Baking, Uncategorized

Gluten and Dairy-Free Almond Brownies

As a college student, I had a roommate with celiac disease. We would make gluten and dairy-free meals together, and it generally tasted pretty delicious! However, I can honestly say that gluten and dairy-free desserts are generally made of chalk and disappointment. At least, the ones I tried with my friend.

But fear not, my friend! This gluten and dairy-free brownie recipe is not comprised of dusty chocolate or sadness. These brownies hold their shape super well, and they can be either delightful and fudgy or light and cakey!

I created this recipe for a potluck we went to. I know how disappointing it is to go places and not be able to eat any dessert, so I wanted to have a way for everyone to enjoy a treat.

I applied the knowledge I have of brownie making to a basic almond flour recipe I found on the internet and improved it! For all the secrets to making these brownies delicious, look in the notes below.

Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups almond flour
  • 1 Cup white sugar
  • 1 Cup brown sugar
  • 6 Tablespoons of Instant Clearjel powder (Or cornstarch)
  • 1 Cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 Teaspoon salt
  • 1 Teaspoon of baking soda (for more cakey brownies) or 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda (for more fudgy brownies)
  • 4 Eggs plus 1 egg yolk
  • 2 Teaspoons vanilla
  • 4 Tablespoons ghee (for just lactose-free), melted vegan butter, or olive oil
  • 1 Cup of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk the dry ingredients together.
  3. Add in the wet ingredients and stir until everything is combined.
  4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  5. Spread the brownie batter in the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. If you want more fudgy brownies, take them out closer to 25 minutes when they are slightly jiggly in the middle. If you want more cakey brownies, I would take them out closer to 30 minutes or until the middle isn’t jiggly anymore.
  6. Let them cool completely. This is a key step! The texture won’t be perfect until they are cool.

Notes:

  • Instant ClearJel Powder can be found in many different stores and everywhere online. It is often used in pies and jellies, but it gives a wonderful texture to baked goods and keeps them moist. This is the secret to the texture of these brownies! It is essentially cornstarch, so you can use cornstarch in a pinch, but I do suggest using the Instant ClearJel powder.
  • Baking soda can be completely omitted from this recipe for the fudgiest brownies, however, the texture of the almond flour comes through more and is slightly grainy. I highly suggest adding 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the brownies.
  • I have not experimented with gluten-free flour in the recipe. If you do, please let me know how it turns out!
Advertisement

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s