Grain-Free Nut Butter Brownies

Do you love brownies or did you once love ‘em? Do you or any of your family members or friends avoid wheat, gluten, grains, dairy products, or refined sugar? Are you wondering how you can make delicious brownies without using those ingredients? It’s not impossible! I've made each of the brownie recipes that follow a few times. I recently made one batch for a friend's birthday. Be careful not to over-bake them or they'll be disappointingly dry!

Elana’s pantry
More than a year ago, Heather Wolcott, one of best friends, tipped me off to a great recipe for flourless, almond butter brownies on Elana Amsterdam’s blog, Elana’s Pantry.  Heather raved about the brownies but I waited months to make them, thinking they might be a disappointment. Turns out I was wrong. They were great! Since then I’ve made them for friends’ birthdays, weekend treats, and gifts. (Recipe below).

Photo credit: Chef Rachel Albert © 2010

Who is Elana Amsterdam?
When Elana and her son were diagnosed with celiac disease, an inherited autoimmune disorder triggered by eating gluten, her family adopted a gluten-free diet Unwilling to cook two separate meals each night for my family, she set out to make gluten-free food that tasted like regular food. She threw herself into this culinary challenge and eventually developed a gluten-free repertoire that tastes delicious. Her friends and family members, and even people who don’t follow restricted diets, now ask for her recipes.

Eventually Elana created her blog and then wrote The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, published by Random House (July 2009), which features over 100 gluten-free recipes. You can read my review of her book here. I’ve made almost a dozen of her recipes and shared them with friends and acquaintances who’ve raved about them.

Can you make a lower carb, flourless brownie?
After I tried Elana’s brownie recipe, I found another version of the recipe that I also like on Kelly Brozyna’s blog, The Spunky Coconut. After discovering that her family was suffering from a variety of reactions to food, Kelly placed them on a gluten free diet. Next she removed dairy, and then refined sugars. One by one, their symptoms disappeared.

Photo credit: Chef Rachel Albert © 2010

Kelly’s brownie recipe uses a smaller pan (an 8-inch square one), makes half as many brownies, and contains fewer net carbs and sugar grams because it’s sweetened a mix of honey and stevia (my favorite way to sweeten desserts; see The Ice Dream Cookbook for more recipes, guidelines, and ideas for replacing sugar with a mixture of honey and stevia).

Flourless Chocolate Chip Brownies
Grain-free, gluten-free & dairy-free

Prep: 20 minutes    Cooking: 25 to 35 minutes        Yield: 24 brownies

I didn’t invent this recipe. It comes from Elana Amsterdam’s blog: Elana’s Pantry. This recipe has wowed my cooking students and friends. It's easy to make the brownies taste divine.

Ingredients

• 1 (16) ounce jar salted, roasted, smooth, almond butter*
• 2 (medium to large) eggs
• 1 ¼  cup raw honey or agave nectar (I reduced it to 1 cup and used honey)
• 1/4 cup filtered water (this was not in Elana's recipe but it does make them more moist)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon Celtic sea salt (double if using unsalted nut butter)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup dark chocolate 73% , coarsely chopped (you could sub gluten-free choc chips)
• Coconut oil to grease pan; palm shortening also works well

* If using unsalted nut butter, add 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons finely ground unrefined sea salt. I like Celtic Sea Salt and Redmond Real Salt.

1. In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth with a hand blender. (You can use a whisk in a large bowl for entire recipe or a food processor fitted with a metal blade.)
2. Blend in eggs, then blend in honey, optional water and vanilla.
3. Blend in cocoa powder, salt and baking soda, then fold in chocolate chips
4. Grease a 9 x 13 Pyrex glass baking dish  with coconut oil. (I used palm shortening. To make it easier to remove the brownies from the pan, after greasing it, line the bottom with parchment paper cut to fit, then grease the top of the paper.)
5. Pour batter into dish. Spread with a moistened spatula to level the top of the batter.
6. Bake at 325° for 35 to 40 minutes. (I find they dry out if baked that long. Test with a toothpick at 25 and 30 minutes, then bake a bit longer only if batter is very wet in the middle!)
7. If you bake this in two 8-inch square pans or make one half recipe in such a pan, bake for about 20 to 24 minutes. (

Note: If you use chocolate chips or dark chocolate, they will invariably contain some sugar. The darker the chocolate the lower the sugar content. To eliminate all refined sugar from the recipe above, replace the chocolate with raisins, chopped, dried, fruit sweetened bing cherries, or cocoa nibs.

