It is time for April’s Secret Recipe Club post. This month I was assigned Cupcake Muffin and really enjoyed perusing Sara’s site. While Sara and I don’t follow the same nutrition criteria, there were a lot of recipes that I was interested in trying. She is crazy for curry and the curry recipes she posted looked really good!
I ultimately set my sites on veganizing, healthifying (massive fat reduction), and gluten-freeing her Chewy Chocolate Chunk Brownie recipe which she adapted from Pixelated Crumb. I highlighted all of the changes that I made to the recipe in RED (see below).
The brownies that resulted from these recipe changes were really very very good, but I do feel the need to call them brownie “cakes” because the texture more closely resembles that of cake than brownies. That being said, we couldn’t get enough of these. I personally think they tasted better the second day. When eaten straight out of the oven, you can taste the prunes slightly (which I didn’t mind at all), however once they cooled completely the prunes disappeared entirely.
I decided to use my mini crumb cake pan because when I make brownies I like to have nice finished edges on all sides (I’m weird like that). I also like that using the mini crumb cake pan makes the brownies single serve…though I would have to say that these brownies were HUGE and filling. Next time I will only put half of the batter in and make two batches vs. one. If you do this, please adjust the baking time accordingly as they will bake much faster.
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup Dutch Processed Cocoa 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs boiling hot coffee 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped (I used Sweetriot Brand 85% dark chocolate) 4 Tbs unsalted butter, melted (I used babyfood prunes) 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs vegetable oil (I used applesauce) 2 lrg eggs + 2 lrg yolks (I used 3 Energ egg replacer “eggs”) 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 ½ cups sugar (I used 1 cup maple syrup) 1 ¾ cups unbleached flour (I used 1 ½ cups King Arthur GFree flour AND 1 ½ cups blanched almond flour) 3/4 tsp table salt 1 tsp xanthan gum 6 ounces bittersweet / semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips) ***
Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a mini crumb cake pan with oil.
Whisk together the cocoa and boiling hot coffee. Add the unsweetened chocolate and whisk until melted. Whisk in the prunes and applesauce. Add the egg replacer eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup and whisk until smooth.
In a separate bowl whisk together the gluten-free flour, blanched almond flour, salt, and xanthan gum.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix well (but don’t over mix). Once combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-35 minutes (if you use half the batter and make two batches, cook for 10-15 minutes and then check with a toothpick to make sure they are done). Allow the brownie cakes to cool for 5 minutes, then remove them from the pan and allow them to cool completely on a cooling rack.
