Tag Archives: Brownies

Gluten free Brownies

Brownies are probably the most comforting dessert I can think of and what’s even more comforting is how easy and uncomplicated they are.
I served these at my last minute birthday party and they were gone in ten minutes, no joke.
(I was hoping for leftovers, but not a chance)
The gluten free flour blend is home made but I imagine this Gluten free Brownies recipe will work with store bought gluten free flour as well. Below is my own flour mix which doesn’t contain xanthan gum or guar gum.

INGREDIENTS:

200 gr butter
200 gr dark chocolate
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp instant coffee
200 gr rice syrup
115 gr gluten free flour blend *see note
40 gr cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 – 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Line a baking tin of 20 x 20 cm approximately with parchment paper and spray with oil or pam.
Pre heat oven to 180C/350 F.
Melt butter and chocolate in a non stick saucepan on low heat until smooth stirring with a rubber spatula, add the coffee and vanilla and set aside to cool.
Meanwhile in a large bowl mix together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda, whisk to combine.
Once the chocolate has cooled, stir in the rice syrup. In a large bowl whisk the eggs and add the melted chocolate slowly and mix to combine well.
Stir in the flour and mix with rubber spatula until combined.
Add the chocolate chips if using and pour in to baking pan.
Place in the middle of the oven and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. It should still a a bit of a wobble in the center when you tap the baking tin.
Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting into squares.
Enjoy!

GLUTEN FREE FLOUR BLEND
200 gr brown rice flour
200 gr white rice flour
100 gr corn flour
50 gr tapioca
4 tbsp. Psyllium husk powder
2 tbsp flax flour

Mix all these thoroughly and keep in a jar for all recipes like bread, buns, pancakes and brownies.
Note that there is a lot of psyllium powder in here, this is to bind the flours during cooking instead of xanthan gum or guar gum. You may need a little extra fluid in your recipe.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Blondies

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Healthy Blondies? I know, it’s hard to believe right? Although they do have a tiny little drizzle of white chocolate on top, a microscopic amount of sprinkles and a few choccy chips they are still super healthy. I swapped out butter for cashew nuts, the flour for white beans and the refined sugar for agave syrup and coconut sugar. It works perfectly, I always make healthy brownies and honestly I think they taste better than the regular sugar and fat laden brownies. Here are some of my favourites;

The-best-low-carb-tiger-nut-brownies
Best-healthy-coffee-walnut-brownies (my personal favourite)
Black bean brownies
Cakey-sweet-potato-brownies

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. I make these Healthy Chocolate Chip Blondies in a food processor, it works great and gets the smooth texture just right and more importantly… it saves cleaning up, so it could not be more simple. Just remember to soak your cashew nuts a few hours in advance for easy blending.

Makes 16 squares
Needed: 8 x 8 inch baking dish

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 C. cooked white beans from a can, drained
• 1/2 C. soaked Cashew nuts
• 2 large eggs
• 11/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1/4 C. coconut sugar
• 1/2 C. agave syrup
• 1 C. flour (you can use spelt, oat or whole wheat)*
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 C. chocolate chips (vegan)

FROSTING;
• 3/4 C. cooked white beans
• 1 C. soaked Cashew nuts
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. Agave syrup

EXTRA:
• 1/4 C. white chocolate melts (or vegan white chocolate)
• sprinkles

METHOD:
1. Pre heat the oven to 180° C / 350° F
2. Line a baking dish with baking parchment and oil lightly.
3. Soak the cashew nuts in advance for a about two hours. Drain before use.

4. Place white beans and cashew nuts in a food processor and blend until completely smooth.
5. Add the remaining ingredients and blend again. * Depending on the flour type you use you may need to add a splash of milk (of choice).
6. Add the chocolate chips and stir thru with a spatula.
7. Pour the Blondies batter into the prepared baking dish, level out with a spatula.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes
9. Remove from oven and let completely before frosting.
TO MAKE THE FROSTING:
1. Blend all the ingredients for the frosting in a blender until completely smooth.
2. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.
TO DECORATE:
1. Spread frosting over the bars. (I do this after cutting them in squares).
2. Then melt the white chocolate melts in the microwave at 30 second intervals and drizzle diagonally over the frosting.
3. Decorate with sprinkles straight away so they stick to the chocolate.

Enjoy!

Cakey Sweet Potato Brownies

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Let’s have a chat about these Brownies, these super soft and cakey Brownies.

They’re so unbelievably good that I don’t even know where to start. I’m not kidding either, they taste like Chocolate Birthday cake, and that’s not even my own comment. Someone actually said that while eating one of these babies. Very soft and chocolaty and pure indulgence. But…the most amazing part is that they are fat free, and I made them sugar free too. I have made them at least 9 or 10 times the past month and we just can’t get enough of them. I honestly don’t know what magic happens when you put sweet potato mash in a brownie recipe but believe me, it’s real magic.
I microwave a medium sweet potato in the morning (after piercing it with a skewer a few times) and forget about it until I am ready to bake. You could even do this the night before. For a video click here.
Then you mash the peeled sweet potato and add it to the batter, instead of butter. If you don’t want to bake with Stevia you can omit the applesauce and Stevia and substitute it for 1/4 to 1/3 cup Maple syrup or regular sugar.

