Best Gluten Free Brownies

To me the perfect brownie is moist and fudgey and dark, with a crunch to the top. This is the recipe for just that brownie. I’ve finally mastered the holy grail of the perfect gluten free brownie. Be warned, it is full of sugar and fat, just the way it should be.

Chewy Moist Dense Goodness

200g dark chocolate broken into even pieces

250g butter chopped

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup raw (low GI can be used) sugar

¼ cup sugar

4 eggs

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup of plain flour

1/3 cup of coca powder

Preheat oven to 160C line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. Melt butter and chocolate over a very low heat on stove top and cool to room temp. Alternatively you can carefully melt chocolate and butter in the microwave by being very careful and stirring a lot. Start by doing 3x 30second intervals, stirring well between each. The residual heat should essentially melt the chocolate.

Combine, flour, sugars, coca powder, baking powder and eggs. Stir in chocolate butter mix until just mixed through. Pour into tin and bake for 50mins until just set in the center.

Eat as is or serve warm with vanilla icecream.

serve warm with icecream

Happy Australia Day

So today is Australia day, I love being Australian and most of the time I love living in Perth. Today is a beautiful sunny day and we had the paddle pool out for the girls.

fun with friends

Very ozzie of us!

We’ve got Lamb for the BBQ and I baked Gluten-Free Anzac biscuits. Seeing Anzacs are mostly oats (not a gluten free product) the oaty substitute is quinoa flakes…yeah! I’ve based my recipe on this (non-gluten free) from the great gals at Exclusively Food. I love chewy biscuits, which is kinda hard to achieve with gluten free cooking as I find gluten free cooking can be dry and crumbly. I think I’ve done it.

Chewy Gluten Free Anzac Biscuits

Gluten Free Anzac Biscuits

Makes about 25 biscuits.

125g butter
40ml (2 tablespoons) golden syrup
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
1 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup gluten free plain flour (I use white wings)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup, firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tablespoons boiling water

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Celsius fan-forced). If you will be baking one tray of biscuits at a time, place an oven rack in the centre of the oven. If you wish to bake two trays of biscuits at a time, place one oven rack in the upper half of the oven and one in the lower half of the oven, rotate halfway through.

1. Line one or two large baking trays with baking paper.
2. Place butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally until melted.
3. Place oats, coconut, flour, caster sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl.
4. Stir together until well combined.
5. When butter has melted, combine bicarbonate of soda and boiling water in a small bowl or cup, (this is fun, it almost blooms like yeast) and then stir into the butter and golden syrup mixture.
6. Add butter mixture to dry ingredients.
7. Stir ingredients together until well combined.
8. Roll level, firmly packed tablespoons of the mixture into balls
9. Place dough balls/mounds about 5cm apart on the prepared tray/s.

Bake for about 15-16 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown but still soft (a longer cooking time will produce crisper, drier biscuits). Cool biscuits on trays for about three minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. The original recipe calls for a cup of flour but I find its best to use a bit less. I’ve written 3/4 of a cup because you can always add more but you cant take it out! You might notice there is no egg in these, now I’ve been told its because eggs were scarce in the days of war. I’ve also heard it was omitted to help stop them from going stale. Sounds like a good reasons to me, and they don’t need them either, so save your eggs for your Pav!

We’ve just watched the sky show from the park up the hill and now everyone is tucked safely in bed. Phew, I love Australia day.