Beet Brownies are a decadent brown butter brownie recipe with a smooth buttermilk roasted beet puree mixed into the batter.
The result is a lusciously soft brownie with an intense dark chocolate flavor. You’ll enjoy the added health benefits of cooking with beets and will be pleasantly surprised with the flavor! Be sure to scroll down to watch my recipe video!
BEET BROWNIES
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Beet Brownies are so much better than regular brownies.
Hate beets? These might not be for you. Love beets? Or even like beets? These will blow your mind.
I’ve been using this beet puree in all sorts of things like pancakes and cookies and now brownies.
I’ll never forget the first time I ate beets (I was a very late-in-life beet person) and asked a friend what the heck I do with a beet and he said “throw it in the garbage – they taste like dirt”. He’s a smart guy, but I’m so happy I didn’t listen to him.
My entire family loves beets.
From fresh citrus beet salad to beet soup, we can’t get enough of this dark red super food.
How to cook beets in the oven:
All you do is wrap the whole trimmed beet, or a bunch of trimmed beets, in aluminum foil and cook them in a 400 degree F oven for at least an hour until they’re soft.
Let them cool enough to handle so you can remove the peel and and chop.
How to cook beets in the Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker:
Set the trimmed beets on the steamer basket. Add about a cup of water to the cooking pot.
Set the timer to 15 minutes and cook on high pressure. Quick release the pressure when they’re done. Again, once they’re cool enough to handle, you can peel and chop them.
Making the puree couldn’t be easier. To make the beet puree, blend them up with some buttermilk until they are velvety smooth. That’s all, folks!
Why are beet brownies so good?
You can see by that gorgeous color that roasted beets have been added to my recipe. The first time I photographed these beet brownies, I actually put 50% more beet puree in. My family loved the way it tasted, but they really didn’t look like a brownie. I ended up photographing them again when I made the recipe video.
One of the magical things about adding beet puree is how velvety smooth the final brownie ends up being. Its so freaking good.
I love adding chocolate chunks to this recipe. Yes, you can add chocolate chips, but there’s just something different about a chocolate chunk that I love. Perhaps its the random sizes of the chunks that keeps me guessing. Who knows – I’m weird like that. As for the beets though, don’t just take my word for it – you must try it yourself. You will love it!
Bears beets Battlestar Galactica.
Yes. I said it.
If you don’t understand my joke, just leave me a comment and I’ll explain. If you do get it, you’re my kind of person.
I couldn’t make beet brownies without saying that bears beets Battlestar Galactica.
Watch the recipe video of me making my beet brownies below!
Beet Brownies
RECIPE VIDEO
Ingredients
Beet puree:
- 1 large red beet or two small beets
- 1/4 cup buttermilk amount may vary
Beet Brownies:
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1¼ cups pure cane sugar
- ¾ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup beet puree You can reduce this amount if you're worried about putting that much beet into your brownies
- 3/4 cup unbleached flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks
Instructions
To make beet puree:
- In oven: Wrap whole beets (stems removed) in aluminum foil and roast in 400 degree F oven for at least an hour until soft to the touch. Alternatively, In Instant Pot: Set beets on rack and add 1 cup water. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Instant release pressure.Allow beets to cool enough to handle and peel away skin.
- Puree beets in blender or food processor with just enough buttermilk to allow puree to achieve a very smooth consistency. If you end up with extra puree, you can use extra puree in pancake batter, soups, etc.
To make beet brownies:
- Preheat oven to 325F. Grease or line a 8x8x2 metal pan with parchment foil paper.
- Using a medium to large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir frequently as it continues to bubble. When there are small brown specs, and it smells like nutty caramel, remove pan from heat.
- Add sugar, cocoa powder and salt to combine.
- In separate bowl, beat eggs. After butter mixture has cooled in pot 4-5 minutes, slowly pour eggs into pot with sugar/butter/cocoa powder, stirring constantly until well combined.
- Add vanilla and beet puree, stir to combine.
- Add flour and baking powder, stir to combine.
- Add chocolate chunks, stir to combine.
- Bake 25-35 minutes in preheated oven or until top no longer looks wet. Enjoy!
Nutrition
rosie
July 29, 2016 at 5:57 amI love this recipe, do you know how i would make beet purree? i cant seem to find where to buy it, thank you!
Krissy
August 7, 2016 at 7:44 amTo make beet puree, wrap whole beets in foil and cook at 400F until very soft. Remove skins. Puree in blender with buttermilk.
anna
February 15, 2017 at 9:26 amI’ve been making brownies for years but I’ve never thought about adding beet puree. Genius!! And OMG these brownies are way too delicious for their own good. No one believes that they’re healthy-ish 🙂 too!
Krissy
February 26, 2017 at 8:27 amGlad you liked them! We love our beets!!! -Krissy
judy
June 22, 2017 at 11:02 amyou say that the amount of beet puree can be reduced but you don’t say how to compensate for that change.
Do you need to add more liquid or anything else?
Krissy
July 14, 2017 at 6:37 amNope.
Virginia
September 11, 2017 at 6:35 pmWow! These are delicious! The earthy beet flavor really compliments the chocolate. Still a treat, but definitely healthier. I used the full amount of beets. I didn’t have buttermilk so I used some yogurt thinned with water.
Ryah
October 6, 2017 at 4:04 pmAny substitutes for buttermilk you would suggest?
Krissy
October 11, 2017 at 7:29 amYogurt works well!
Nancy
April 2, 2018 at 8:02 amPlain kefir can always be substituted for buttermilk.
cakespy
February 7, 2018 at 2:02 amThe texture looks incredible on these wonderful beet brownies!
Dr. Cowan's Garden
May 17, 2018 at 2:13 amHi Krissy, Thanks for sharing this recipe. These are delicious – light yet very moist somehow. I love the idea of using the buttermilk and beet puree – Amazing!
Verlina Keener
June 9, 2018 at 7:43 amCan I puree canned beets and use those instead?
Krissy
June 10, 2018 at 6:24 amHi Verlina, It should still work, although I haven’t tried it myself. Let me know if you try this method! Krissy
Lily
June 24, 2018 at 11:25 amMade these last night after I got a TON of beets from friends participating in the local CSA program and a taste for chocolate. I didn’t have buttermilk so I used some Greek yogurt and milk to help the beets blend and omitted the chocolate chunks. I also used half whole wheat and half all purpose flour. They turned out absolutely delicious – moist, dense, chocolatey and just the right amount of sweetness! Thanks to the beets and natural cocoa powder they also look dark red. I will note that they took much longer than 35 minutes to bake- after 35 minutes the edges were pretty close to done, so I turned my oven down to 300 and checked on them every 5 minutes until the middle looked solidified. All in all, this may be my new favorite brownie recipe!
Tiffany
November 12, 2018 at 10:40 amThese look amazing! Can’t wait to try them! Any substitute for flour? Thanks!
Krissy
November 14, 2018 at 2:31 pmSure thing! Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free would work!
michal
February 6, 2019 at 9:01 amcan I use oil instead of butter?
Krissy
February 6, 2019 at 9:09 amYou can. I’m a huge fan of butter, but vegetable oil should work.
Gina
February 14, 2019 at 2:26 pmjust made these and they came out great, i was worried but they’re good! a little more red than yours in the photos, they look like a dark red velvet brownie. haha. thanks!