These brownies are the best. I have cracked the vegan&glutenfree brownie code. Enough said. Also, I should mention there is nothing healthy about these brownies – they are unashamedly all about pleasure and a chocolate lover’s love for chocolate.
Ingredients:
1 cup gluten-free flour – I prefer Møllerens Fin melblanding (Norway) – I’ve heard Bob’s Red Mill is the best in the U.S.?
3/4 cup cocoa powder (Dutch processed) – I know it’s a lot, but if you love a rich, deep, dark chocolate flavour, trust me on this one. Also, you can compensate with more sugar when tasting the batter.
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup neutral coconut oil – I promise, it won’t taste of coconut one bit.
1 1/2 cups sugar – I use a mix of white and coconut sugar for a chewier brownie with richer flavour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1-2 tbsp espresso (optional)
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
Maybe: a splash of gf oat milk or almond milk
100g good quality dark chocolate
1/2 cup walnuts (or more if you’d like)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees (350F). Line a square baking tin with parchment paper. Get out two mixing bowls, one medium and one smaller one. In the small one, add the dry ingredients – flour, cocoa powder and salt. Mix well. Add the ground flax seeds to a cup along with six tablespoons of water and mix well.
- Melt the coconut oil and add to the medium bowl. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix. Once the flax seeds have rested for at least five minutes and have created a gel-like consistency, add to the sugar mixture. Mix well, but avoid over mixing.
- Add about half of the dry mixture to the wet one and mix well before adding the rest. Add coffee if desired. If the dough is still quite dry and crumbly, you may add some almond milk or gf oat milk, but avoid adding too much – it’s not supposed to be like regular brownie batter, it should be more of a paste than that.
- Chop the chocolate into fairly small pieces and crush the walnuts a little in your hands before adding and incorporating it into the dough. Move the mix into the baking tin, squeeze it out if necessary to cover the whole area, and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
- Let the brownies cool properly before moving them out of the tin and onto a cooling rack. These brownies are delicious while warm with a spoon from a bowl, but they are perhaps even better cooled down, when the crust has become crispy and really chewy:) Enjoy!
Notes: obviously, these brownies can easily be made nut free as well – just don’t add walnuts or any nut-based milk to the batter, and make sure there are no traces of nuts in any of the other ingredients.
