Guest Author - Deborah Markus

My husband picked me up a box of Lindsay Frucci's fat free No Pudge brownie mix the other day. He wasn't hinting at anything -- he just knew I'd want to see if it could live up to the copy on the box.

Frucci is, by her own admission, "a brownieholic." She considered it a challenge to create a brownie that would taste great and still be low in fat and calories. She came up with the No Pudge line of fat-free brownie mixes. All you add is nonfat yogurt. Simple, convenient, and the brownies stay skinny.

There are several different flavors -- raspberry, mint, cappuccino. I got the original fudge brownie flavor. I didn't have the vanilla-flavored yogurt the instructions suggest you use, but I did have plain yogurt and some vanilla extract, which is offered as an alternative addition.

I realized as I was mixing the brownies up that by using plain yogurt, I'd be cutting down significantly on the amount of sugar the brownies would ordinarily contain. Flavored yogurts, even really high-quality ones, have to have a lot of sweetener. Plain yogurt is so distinctively tart that you have to pour sugar into it just to get it to neutral -- and never mind how much farther than that you have to go to get to a sweet vanilla flavor. So I wondered how the brownies would taste.

These were much better than I'd expected. I was a child in the 70s, when diet food tasted like a bad dream and fat-free anything was a cardboard nightmare. Times have changed, and so has diet fare; and the texture of No Pudge brownies is impressively rich and moist.

The No Pudge brownies were also a good compromise between cakey and fudgy -- you know most brownies are one or the other. These could go either way.

And the flavor? I'd be interested in seeing how they tasted when prepared with sweetened yogurt, because I thought they were perfect the way I made them. They were sweet like dark chocolate chips are sweet. I couldn't imagine them needing more sugar.

My son agreed. He is used to homemade brownies, but was very happy with these. A little too happy, if you ask me.

These brownies keep well, too. Usually that's not an issue with brownies (especially in our house), but for some reason, after my initial post-bake sampling, the No Pudge brownies hid for several days at room temperature in their pan covered with aluminum foil. I uncovered them, expecting dusty little chocolate bricks. Nothing of the sort. They were as chewy and fudgy as the day I baked them.

So: they keep well, they taste good (even to kids), and they're easy to make. As if that isn't good enough, there are also easy instructions for making single servings, so you won't be tempted by the idea that these are low-calorie and eat the whole batch.

And last of all, I liked the fact that the ingredient list on the box is composed of actual foods you'd find in a real kitchen: sugar, flour, cocoa, egg whites, salt, baking soda. She threw in a little gluten -- for texture, I guess -- but the rest of it reads like the list of ingredients to gather for a recipe you'd make yourself, rather than the usual scary chemical mess you see on most labels.

No Pudge brownies are a very nice treat even if you're not watching your weight. If you are, they're an excellent way to make sure that you don't feel deprived, and you also don't overdo on calories or fat.