Tag Archives: brownies

zucchini brownies, gluten-free and almost vegan

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A coworker of mine has been very generous with sharing her garden with me this summer and lately she has had an abundance of zucchini.  Apart from zucchini bread I have only ever had zucchini in savory dishes so when she mentioned to me that she had recently eaten a delicious brownie made with zucchini I was intrigued and did a little interweb research.  The best-looking recipe I came across also happened to be gluten-free and refined-sugar-free.  What?!  Since I have been getting myself out of bed at 5 in the morning three days a week lately for a bootcamp class both of these things appealed to me so as not to undo all the good I’ve been doing.

Now, normally “healthy” and “baked goods” are not words that should be used together in a phrase but in this case it works.  And the brownies were so easy to make!  Four simple steps.  Anyone can handle that!

In place of sugar the recipe called for raw honey and instead of flour there was almond butter.  I happen to love almond butter and generally keep it in stock when I want a break from peanut butter so already had some on hand.

The results were moist brownies with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg.  If you want a rich, dense, chocolate-y brownie, look elsewhere, but if you want a sweet treat that actually isn’t that bad for you health-wise, this is your dish.  I think it may inspire me to sneak vegetables into sweet baked goods again…

Flourless Zucchini Brownies (recipe found at http://fastpaleo.com/zucchini-brownies/)

  • 1 cup of almond butter
  • 1 1/2 cup of grated or chopped zucchini (I used food processor)
  • 1/3 cup of raw honey
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp of vanilla
  • 1 tsp of baking soda
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
  • 1 cup of dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix everything together.

Pour into a greased 9×9 baking pan.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

gluten free brownies

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Well, I made it through Lent gluten-free as planned.  At least I’m pretty sure I managed to avoid it almost entirely.  It sneaks up in places you don’t expect, like as a thickener in soups and is apparently sometimes used to keep pre-shredded cheese from sticking together in packages in the supermarket.  Hmm.  At any rate, I am back on the stuff but am trying to keep it in moderation and as previously mentioned will still be baking gluten-free items on occasion, since I have oodles and oodles of gluten-free flours in my pantry.  Fortunately I found a gluten-free cookbook that I really like: Blackbird Bakery Gluten Free.

The recipes in this book taste like the traditional baked goods I was used to and these brownies were no exception.  They were rich, dense, and sweet.  Totally brownie-like in every way possible.  They were even better heated up and served with a little Salted Caramel Ice Cream which I will share with you later in the week.  Until then, happy Monday!

Gluten Free Brownies (from “Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free” by Karen Morgan)

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 4 ounces high-quality chocolate, such as Scharffen Berger, chopped
  • 2 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, such as Scharffen Berger, chopped
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ¼ cup almond meal
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • ¼ cup tapioca flour
  • ¼ cup glutinous rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour will work)
  • 1 ¾ teaspoons guar gum
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 5 large eggs
  • 2 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Take a piece of parchment paper and using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut 2 inches into each corner (right where the two edges of the paper meet) at a 45 degree angle.  Press the parchment into the greased 9-by-13-inch pan.  The slits you cut into the corners will allow you to fit the paper into the pan with perfectly smooth edges.

In a large stainless-steel bowl set over a saucepan with 2 inches of barely simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water), melt the butter and chocolate, being careful not to let the chocolate scorch.  Whisk in 1 cup of sugar.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir with a whisk to blend.  Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs with the remaining 1 cup sugar until the eggs have doubled in volume.  Stir half of the egg mixture into the melted chocolate mixture, then stir in half of the dry ingredients.  Repeat this process and stir until the batter looks like chocolate pudding.  Fold in the vanilla.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake for 30 minutes, or until the brownies are cracked around the edges.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.  Lift the brownies out by grasping the two sides of the parchment paper.  Transfer to a cutting board and remove the paper.  Cut into 16 bars.

life-changing marshmallows

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Growing up I always enjoyed marshmallows.  My brother taught me to eat them directly from the bag that my mom always seemed to have hanging around in the cupboard for future baking projects.  However, I did not know that marshmallows could in fact be life-changing until I had the homemade ones at City Bakery in New York.

Fortunately for me they sell them by the bag so when I was in NYC for work in December I bought two bags to take home.

This weekend I wanted to bake something that featured these beautiful, pillow-like marshmallows and thought what goes better with marshmallows than chocolate?  My brother’s girlfriend gave me some awesome German chocolate for Christmas so I thought I’d use that and make some brownies.

I did all sorts of searching on the interweb for the perfect marshmallow brownie but was not feeling it for any of the recipes I found.  Then I remembered that around this time last year I made some award-winning brownies and thought I would adapt that recipe to incorporate the marshmallows and voila.

The results were a fudge-y brownie with nice caramelized, almost crusty marshmallow bits on top.

