Luteal Brownies Review: Proceed with Caution

TikTok recipes are kind of big in my house. My 16 y/o sends me videos of people making crab boils (which we'd make minus the crab, not a big seafood house), dumpling bakes, gummy bears soaked in sprite and then frozen, ube rice flour desserts, air fryer baked apples, and all kinds of other cool stuff.

Last night it was Luteal Brownies. If you don't know, here's what Google says about the luteal phase:

The luteal phase is the second half of the menstrual cycle, after ovulation.

So PMS brownies. These brownies are meant to help with PMS and assist the body somehow. I don't know. Maybe they're meant to prevent you from eating a whole box of Chips A'Hoy (refined sugars bad?) or maybe PMS is allergic to sweet potatoes (the main ingredient). I don't know. I'm not a doctor. None of this is medical advice.

But these PMS Brownies are supposed to be great for when your menstrual cycle makes you want to cry, eat everything, and hurt people.

They are super viral on the Tik of Toks and there were SO many recipes to choose from. I took a scientific approach and chose the video with the mosts views.

The video is from Thrive with Candice. You can watch it here.

Here's the recipe:

Luteal phase sweet potato brownies. 🍠

Ingredients:

• 1 cooked & peeled sweet potato

• 3 eggs

• 3/4 cup honey

• 6 tbsp flour

• 3 tbsp cacao powder

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• pinch of sea salt

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.

2. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl until there are no more clumps.

3. Add the batter to a lined baking dish.

4. Bake for 35–40 minutes.

5. The brownies should look slightly undercooked when you take them out — they will firm up as they cool.

I did not have oat flour on hand. I had other flours, even gluten-free flours, but this recipe sounded risky enough without going rogue. I did have oats so I blended them in one of those cheap smoothie blenders.

I cut the sweet potatoes into quarters and put them open side down on oiled parchment. I baked them on 425f until they smelled sweet. Then I got distracted and took them out of the oven once I smelled burning sugar. Just scrape the non-burnt parts off. You only need one sweet potato and I baked two so I had plenty to choose from.

I'd bought cacao, not to be confused with cocoa which actually tastes good on its own, a few days before for this recipe. Cacao tatstes like poison on its own. I don't know what else I'll use it for other than more of these.

I didn't have that much honey so I used maple syrup. I think you could probably also use other sticky, sweet, healthy thing like pureed dates or date syrup or blended bees, I don't know.

The mixture was SUPER lumpy so I used an immersion blender that I've had since I was making baby food (for a few months). I didn't add the baking powder until after I blended it. That felt right.

They come out very soft. The recipe lady said they come out "fudgy" but it's not fudge. This isn't fudge. Fudge is a soft, dense, creamy candy made from butter, cream and chocolate. This is not that. They come out soft.

They do firm up.

I like these. I wouldn't call them brownies. Words have meaning. Something being brown and in the shape of a sqaure that you but into smaller squares to consume, does not make it a brownie.

If you think of them as a vaguely chocolately healthy, gluten-free, produce-based dessert, they're not bad. I would make these again.

But if someone said, "Do you want a brownie?" and handed me one of these on a paper towel, I'd either assume 1) they've never had a brownie 2) they struggle with the truth or 3) they hate me.

If someone said, "I have a brownie for you," and gave me a tray of these I wouldn't be able to be friends with them anymore. Not because I hate this dessert, but because if you're capable of calling these brownies, you're capable of anything which scares me. I wouldn't feel safe around you.

These need strong prefacing.

I would find it unsettling and alarming if someone presented these to me as brownie with a straight face and without any explanation. I'd assume they wanted to harm me psychologically and emotionally.

Eating these takes mental preparation. You have to know what you're getting into. These are potato-based. That's not something you gloss over.

They don't taste like sweet potatoes, but knowing they are mostly a root cellar vegetable and not a traditional pastry is important.

Don't spring these on people for a dinner party dessert or give them as a birthday gift unless the people you're serving are into this kind of thing. If you love those around you, prepare them. This has the potential to be a very inconsiderate and frightening dessert. Don't be reckless and violent with it.

Now, if you're angry at your children or husband, I could see you saying, "Mommy made brownies" and then popping up with these bad boys. That's a bit unhinged but if you do it, please make a video for me or send an email describing the fallout in great detail.

Children's take:

My 16 y/o is having one with breakfast but I cannot get a read on whether she likes them or is trying to like them. My 12 y/o would never. I will not even show them to him because I believe they would destabilize him for a significant amount of time. My 19 y/o hates mashed potatoes and would hate these as well. Thank you for reading.

Happy cooking!