until the center is firm and level with sides and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool in pan.

Nutrition facts

One protein brownie scores the following nutrition facts: 230 calories, 11 grams of fat, 20 grams of carbs and 11 grams of protein.