Brownies are easily made gluten free, whether you’re using a baking mix or your own flour blend from scratch (for a pure deep chocolate, pure scratch recipe, see Rebecca Reilly’s book Gluten Free Baking). This version uses a pre-blended gluten free baking mix (not a brownie mix), and gets its sweet from a change-up in the sugars: Instead of 1-2 cups of refined white sugar, here I let coconut sugar, raw honey and molasses do the trick, with help from cooked sweet potato. Tastes yummy, lowers the glycemic index, and throws in a few extra minerals and vitamins. Use leftover baked sweet potatoes or mash; canned pumpkin works well in place of sweet potato too.
We often use Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking Mix in my house for recipes like this – the caveat is that it contains buttermilk and is not casein or dairy free. Dairy free option: Lose the butter, and use only coconut oil, ghee, or a mix of these (ghee contains no whey or casein). You’ll also need a different gluten free baking mix like Bob’s Red Mill. Mixes like this are convenient because they pre-blend the gluten free flours that work best in baked goods, and they include gluten free baking powder, salt, and other usual dry ingredients that baked goods need.
- 1.5 cups butter or ghee for Paleo version, use coconut oil
- 1/3 cup cococnut sugar
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1/8 teaspoon stevia drops in glycerite such as NOW brand or Sweet Leaf brand
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla (gluten free)
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin or sweet potato mash
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder such as Navitas Organics Cacao Powder
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips such as Lily's stevia sweetened GF CF chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped cashews optional - use any tolerable or safe nuts
- 1 cup GF baking mix such as Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix, or Bob's Red Mill
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees; prepare an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 inch baking pan by greasing lightly with butter or ghee. Dust with rice flour or any gluten free flour then line with baking parchment.
- Cream butter with coconut oil and sugar, blend on medium-high til smooth.
- Add stevia drops and honey, blend on high speed until smooth.
- Add egg and vanilla; blend again until smooth.
- Add canned pumpkin or sweet potato, blend slower speed til smooth.
- Stir in cocoa powder and blend til smooth. Then add the GF flour or baking mix blend. Still til evenly blended, then add nuts and chocolate chips; stir again to evenly distribute these.
- Spoon into your baking pan, pre-treated per step 1 above.
- Bake 25-30 minutes and test for doneness with a knife. It should come out clean. If not continue in five minute increments til done. Note that melted chocolate chips will show on the knife too, so look for batter that is done but not dry.