I recently managed to acquire a stress fracture in a place where no girl should ever fracture anything (before you get any ideas, it resulted strictly from running a few miles too many). Worse than the initial physical pain, though, was the realisation that my sugar-addicted ways were no longer sustainable, what with my physical activity restricted to experimenting with the public transport network in Cambridge and to the mind-numbing sport of aqua jogging – strap on a floatation belt, mimic running in water without hitting the bottom of the pool, and see yourself being overtaken by even the learning-to-swim swimmers.

‘A cake (or two or three) a day keeps the doctor away’ just isn’t a practical motto without miles of running to guarantee that I fit into my May Ball dress come the end of term or even just stay afloat in the pool. But barely a day into my attempted cake detox, in the midst of dessert withdrawal symptoms, I realised that going cold turkey would never work.

Luckily, my procrastination habits guaranteed that my internet browsing history could be trusted to offer a remedy. With all the food porn I consume while supposedly studying Japanese word order, I’ve come to pride myself in a decently firm grasp of the latest trends in the world of food blogging. The overbearing majority of the top blogs seem to currently be on a mission to promote special diets, all focusing, in one way or another, on healthy eating.

Gluten-free, paleo, vegan, raw food, artificial-sweeteners-are-an-evil-conspiracy, you name it: someone has blogged about it. A personal favourite is Chocolate Covered Katie; while the name may imply some form of adult entertainment, this is quite simply the cleanest imaginable blog, dedicated to developing healthy desserts and being generally cutesey. With model-like looks and a baking goddess status, Katie claims to eat chocolate every day without ballooning into a stranded-whale impression. She also happens to be living the dream of all aspiring food bloggers: she has managed to turn blogging for fun into a full-time job, featuring chocolate, baking, chocolate, appearances on The Today Show, CNN, and FOX, and did I mention chocolate? (If there is anyone out there, I, too, would love to faff about food for living, and am willing to literally cover myself in chocolate if that is what it takes).

As star-struck as I am by oh-so-perfect Katie (yes, that’s envy you can hear coming through), I am a firm believer in real butter instead of coconut oil, and in good old refined sugar instead of this agave nonsense. Healthy and free-from baking is essentially an oxymoron for me; if it’s healthy, it’s not dessert. Yet, floating about for seemingly endless miles in a pool has made me desperate enough to try anything to sweeten the bitterness of this stress fracture deal. And so, I found a recipe for Katie’s Unbelievably Melty Gooey Brownies pinned to my notice board and my weekly shop filled with exotic ingredients such as apple sauce and coconut flour. Now, while some of the ingredients embraced by healthy food blogs sound elusive, they can for most part be found in trusty Sainsbury’s, in want of a hip Whole Foods; and while they can be a bit pricey for the student budget to start off with, most ingredients recur in recipes so it is well worth forking out a bit more to kick start your healthy-baking career.

I’ll have to admit I had little faith in Katie’s brownies as I mixed away at a batter very different in consistency from my usual butter-fuelled baking. However, testing the outcome on my unsuspecting study buddies in the MML faculty (now you know where those mystery healthy brownies appeared from), it was declared a success. And so, I present to you my slightly simplified version of healthy brownies.

HEALTHY BROWNIES (adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie)

For around ten brownies, you’ll need:

1,2 dl + 1 tbsp coconut flour

1,2 dl applesauce

2,4 dl water

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp oil

0,6 dl + 2 ½ tbsp cocoa powder

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

0,8 dl + 2 tbsp sugar

Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately, and then combine. Line a smallish baking tray (depending on how thick you want the brownies!) with baking paper, smooth out the batter, and bake at 175°C for around 16 minutes. The brownies will look suspiciously undercooked, but let them cool down and stick into the fridge to firm up.

I’m sufficiently impressed by these brownies to continue plaguing anyone who is studying/ living/ just happening to be near me with further healthy baking experiments. That said, nothing can shake my undying love for the sugary, buttery, calorific goodness that is traditional baking.

@vickanschmickan