Anything less than scrumptious and a chocolate brownie is just not worth the calories. And the disappointment when you bite into one that’s either dried up or devoid of flavour is like being four and dropping your ice cream all over again.
So here are some delicious chocolate brownies. They are also gluten-free chocolate brownies. Since there’s no dairy or egg these are gluten-free vegan chocolate brownies. And as long as sesame is okay, seeing as there’s no soy, egg or nuts, these are pretty allergy-friendly chocolate brownies. Phew.
This morning didn’t start so well. At one point the tantrums got so bad I ran a bath, jumped in and lay back so the water covered my ears, just to drown out the noise. And shut my eyes, just for a moment of tranquillity. Unfortunately I had to shut the one-year-old and the four-year-old in the bathroom with me. When I opened my eyes all I could see was two urchins, no longer fighting over the mountain of unravelled toilet roll, peering down at me over the side of the bath. Breakfast, snot and maybe a little remorse, smeared over their little faces. And so an ordinary day became a chocolate brownie day.
These are not your average brownie. You would never know they were dairy and gluten free for a start. They are just so chocolatey. Almost more chocolatey than chocolate. It’s the triple whammy of chocolate, cocoa powder and cocoa butter*. Just the right amount of nuttiness. From the walnuts and walnut oil, obviously, but also the buckwheat flour which works brilliantly with chocolate.
They are crisp on the outside and gooey in the middle, I think from baking them in individual loaf tins (I always either under or overbake brownies in a large tin). That somehow keeps them light despite their being so rich. And the salted caramelised walnut isn’t essential but does make them look and taste a bit special. It is Mother’s Day on Sunday after all. Here’s the perfect gift. (You will literally store up more brownie points than you know what to do with.)
It sounds like a lot of ingredients but these brownies are actually quite simple to make once you have measured everything out.
Oh, they are not for kids either. No way. They are for grown ups. Mainly mums. (Maybe a dad or two if they’ve been really, really good). We deserve it.
*I stumbled across food grade cocoa butter in my lovely independent local health food store and have been aching to try it since. If you can’t find any just double the amount of coconut oil instead, most supermarkets stock it.
I used a loose bottomed mini loaf tin tray but you could just as easily use a loose bottomed cupcake tin or one made of sillicone (you want to make sure you can get them out easily).
To make the brownies use:
100g (70% cocoa solids) dark chocolate
20g cocoa butter
20g coconut oil
1 tablespoon walnut oil (15ml)
2 eggs
100g soft light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
good pinch sea salt flakes
40g buckwheat flour
30g rice flour
15g cocoa powder
30g crushed walnuts
for the caramelised walnuts: 12 large walnut pieces or halves, 30g caster sugar and a pinch of good sea salt.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (160C fan). Grease a loose bottomed mini loaf tin, or find a silicone muffin tray.
Chop the cocoa butter into small chunks and melt with the chocolate and both oils in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Remove from the heat and add the vanilla, set aside whilst you measure out the flours, cocoa, salt and sugars into a bowl.
Once the chocolate mixture has cooled to just warm (so it won’t cook the eggs when you add them), beat the eggs into it with a fork, then stir in the dry ingredients until you have a smooth batter.
Stir in the crushed walnuts.
Quickly spoon the batter into the loaf tin or muffin tray (if it cools too much it will be harder to work with).
Bake for 6-8 minutes or until the tops of the brownies just turn opaque. (It seems like a really short time but they will carry on cooking in the tin and you don’t want to miss out on the gooey middle).
Whilst the brownies are baking (or cooling), line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper or a silicone mat then spread the remaining caster sugar evenly over the bottom of a frying pan and place over a high heat until it melts and turns amber in colour (and smells of toffee). Don’t stir it, just give it a little tip occasionally to swirl the melted sugar into the remaining sugar to speed things up (and avoid some sugar burning whilst the rest is unmelted.) Watch it at all times, sugar goes from white to burnt very fast!
