Why it works: Chia and avocado share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 9 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 12Ingredients
Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.
Stir the ground chia seeds and water together in a small bowl and let sit 10 minutes until thickened.
Mash the ripe avocados in a large bowl until smooth.
Whisk the chia mixture, sugar and vanilla extract into the mashed avocado until fully combined.
Whisk in the baking cocoa, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until no dry streaks remain.
Fold in the vegan chocolate chips, then spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top looks set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.
Cool the brownies in the pan for 20 minutes before lifting out and cutting into squares.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Chia + avocadotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Vanilla + chocolatetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10,018 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Vanilla + cocoatop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together357 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Chia + flourtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together47 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cocoa + chocolatetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together165 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the cocoa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chia, avocado, sugar, vanilla, wheat, flour, chocolate):
- Almondbetter flavor fit
- Cashew nutbetter flavor fit
- Hazelnutbetter flavor fit
- Cocoathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chia, avocado, sugar, vanilla, wheat, flour, chocolate. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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