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs
1/4 cup apple sauce * see note
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
2 tsp. liquid Stevia extract * see note
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup small chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F
Line a square tin 20x20cm/8″x8″ with baking parchment and oil lightly.
Pierce the medium sized sweet potato a few times with a skewer and microwave on high for about 3 minutes, turn the potato over and microwave for 2 to 3 more minutes until soft.
I always place the potato on a folded paper kitchen towel.
Let cool completely, remove the skin and mash.
In a bowl beat the two eggs, add the yoghurt, the apple sauce, stevia, vanilla and mix until combined. Add the sweet potato mash and mix well. Now add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. You’ll notice the batter is quite thick, but spongy, this is good.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and place on a rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer to see if the brownies are done.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting into 9 squares.
These are best kept in the refrigerator if not eaten the same day. I have roughly calculated the calories in one square and they are about 100 calories each. Awesome right? If you make them with maple syrup or sugar they will be a bit more, but still very OK.

Enjoy!

NOTE: omit the applesauce and Stevia and substitute it for 1/4-1/3 cup Maple syrup.

The Best Low Carb, Tiger nut Brownies

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These are my favorite Brownies, until I find new favorite Brownies (wink). But seriously, the flavor of these little guys is amazing. The tiger nut flour gives it an amazing bite and I am super excited to share the recipe with you. Having grown up in Spain, I have known tiger nuts all my life for making Horchata, but never knew they were also used as flour in baking. The crazy thing is that I found out about it in Germany out of all places. A lady in a shop told me, so I had to buy it straight away. After some research I came up with this…

Tiger nuts have various uses; in particular, they are used in Spain to make horchata.

Tigernuts are also said to act as a mild appetite suppressant because they contain resistant starch, a type of starch which resists digestion.

This helps keep us feeling fuller for longer, and also reduces the amount of calories we absorb from the food. Hola…would you like me to say that again?

Flour of roasted tiger nuts is used in baking as well as in making oil, soap, and starch extracts. It is also used for the production of nougat, jam, beer, and as a flavoring agent in ice cream and in the preparation of kunnu (a local beverage in Nigeria). Tiger nut oil can be used naturally with salads or for deep frying. It is considered to be a high quality oil.

Known by different names, such as chufa sedge, nut grass, yellow nut sedge, tiger nut sedge, edible galingale, water grass or earth almond, it is a crop widespread across much of the world. It is found in most of southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Since I am mad about Brownies I am constantly trying to come up with ways to make them delicious and heathy but still with the right consistency, which is half cakey/half fudgy. I have used a combo of both coconut flour and tiger nut flour and they are just perfect. We have been eating them a lot lately, since they are actually good for you and so simple to make.

Prep Time : 5 mins
Cook Time : 25 mins
Total Time : 30 mins

Servings: 16 or 9 big ones

Ingredients:

250 gr. Black Beans, drained
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 L. Eggs, room temperature
1/2 C. Cocoa
3 tbsp. Tiger nut flour
4 tbsp. coconut flour (finely ground)
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
a pinch of salt
3 – 4 tbsp. milk of choice, unsweetened
1/4 C. unsweetened apple sauce* (see note)
2 tsp. Liquid Stevia Extract* (see note)
1/4 C. mild flavoured olive oil
1/3 C. 70% Dark Chocolate, roughy chopped**
chopped walnuts, (optional)

Instructions:

1. Pre heat oven to 180 C / 350 F.
2. Line a square 20 cm / 8 ” baking tin with parchment paper.
3. Start by blending the drained black beans with the apple sauce in a food processor until very creamy and smooth.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients except the chocolate chips and walnuts.
5. Start with 3 tablespoons of milk and see if you need the remaining one. It should be thick but still pourable.
6. Blend for a few minutes until completely smooth.
7. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts if you are using them, and pour into the prepared baking tin.
8. Sprinkle with some more chocolate and/or walnuts.
9. Place on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.
10. You can insert a wooden skewer to test if they are done, it should come out just dry.
11. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes in the tin.
12. Remove from the tin and let cool completely on a rack before cutting, the colder the better.
13. Will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. They freeze well too.

Myra XO

* Replace apple sauce and stevia for same amount of maple syrup.
**Chocolate chunks will first melt, but once the brownies have cooled the chocolate will solidify, giving you great chunks. So yummy.

Nutritional value
Despite its name, tiger nut sedge is a tuber. However, its chemical composition shares characteristics with tubers and with nuts. It has been reported to be a “health” food, since its consumption can help prevent heart disease and thrombosis and is said to activate blood circulation and reduce the risk of colon cancer This tuber is rich in energy content (starch, fat, sugar, and protein), minerals (mainly ), phosphorus and potassium and vitamins E and C. Tiger nut tubers contain almost twice the quantity of starch as potato or sweet potato tubers. The oil of the tuber was found to contain 18% saturated (palmitic acid and stearic acid) and 82% unsaturated (oleic acid and linoleic acid) fatty acids. The moderately high content of phytosterols further enriches the quality and value of tiger nut oil as a food source.