Chocolate Beet Brownies

Vegetable Oil
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup boiling water
1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg white
1 whole egg
6 oz. yogurt
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup peeled raw beets, shredded in food processor
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13-inch pan with oil. Dust pan with flour and shake off excess. In small bowl, whisk cocoa and boiling water until smooth. Set aside to cool. In medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, soda and salt. In large bowl, combine sugar, applesauce, oil, butter and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed 1 minute. Beat in eggs, then yogurt. On high speed, beat until fluffy, 2 minutes, scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
2. On low speed, beat in half of dry ingredients. Increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and beat in half of cocoa mixture. Add remaining dry ingredients, and then add remaining cocoa mixture, beating until smooth. With large spoon, gently fold beets into mixture evenly.
3. Add batter to pan, spreading evenly. Bake for 30 minutes, until skewer inserted in center comes out clean, but brownies are still moist. Let cool in pan and then cut into squares.