I’m not suggesting you run out to New York to scoop up a bag of these heavenly marshmallows in order to make this recipe (though if you are there, you owe it to yourself to do so) as I think this recipe would work just fine with store-bought marshmallows.  If you wanted a s’more-like effect you could add some graham cracker crumbs into the batter and I think that would be great too.  Or you could combine graham cracker crumbs and butter and line the bottom of the pan with that!  It’s fun to experiment with baking, so go nuts.  (You could add nuts too!  Now we’re just getting plain crazy…)

Marshmallow Brownies

  • 1-½ stick butter
  • 2 ounces dark or milk chocolate (or a combination of the two), broken into chunks
  • ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • 1 ¼ cups sugar
  • 3 whole eggs, warmed to room temperature
  • 1-½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 9 marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place a large piece of foil in a 9-inch square metal cake pan, draping the foil over the edges. Grease foil with butter.

Melt the 1 ½ sticks of butter with the chocolate chunks over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Whisk to combine. Add the cocoa, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour.  Whisk to combine, though be careful not to over mix.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula.  Insert whole marshmallows into brownie batter.

Bake for about 18 minutes then rotate pan.  Bake for an additional 20 minutes

Cool at room temperature in the pan for about a half hour, then lift the brownies from the pan and refrigerate in the foil just until they are firm.  Remove from foil and cut the brownies into 12 or 16 squares

the premiere post

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Hello world.  I’d like to tell you about the most exciting thing that has happened to me so far this year. 

First, you must understand that I like to bake and that I have been doing so since I was a little kid when my mom would put a step stool in front of the kitchen counter so I could help roll out and frost cookies with her.  As an adult I have become known for my baking– always bringing homemade brownies, cookies, cakes, and pies to celebrate various occasions amongst coworkers, friends, and family, and at the risk of sounding immodest, I have been told that I’m pretty good at it.  I once even received a marriage proposal from a gay man after he had a bite of one of my confections.  However, hearing it doesn’t mean you believe it so this winter when I saw an ad for a bake-off at the local library I decided to go for it and see if there was any legitimacy to that marriage proposal.  The theme of the bake-off?  Chocolate.  Something I know a lot about.

I wanted to try something a little different from the ordinary and have always been a fan of salty and sweet combinations so I opted to make a fleur de sel brownie.  Never heard of fleur de sel before?  I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s just salt.  Fancy sea salt.  From France.

And let me tell you: it’s not cheap and it’s not easy to find in a medium-sized city in the Midwest but I made it happen, and boy was it worth it.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s start at the beginning, with butter– where all good things start.

You melt some butter with some chocolate…

…then you mix it with things like eggs, cocoa powder, and sugar:

You also have to make caramel that starts out looking like this:

And ends up looking like this:

Put it all together, sprinkle some of that fancy French sea salt on it:

And bake it:

So how did my first bake-off go, you ask?  Well let’s just say, perhaps I should have taken my friend’s proposal more seriously…

Fleur de Sel Brownies, adapted from Salted Fudge Brownies from Food & Wine magazine (recipe by Kate Krader), and Sweet and Salty Brownie from Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

  • Prep Time 15 Minutes
  • Cook Time 38 Minutes 
  • Servings: 8

Brownie Ingredients

  • 1-½ stick Butter
  • 2 ounces Dark Chocolate, broken into chunks (I used chocolate with 72% cocoa content)
  • ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • 1 ¼ cups Sugar
  • 3 whole Eggs, warmed to room temperature
  • 1-½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
  • 1 cup All-purpose Flour
  • ½ tablespoon instant Espresso Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Fleur de Sel (coarse sea salt)

Caramel Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
  • ½ cup Heavy Cream
  • 1 teaspoon Fleur de Sel
  • ¼ cup Sour Cream

Caramel Preparation Instructions

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup with ¼ cup water, stirring them together carefully so you don’t splash the side of the pan.  Cook over high heat until the mixture is dark amber in color, 6 to 8 minutes.  Remove from heat, and slowly add the cream and then the fleur de sel.  Whisk in the sour cream.  Set aside to cool.

Brownie Preparation Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place a large piece of foil in a 9-inch square metal cake pan, draping the foil over the edges. Grease foil with butter.

Melt the 1 ½ sticks of butter with the dark chocolate over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Whisk to combine. Add the cocoa, sugar, eggs, vanilla, espresso powder, and flour.  Whisk to combine, though be careful not to over mix.  Pour three-quarters of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula.  Set aside the remaining batter.

Bake for about 18 minutes then remove from oven.  Drizzle about ½ cup of the caramel over the brownies and use spatula to spread around, avoiding the corners of the pan.  Put the remainder of brownie batter over the layer of caramel and spread around with spatula.  Sprinkle top with fleur de sel.  Bake for an additional 18 to 20 minutes.

Cool at room temperature in the pan for about a half hour, then lift the brownies from the pan and refrigerate in the foil just until they are firm.  Remove from foil and cut the brownies into 12 or 16 squares.