Everyone likes a chocolate brownie. But what if you have allergies, or just want a ‘cleaner’ version (if that’s possible!) Here’s a gluten free chocolate brownies recipe that you can also make vegan and, if you’ve been exercising or need a boost you can add your favourite protein powder to, for an extra kick.

I found this delicious gluten free 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.

I swapped some ingredients out purely and simply because I didn’t have them and I have made a few variations now and they all work, which is so satisfying.

So when I was preparing this blog post, 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.

Prep – about half an hour
Cooking – 30-35 mins

Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

4 teaspoons flaxseeds or ground flaxseed
140g whole raw almonds or ground (or ground almonds)
115g plus 2 tablespoons brown rice flour (or buckwheat 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 going vegan you can use any chocolate)
55g plus 2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter
225g natural cane sugar (or coconut sugar if you don’t want to go refined)
60ml almond or any nut milk or soy or regular milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
65g chopped nuts – walnuts or pecans work well

Oven goes on at 180 C (fan) (Gas mark 4, 350 F). Adjust your time depending on your oven.

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.

Need an extra protein boost? Add your favourite protein powder in with these dry ingredients. One scoop will do.

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.

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!

These are AWESOME after a workout, when you need a pick me up in the car or walking back home, or if you fancy a mid-afternoon treat.

But be warned, if you have kids around or hungry other half’s, they wont last very long – I had to hide a few away at the back of the fridge for myself!

So while you’re thinking about making these delicious brownies, perhaps you would like to consider other areas of your life? Where could you improve, and could you do with some help to figure it out?

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Lawrence Mitchell

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