The Ultimate Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies

In a previous post, I mentioned my love for all chocolate based desserts. I really am a chocolate fiend and that was my downfall when I stopped breastfeeding, I continued eating chocolate like it was going out of fashion and ended up a bit more "curvy" then I would usually be. I had to forgo the chocolate for a while after that.

Chocolate brownies are pretty high up on my list of nummy nummy treats and they have become my "thing" - the item I always bake for get togethers or dinners with friends. If I was on Great British Bake Off it would be my signature bake, if they weren't so ridiculously easy to make (you just melt everything and mix it up in a saucepan). Paul Hollywood wouldn't be very happy with me at all!

My brownie recipe is adapted from a BBC recipe I found a few years ago. I've just made a few tweaks. A good friend, Kristie has Ceoliacs disease and I used to make these for her all the time. I actually prefer the gluten free version myself.

If you are in any way watching your weight these are possibly the worst things you can eat, they are basically made of butter and sugar with a bit of chocolate and flour to hold them together. That's probably why they are so tasty, who doesn't love lots of butter? Also, I don't approve of nuts or anything like that in brownies. Why would you do that and ruin the chocolatey goodness? It's just wrong, wrong wrong.

Today I had a serious brownie craving. It was my birthday this week and as birthdays go, it was wasn't one of my better ones. Amongst other things, it was a day J was being difficult and this resulted in me being punched in the face and there may or may not have been blood. So, I think I deserve some brownies, all to myself - no sharing.

Ingredients:

• 450g caster sugar
• 225g butter
• 135g of caramel chocolate (dark or milk) - I use Galaxy caramel chocolate.
• 5 eggs
• 110g rice flour (this can be bought in some supermarkets and health food shops. Plain flour is fine for a non gluten free version
• 55g Cocoa - if you are making a gluten free version make sure the cocoa doesn't have any gluten in it. Some of them have fillers that do. I use Bourneville cocoa which is fine.

Method:

• Melt the sugar and butter together in a large heavy bottomed saucepan
• Add in the chocolate and when this is melted, take off the heat

• Add the 5 eggs to a bowl and beat until they are mixed well, add this to the chocolate mixture, a small amount at a time
• Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix very thoroughly (if you don't you will be left with brownies that look marbled with white and milk chocolate but in fact just have clumps of nasty flour in them)
• Pour into a high sided dish (you can use a cake tin either)
• Bake for about 35 minutes, checking every so often towards the end. A skewer inserted in the mixture should come out clean but if you overcook them the brownies will be horribly dry
• Allow the brownies to cool and cut into squares
• Dust with icing sugar if you want a bit of decoration. 
• Try not to eat the entire tray in one go

N

xx