Flourless Nut Butter Brownies (Lower Carb Version)
Grain-free, gluten-free & dairy-free

Prep: 20 minutes    Cooking time: 20 to 24 minutes    Yield: 12 small brownies

Here’s a lower carb version of the recipe above. I found it on the The Spunky Coconut Blog. It makes half as many brownies as the recipe above. I like that it combines honey and stevia, which reduces the total amount of net carbs and sugar grams. I use that sweetener combination in most of the recipes in my Ice Dream Cookbook. It works well and many people who say they don’t like stevia change their minds after they try my recipes. Using two sweeteners together makes a big difference in flavor, texture, and mouth-feel compared to using only stevia in desserts.

Kelly Brozyna, the creator of this recipe says, “For those of you who like the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, but seek to avoid peanuts because they contain a fungus, this is the brownie for you. If you're not a peanut butter fan, make them without Sunbutter (made from roasted sunflower butter), for one of the best brownies ever! Add a little mint and you have mint chocolate brownies! So many delicious ways to make them!”

Chef Rachel’s note: You can make the brownies with roasted almond butter; I’ve done that a couple of times. I haven’t tried them with sunflower butter. Roasted cashew or hazelnut butter would probably be good too.

Chef Rachel’s notes about peanuts & fungus
Aflatoxins are produced by a fungus and they are one of the most carcinogenic substances identified by scientists. They can grow on and contaminate grain and leguminous crops before harvest or during storage. Exposure to high humidity and high temperatures stimulate the growth of this fungus; although drought conditions can also make crops susceptible to it.

According to Wikipedia, “Virtually all sources of commercial peanut butter in the United States contain minute quantities of aflatoxin, but it is usually far below the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recommended safe level.”

“…the crops most often affected by aflatoxin include cereals (maize, sorghum, pearl millet, rice, wheat), oil seeds (peanut, soybean, sunflower, cotton), spices (chilli peppers, black pepper, coriander, turmeric, ginger), and tree nuts (almond, pistachio, walnut, coconut, brazil nut).”

Note: If you replace sunflower butter with almond butter,  reduce nutbutter by 1 tablespoon and increase the honey by 2 tablespoons. Sunflower butter contains 3 grams of sugar per 2 tablespoons so it adds more sweetness to the recipe than unsweetened nut butter.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sunflower butter (for a peanut-like taste or 1/2 cup additional almond butter)
• 1/2 cup roasted almond butter
• 2 (medium to large) eggs
• 1/3 cup honey; add 2 Tablespoons honey if you are not using sunflower butter above*
• 2 droppers-full of Wisdom Naturals Vanilla Creme liquid stevia or Nu Naturals Vanilla Stevia*
• 1/2 teaspoon mint extract, optional
• 2 tablespoons water or almond milk; double if batter appears dry (I always add this)
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground unrefined sea salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (don’t add more  or the brownies will be bone dry!)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (not in her recipe but I think it improves them!)
• 1/4 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (for people with allergies and/or celiac disease, I use Enjoy Life Chocoalte Chips) or coarsely chopped bittersweet dark chocolate (70 to 73% cocoa content)
• Virgin coconut oil or non-hydrogenated palm shortening to grease baking pan

*Chef notes: I rewrote Kelly’s instructions for clarity. If you don’t have vanilla stevia, substitute clear stevia extract liquid, then add 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract.

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F. Grease an 8x8x2-inch baking pan or 9-inch round cake pan  with coconut oil or palm shortening. (I use palm shortening. To make it easier to remove the brownies from the pan, after greasing the pan, line the bottom with parchment paper cut to fit, then grease the top of the paper. The brownies will slip right out after you cut them.)
2. In a medium size bowl, combine sunflower butter and almond butter. (Alternatively use 1 cup of almond butter.) Add the eggs, honey, vanilla stevia, optional mint extract, and 2 tablespoons water or nut milk. Beat with an electric mixer or mix briefly in a food processor fitted with a metal blade.
3. Combine the cocoa powder, sea salt, and baking soda. Add this to the wet ingredients and stir or blend to combine. Add 2 more tablespoons water or nut milk if batter appears stiff and mix again. Fold in 1/4 cup of chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate. (Kelly’s recipe calls for sprinkling them on top; I prefer to fold them in.
4. Pour and scrape batter into the prepared pan. Spread lightly with a damp spatula and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 24 minutes. Watch closely so they don’t dry out.

Notes: If you use chocolate chips or dark chocolate, they will invariably contain some sugar. The darker the chocolate the lower the sugar content. To eliminate all refined sugar from the recipe above, replace the chocolate with raisins, chopped, dried, fruit sweetened bing cherries, or cocoa nibs.

Comments

[Stephanie]

I made the lower carb version of this recipe tonight and was very pleased with the results. I was out of eggs so I made a "flax egg" slurry to replace them, and it worked well! For my nut butter, I used the Artisana Cashini (cashew tahini) blend which tasted great. Since it was eggless, I had no qualms about tasting the batter before baking and then decided to add a tad more Stevia (actually half a packet of NuNaturals NoCarbs blend). The Cashini is low in sugar, so that addition made sense. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!