Fudgy Grain Free Brownies
OK, has anyone else been keeping up with all the documentaries that scare the bejeezus out of you on Netflix? It’s the beginning of the new year so I guess everyone is trying to get back on track in terms of health, etc so my Netflix queue is chock full of scary food and health documentaries, which of course I can’t help but watch. Not to mention I’ve been obsessed over a new book. It’s called “The Plant Paradox” by Dr.Steven R Gundry. The book gives you a fascinating look at the foods we eat and how even some of the healthy stuff can be causing many major health problems, including diabetes, inflammation, and many other auto immune diseases. Of course this sparked my interest because of my son’s elevated A1C levels. We’ve been dealing with this for the past 3 years and have put him on various whole grain, low carb, low sugar diets to no avail. The levels stay the same, although that is the only marking that was coming back abnormal. Then this year, his blood tests came back positive for a thyroid antibody and a single marker for type 1 diabetes. The thyroid antibody disappeared on the last test, but it opened our eyes to a possible auto immune problem. So more diet ideas came about including the Paleo and the Autoimmune diet. Both of which are very restrictive, especially on a child. I was wracking my brain over this. I feel like I’ve already restricted his diet heavily and always felt like the bad guy. He never blamed me for it, but the look in his eyes always made me a bit sad. (Sorry, this is a very round about way to get to a brownie recipe, but its coming!) So when I found this book, I felt like I had a better understanding behind the food choices we were making. Not all fruit and vegetables were good for us! Namely tomatoes, eggplant and squash! My son ate tomatoes everyday!! They were easy to pack in his lunch box and it was a vegetable he wanted to eat so I thought win, win. But according the Dr Gundry, tomatoes and other vegetables with seeds have lectins that can cause inflammation in the body. Other revelations included grains (My kids ate so much oatmeal!), milk and meat. I’m not saying that this is the end all of diets, but it gave me some insight into why my son may be having the issues he’s been having. Granted none of these ideas have been tested since we are still awaiting his next blood test, but I’m willing to give some of these ideas a shot if it means normal blood tests. So….. In an effort to reduce the amount of grain in our diet, I will be trying out a bunch of grain free recipes! yaaay! And first up… Grain Free Brownies! Because I may be trying to take out grain and tomatoes, but I’m no monster!,
Whew, that was the longest explanation of a recipe yet! Thanks for hanging in there and staying with me. If anyone has read this book, I would love love to hear your thoughts on it! Please leave a comment below!
Now on with this recipe. I found this recipe online from One Lovely Life. It sounded simple enough and I had all the ingredients in my pantry. It starts off like a typical brownie recipe by melting the butter and the chocolate together. Then Whisking eggs and sugar in a separate bowl until lighter in color and slightly thick. The chocolate is added to this egg mixture and whisked till smooth. Now for the grain free part.
Almond flour, cocoa powder, salt and espresso powder are added. This gets folded together and baked.Simple! Let me tell you though, the batter is absolutely delicious. I know we shouldn’t be eating all this raw egg, but I couldn’t help but take a few licks…sorry, not sorry…
But these brownies are sooo chocolatey. It may be grain free but you would never be able to tell from their texture. A bit chewy, a bit gooey. They totally fooled my son! These are definitely going on my must make list!
Fudgy Grain Free Brownies
*Adapted from One Lovely Life
Ingredients
2/3 cup 70% or higher chocolate (I used guitars 74% baking disks)
5 tbsp salted grass fed butter
2/3 cup coconut sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup blanched almond flour
2 tbsp cocao powder (you can also use a good dutch process cocoa powder)
1 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Method
Pre heat oven to 350F. Grease and line a 8X8” square pan with parchment paper.
In a small saucepan simmer an inch of water. Place a bowl wide enough to sit on top of the the pot without falling in. Melt the chocolate and butter, then set aside to cool.
In another bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cocao powder, espresso powder and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until lightened in color and slightly thickened. (You basically want to dissolve the sugar into the eggs) Add in the vanilla and whisk to combine.
Pour in the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine with the eggs.
Gently fold in the flour mixture till just combined. Add in chocolate chips if desired.
Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth out to the edges.
Bake for 18-22 minutes. Sprinkle on Sea salt if desired.
Allow to cool before slicing.