Low-sugar frosted brownies that are made with pumpkin so they’re the perfect treat for the Fall.
What are cosmic brownies? According to Google, they’re a fudgy brownie topped with a thick chocolate frosting and rainbow candy coated sprinkles, originally made famous by the Little Debbie Company. When I learned about them I immediately knew I had to make my own version.
And I basically never not have a half used can of pumpkin in my fridge from August to January. It’s such a versatile ingredient. I’ve made it into anything from muffins to cookies to bread to overnight oats… You get my drift.
And finally I’ve made it into brownies by rewriting the recipe for my now famous banana brownies. If you can make it with banana, you can make it with pumpkin, friends. And to my surprise these brownies were even more flavorful and fudgy, without being too dense. They seriously came out perfect.
This time instead of incorporating chocolate chips in the brownie batter, I went with a pumpkin-based healthy frosting on top. It is the easiest healthy frosting to make and it’s freaking rich and delicious. Forget all that butter and sugar that’s in regular frosting, you absolutely do not need it.
Let me know what you think!
Frosted Pumpkin Brownies
Ingredients
Brownie Batter
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (240 g) sub mashed bananas
- 1 egg beaten sub flax egg
- 3 tbsp butter, melted (42 g) sub plant-butter or nut/seed butter if desired
- 2 tbsp any milk, or water (30 g) I use unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 cup sugar (96 g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup flour (60 g) gf all purpose if desired
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder (48 g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Frosting
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (120 g)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (90 g)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8Ć8 baking dish with parchment.
- Blend together pumpkin puree, egg, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt.
- Combine the two without overmixing. Pour into pan and bake for 20 minutes. Let this cool while preparing the frosting.
- Gently warm pumpkin puree in the microwave without cooking it (just warm enough to melt chocolate, about 30 sec – 1 min).
- Add the chocolate chips and stir together until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture turns into a thick frosting. Microwave again if needed.
- Frost the cooled brownie base and (optional) add sprinkles. Let the frosted brownies set in the fridge at least 30 minutes.
- Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- Keep leftovers refrigerated or frozen. I had one thawed from frozen today and it was perfect!
- This recipe is that it’s 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree short of using a whole can of pumpkin. So if you don’t want to use your 1/4 cup in something else (I’m looking at you pumpkin overnight oats!) just fold it into the frosting and/or brownie layer (if you add it to the brownie layer maybe omit the milk). It should be pretty close! In fact, I’m going to try this š
Hi!! Here to ask (again haha) if this is 90cal for one brownie square. Thank you!!
Yes! Always per portion size šā¤ļø
Making these now- added a little vanilla to the āfrostingā – I used the rest of the can for the frosting and just added more chocolate chips.
Sounds great to me! How did they turn out?
They were awesome! People at work enjoyed them!
So good to hear! Happy Thanksgiving!
You too
Will be trying to veganize these… I will keep you updated
Oooh! How did it go? So curious!
How was it? Please let me know! <3
Delicious! Will definitely make again
Hi Steph, thank you so much for the rating š enjoy the brownies! keep me posted <3