There’s nothing better than homemade brownies. I know, I know, box brownies are easier, but I think they taste like the box they came in. Homemade brownies are a bit more work, but definitely worth it. I like mine pretty moist and fudgy, and I need to make them gluten free, so here’s a simple recipe that’s been adapted for gluten free flour (actually, given that there isn’t much flour in a good fudgy brownie recipe, this is pretty easy – just reduce the amount of flour a bit, and don’t worry about whether it has any xantham gum).
One note on gluten free flour: there are a lot of different kinds. For baking sweet things, make sure you stick with one that doesn’t have Gram or Chickpea flour in it – I like Dove’s Farm’s plain white, which is a blend of rice, tapioca, buckwheat, maize and potato. Gram flour has a very distinctive, slightly metallic taste that is OK for savory dishes (and generally goes away if you cook it well enough), but can be not so nice in sweets.
Ingredients:
- 300 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 300 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
- 100 g unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 T vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 200 g gluten free white flour
- 1 or 2 bars of white chocolate, broken into large chunks, or a few handfuls of big white chocolate drops (optional)
- 1 cup of pecans or walnuts (optional)
Butter a 9 x 9″ square or 13 x 9″ rectangular pan. The smaller pan will need a bit longer to bake, but will give you thicker brownies. I like the smaller size, and I use a flexible silicone pan set on a cookie sheet. Line the bottom of the pan with baking parchment, and butter the parchment a bit. If you leave the parchment long so it hangs over the ends of the pan, you can use it to lift the brownies out.
Melt the butter in a medium heavy saucepan. When melted, turn off the heat and dump in the chopped bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate. Let it sit until the chocolate is melted, then stir to mix. Allow the mixture to cool a bit. Whisk in the sugar, then vanilla and salt. Whisk in the eggs, then the egg yolks, one at a time. It’s important that the eggs are at room temperature, or the mixture may separate. If the eggs are cold, drop them in a bowl of warm water (from the tap – you don’t want them to cook) until they’re warm. If you do this, make sure the eggs are dry before you crack them into the chocolate – water and melted chocolate are a very bad combination. If the mixture does separate (because of cold eggs, not water – if it’s water, you’re out of luck… start over), you can dump it into a bowl and use a hand mixer to bring it all back together – not ideal, but it’s worked for me in the past. Once the eggs are worked in, add the flour and mix until just incorporated. Add the white chocolate chunks and or nuts, if you like, and fold in to distribute evenly.
Turn the batter into the prepared pan and put it in the oven for 30 – 45 minutes, depending on your oven and whether you’re using a square or rectangular pan. The brownies are done when a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs (not wet batter, but not totally dry either), and the top of the brownies is cracked a bit.
Let the brownies cool, then lift out of the pan onto a cutting board and slice as big or small as you like. Enjoy!
This recipe can also be halved, but make sure you use the smaller pan.