Add a good pinch of salt then the walnut halves. Now you can stir, just enough to evenly coat the nuts in the caramel. Quickly and very carefully* tip out onto the lined baking sheet and leave to cool.
When cool, break the caramelised block of walnuts up into 12 pieces and press each one into the top of each brownie.
When the brownies are cool, ease them out of their tin.
And enjoy. But do try to save some for a Mother’s Day gift.
*I mean really carefully, melted sugar is over 150 degrees C. I once got a nasty burn making toffee apples in a professional kitchen, why I volunteered for that job I’ll never know. Anyway no matter how tempting don’t lick the spoon either. You need the skin on your tongue to taste the brownies.
A great alternative to a mince pie but more special than a brownie, these are incredibly chocolatey, with a Christmassy twist of clementine and squidgy prune for extra sweetness. i like the way the fruit adds a bit of acidity to cut through the richness without distracting from the chocolate hit. They are pretty easy too, you just need to make sure the chocolate mix doesn’t have time to harden before you try to fold in the whisked egg white and sugar mix. I originally made them with coffee instead of cocoa but it felt for me as though there were too many flavours competing and the sunny clementime couldn’t shine through. If you want to try it though just dissolve half a teaspoon of (good) instant coffee in a tablespoon of very hot water and use in place of the cocoa powder.
Don’t overbake them – you want to make sure they retain some “squidge”, and try to use a mini muffin tray or small cases as they are really quite rich. Hence “bites” in the title. The cooking time will vary depending on your oven, the size of your muffin tray or cake cases and how juicy your clementine was. So check after 15 minutes is up, they should be firm on top with a little “give”, ie slightly undercooked in the centre. Oh and I finally worked out how to make sure they come out of the muffin tray (if you are using one) without leaving half the cake behind. Pop it in the freezer for half an hour before you pop them out, it worked a treat for me. Although I kind of missed scoffing the bits that get stuck in the tin as a little pre-washing up reward…
These are gluten and dairy free (of course) and also happen to be grain free, if that’s important to you.
Ingredients: 100g prunes; 2 tablespoons brandy (or whatever other Christmas booze you have to hand, Amaretto or rum or orange liqueur would all work well), 100g good dark chocolate; 1 clementine; 3 eggs; 1 tablespoon of cocoa; a pinch of salt; 85g light brown sugar; 25g ground almonds
Plus: a mini muffin tray or 12-15 small cake cases.
To make:
1. Chop the prunes small (I halve them down the middle with scissors then snip each half into about 5). Place in a bowl with the alcohol for ten minutes whilst you melt the chocolate.
2. Break up the chocolate into a bowl set over some gently simmering water.
3. Zest a clementine and add to the prune mix, then squeeze the juice in too.
4. Stir the cocoa and salt into the chocolate and add the prune mix and stir. Remove the bowl from the top of the pan now.
5. Separate the eggs, place the whites in a large bowl and yolks in a smaller one. Weigh out the sugar.
6. Whisk the egg whites until fluffy then add the sugar and whisk again until soft peaks form (you don’t want it to be too stiff)
7. Stir the yolks into the chocolate mix and gently fold in the whites-sugar mix until marbled different shades of brown.
8. Sprinkle over the ground almonds and fold again until all the same colour.
9. Spoon into a 12-15 hole mini muffin tray or 12-15 small cake cases. The mixture should come close to the top (don’t worry they will rise then drop back down a bit). If yours is a metal tray wipe with a little oil first. I can’t recommend the silicone variety enough.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes in an oven set at 175 C, checking after 15 minutes. They will be slightly risen and firm on top but with a little give (indicating lovely gooeyness underneath!) when done.
11. Cool in the muffin tray (if you are using) then pop the whole thing in the freezer for half an hour before you turn then out. (If you are using cake cases you don’t need to do this!)
12. Serve dusted with icing sugar or scattered with some orange zest. Mine are in the freezer ready to go to a friend’s house for tea tomorrow so sadly I can’t show you a picture of the snowy chocolatey scene…
colour me happy kitchen 