Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie Recipe

The doctors have told Anna to cut down on gluten somewhat. She’s not gluten intolerant, but cutting it down may help reduce inflammation and therefore help reduce the symptoms of her rheumatoid arthritis. It’s worth a go so we’re trying to eat a little less gluten. We don’t want to miss out on the gooey goodness of chocolate brownies and other cakes though so we’ve been experimenting with various gluten free recipe ideas lately.

Gluten free Flours

It is of course possible to simply use gluten free flour, but there are plenty of other gluten free options too. We’ve bought some gluten free flour but this doesn’t even say what it’s made from. It just says ‘flour from gluten free grains’ on it. It would seem that this can pretty much be used as a gluten free alternative for flour, it just needs a little more liquid than you’d usually use in the mix to make things the correct consistency. I used it yesterday to make a lovely crumble and oat topping for a rhubarb and orange crumble and it worked fine for that. There are loads of other types of flour that you can get as well that don’t contain gluten. There’s a whole list of them here.

When making cakes though we’ve often used ground almonds instead of flour. Not only are almonds gluten free but it adds a nice almondy taste and adds some texture too. So, here’s the recipe.

Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie Recipe

Method

This gluten free brownie recipe uses ground almonds to produce a deliciously rich, gooey and moist chocolate brownie. It might not hold together quite so well as a brownie made with wheat flour but it’s good enough for us and tastes delicious.

I have been tempted to try it with an extra egg and a little more cocoa but as they’ve tasted so nice as they are it seems silly to experiment further and maybe ruin them.

We have tried it with cashew nuts and walnuts and I’d quite like to try it with hazelnuts as well. Another idea that I’ve come across is swirling some tahina through it just before baking as well. This will not only taste good but should look nice too. Plenty of things to try.

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC.
2. Grease and line a 9 inch brownie tray.
   

   Baking

3. Whisk the Eggs until light, fluffy and full of air so that they have turned a very pale yellow colour.
   

   Whisk the Eggs

4. Slowly add the sugar to the eggs, beating the whole time until you have a nice thick mixture.
   

   Beat in Sugar and add chocolate mix

5. Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a microwavable bowl with the butter. Zap in the microwave for 90 seconds. Stir to melt the last few chunks of chocolate. I tend to use two 100g slabs of chocolate which gives my 50g left over to snack on whilst baking!
   

   Melt

6. Stir the melted chocolate and 2tsp of vanilla extract into the egg and sugar mixture.
   

   Stir

7. Fold in the ground almonds, sieved cocoa and nuts.
8. Gloop the mixture into the prepared tray and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
   

   Bake

   40 minutes gives a deliciously gooey brownie with a little crunchiness around the edges but you can leave it for a further 5 minutes or so if you prefer things a little drier. Don’t overbake them though as brownies need some gooeyness! I like to see just a crack or two developing on the top and around the edges.

   

   Baked to Perfection

9. Finally, the most difficult part. Allow them to cool completely before cutting into brownie shapes. I never quite manage the patience for this part which is why they don’t hold together so well. But I’m sure if we left them a little longer before starting to devour them then they would probably be easier to cut and hold together better.

Whisk, Beat, Melt, Stir, Fold and Bake – Easy gluten free brownies!

And there you have it, delicious, sticky, gooey brownies without any inflammatory glutens – I don’t think the sugar helps in that respect and the almonds add quite a lot in the way of calories. However the doctors did say to cut down on gluten, not eliminate it and who’s counting calories whilst enjoying brownies?

Tags: Gluten FreeRecipe