Chocolatey Rich Paleo Brownies

Keto and Paleo are those recent food trends that just doesn't seem to have waned and my trainer Nina put me onto these fantastic paleo brownies. She based her sweet potato brownie base on the brownie recipe on Paleomg which makes a wickedly rich, delicious brownie. On top of this Nina added an sinfully rich paleo frosting made up of avocado, honey and cocoa. She brought one to me and I loved it so much that I asked her for the recipe straight away. I adapted it slightly and instead of using walnuts I added chia seeds to add to the goodness but it's so full of good things that I had no compunction about eating brownies for breakfast.

The other night Mr NQN compared me to politician Clive Palmer. When I stop laughing, I'll be terribly mad.

Please allow me to remind anyone that doesn't know, this is Clive Palmer. He builds Dinosaur theme parks and was described as "An eccentric mining billionaire who has commissioned the Titanic II and some weird Jurassic Park golf club. I’m not even kidding," by the blog Noble Kraken in their brilliant outline of the Australian political parties.

Thankfully, I don't think Mr NQN meant that I share much with Palmer apart from slightly odd ideas. From time to time I come up with what he calls crazy business ideas. First there was the bottom pillow and this time it was a name for a baby wear label. You see I was looking at a picture of a very rotund Mr NQN as an infant and thinking what a lovely chubby boy he was. So I suggested "Lovely chubbies" as the name for a babywear label. My reasoning is that people love chubby babies!

After hearing about the first product, he offered me a withering look and holding up his two hands, he demonstrated a measure of madness. "You and Clive Palmer are out here" he said. Which of course made me laugh so hard and for so long I had to promise myself to be mad at him. "You will rue the day that you made fun of me once I become a billionaire from Lovely Chubbies" I said all cartoon villain-like because I had no idea how to answer claims of being like Clive Palmer.

Something that I'm pretty sure Clive doesn't do is follow a paleo diet.

So tell me Dear Reader, what do you think of the name? And would you be offended or amused if you were compared to someone like Clive Palmer? And have you ever tried paleo eating?

P.S. Alas, my lovely chubby idea hit a snag when someone pointed out to me that a chubby was slang for an erection. Oh dear. It's probably better to find that out now than after I go into production...

Chocolatey Rich Paleo Brownies

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1.5 hours

• 800g/28.2ozs sweet potato unpeeled
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips
• 6 tablespoons coconut flour
• 5 tablespoons chia seeds
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Fat pinch of salt

For frosting

• 1 large ripe avocado
• 4-5 tablespoons honey
• 4-5 tablespoons cocoa powder

Step 1 - Wash the sweet potatoes and prick them with a knife. Bake in a 180C/350F oven until soft which takes about 40 minutes or so depending on how big they are. You can also microwave them.

Step 2 - Line a 8x8 inch baking tin with parchment and keep the oven on 180C/350F. Peel and mash the sweet potato until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, honey and coconut oil. Add the chocolate chips, coconut flour, chia seeds, cocoa, baking powder and salt and mix well until combined. Scrape into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool in the tin for about 15 minutes and then place on a rack to cool further. Don't cool these in the tin because I found that there was a lot of condensation formed.

Step 3 - While cooling, place the flesh from the avocado, honey and cocoa powder in a processor and blend until smooth. I like the icing sweet and rich so I just keep adding the honey and cocoa powder until it reaches my taste. You be the judge as avocadoes are also different sizes and you may want the icing less sweet or even sweeter. Spread on top of the cooled brownie and cut into squares. These brownies need to be stored in the fridge and taste even better once cooled.