I found this delicious gluten free vegan chocolate brownies recipe idea in the great cookbook Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon.
I’m a very fussy person when it comes to recipe books – and it’s not often I come across one as good as this.
If you take the right options this can be gluten free, and refined sugar free as well as vegan.
I swapped some ingredients out purely and simply because I didn’t have them.
So I used buckwheat flour, pecans and coconut sugar. I ground flaxseeds in the water in my mini blender as I didn’t have already ground, and I used ground almonds. To tell you the truth I also used a tray of Thornton’s chocolates that I had at the back of the cupboard as I ran out of chocolate. Worked fine!
Prep – about half an hour
cooking – 30-35 mins
Ingredients
4 teaspoons flaxseeds or ground flaxseed
140g whole raw almonds or ground (or ground almonds)
115g plus 2 tablespoons brown rice flour (or buckwhet flour)
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
50g cocoa powder (or raw cacao powder)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
90g plus 45g non dairy choc chips (or if youre not vegan you can use any chocolate – I used up a box of chocolates that were in the back of the cupboard!)
55g plus 2 tablespoons coconut oil or vegan butter
225g natural cane sugar (or coconut sugar if you don’t want to go refined)
60ml almond or nut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
65g chopped nuts – walnuts or pecans work well
Oven goes on at 180
Method
Find a big square baking tray that looks like it will hold brownies in. Line with baking paper and let the sides overlap so you can lift it out afterwards. The mixture’s quite runny so don’t use one with a loose bottom unless you double wrap the parchment!
1. whisk the flax and water together and set aside so it goes gel like
2. If you need to grind the almonds, do so, otherwise whisk them with the flour, arrowroot, coco powder, salt and baking soda. These ingredients really need to combine well for your brownies to come together so do this with care – use a hand whisk, mine worked well.
3. Melt 90g of the chocolate and the coconut oil / butter in a pan (gently!). When almost melted, take off the heat and add your flaxseed mix, sugar, milk and vanilla (smells delilsh – resist the temptation to eat this mixture right now).
4. Pour the liquid mix from the pan into the big bowl where your dry ingredients were combined. Give it a good mix, then add the nuts and the additional chocolate chips.
5. Your chocolately glistening mix now needs to go into the baking tray. Try and get it evenly spread – move the tin around with your hands, in the air. Brownie mix needs encouragement to move!
6. your oven will be nice and hot now so pop in your tin, and set your timer for 30 minutes. Check them at this stage – by pushing the top of the surface. There should be a bit of give but not be squashy.
Brownies are sticky inside, so its difficult to test with a stick like you would a regular sponge. If in doubt keep going for up to 4 more minutes – but don’t walk away from the oven, this is the crucial bit.
7. Keep in the baking tin while cooling – or they will fall apart! Your kitchen will smell divine, but resist, resist.
While you’re waiting for them to cool – why not think up a slogan for our competition? What would you like to see on your own unique vest or sweatshirt?For more unique gluten free recipes visit CLICK HERE
Meanwhile, back in the kitchen:
8. Divide into squares smaller than you think is about right. These pack a punch and you don’t need that much to get satiated.
I used a 2 litre square tin and I cut more than the 16 squares this receipe has for a guideline.
Also adjust your cooking time if you’re using a shallow tray (less) or deeper tray (more).
Once cooled these keep really well in a container in the fridge…. if you can resist them!
Thanks to my favourite cook book called Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon. Her recipes that work and although are GF SF and vegan, aren’t over fussy. Loved this recipe? To get additional Vegan recipes visit Positive Health.
These are AWESOME after a class, when you need a pick me up in the car or walking back home.
But be warned, if you have kids around or hungry husbands, they wont last very long – I had to hide a few away at the back of the fridge for myself!
