Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie

Right, so Ammo hit me up late last night looking for a healthy brownie recipe. I never need too much of an excuse to think about cakes and so I’d a wee look around. Toyed with the idea of sweet potato or beetroot as a gluten replacement and then thought better of it. I had ground almonds and I love the slight sweetness they bring to a cake. You use cocoa powder in this recipe instead of chocolate in bars so that reduces the amount of fat intake. It’s gluten free too so really it’s as good as brownies can get. I think! As usual this is note based on one recipe but on a mix of tips and recipes I read.

So here goes:

Ingredients:

100 g ground almonds; 3 eggs (put them in the fridge); 150 g of butter; 250 g of caster sugar; 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence; a handful of chopped walnuts or brazil nuts if you fancy them; 1 good pinch of salt if you’re using unsalted butter and 65 g of good cocoa powder.

Method:

Place a bowl over boiling water. In your bowl place the butter, the sugar, the chocolate and the salt (if you’re using salt).

Let it melt gently and mix it together. If it stays granular don’t mind it, it’ll rectify itself later. When all the butter has melted down and been mixed with the sugar and chocolate, take the bowl of the heat and let it cool down for 5 min. Once it’s cooler mix your ground almonds and then add your eggs and vanilla extract.

Now, if you’re using nuts, don’t do what I did, which is to forget them altogether! Add them in at this stage.

Pour your mixture in your cake mould and place in the oven for 20/ 25 min (oven should be nice and hot at 180 C). Do the knife taste. This brownie is rich and decadent so your knife should have some moisture on it.

Wait until the cake has cooled down completely before taking it out of the mould.

It’ll look something like this.

It’s rich and yet not too sweet. Crunch on the inside and deliciously gooey inside. Let me know if you make it!