"Healthy" Fudgy Mud Pies

This recipe isn't healthier than a plate of baby carrots or an apricot, of course, but it is healthier than a regular mud pie.  This makes six servings and tastes best after it has been refrigerated, so it can harden.  If you eat it right out of the oven, it will have a more fudgy, pudding-like consistency.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put into a blender: 1/2 cup of thick rolled oats, 3/4 cup full fat plain Greek yogurt, and some milk to help it blend.  If you blend more than 1/2 cup thick rolled oats, the mud pie would probably be more cakey and less fudgy, if that's what you prefer.

Blend until it is a nice paste, and put this paste into a mixing bowl.  

Add anywhere from 3 tbsp to 10 tbsp of dark dutch processed cocoa powder until the color is nice and depending on how chocolately you want your mudpie to be.  I like to use Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa (pictured below).  It is inexpensive, but the payoff is worth it.

Add a teaspoon of espresso powder, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and somewhere between 0.5-1 tsp of baking powder to the mix.  

Melt 3 tbsp of butter in the microwave.  Brush over some of this butter to the baking pan and pour the rest into the batter.  Gradually spoon in sugar by the tablespoon.  Adjust to taste.  I used somewhere between 8 tablespoons and 12 tablespoons.  You can also do half sugar and half honey.

You can stir in some chocolate chips if you would like.

When the batter tastes good to you (and remember it's okay to try this batter since there is no egg in this recipe), pour into the prepared baking pan.  I added a few tablespoons of peanut butter to the top and swirled it in with a butter knife.

Bake for 25 minutes and enjoy with cold milk.