Sunday, May 20, 2012

Brownies

I had a craving for brownies the other day that I couldn't shake.  All of the recipes online seemed to need more than the few ingredients I had at my disposal, so I took it upon myself to make gluten-free brownies from scratch.  I had no clue what I was doing.. but surprisingly the brownies came out perfect.  They even cracked on top. Hopefully next time they'll come out just as good!


Dry Ingredients: 
1 cup of GF flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup of corn starch
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
 Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix together.  I used to use Bob's Red Mill brand GF flour, but I recently found a cheap alternative in the foreign food isle of the supermarket.  It's a plain rice flour for use in Chinese cooking.  It's not certified GF, but my sensitive gut hasn't had any problems with it. 

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave (a low setting is best). 
In a separate container, melt the margarine.  You could also just use room temperature margarine if you have the time. 
Crack the eggs into a separate large mixing bowl.  I always whisk my eggs when gluten-free baking, as the air helps the batter rise. 
Add the margarine, chocolate chips, and vanilla extract into the bowl of whisked eggs.  Blend all wet ingredients thoroughly.

Finally, add the dry ingredients into the wet.  Mix together well.  At this stage you can optionally add some chocolate chunks or nuts to the batter.
Spray a metal pan with cooking spray.  I used a round spring-form pan as I didn't have any square pans handy.  Nobody really cares what shape their brownie is, and it was much easier to remove after cooked.  Pour the batter into the pan and shake to even it out. 

Bake the brownies at 350 for about 40-50 minutes.  Place a toothpick in the center and make sure it doesn't come out wet before removing from oven.


Cool and cut.  You can serve with icing, whipped cream, etc.  I enjoyed mine with a nice glass of milk.