Gluten-free Vegan Brownies

It all began with a tweet from Karina over at the Karina’s Kitchen, who was getting frustrated trying to come up with a tasty brownie that didn’t rely on eggs.  As she mentioned, who knew the brownie was so reliant on the egg!

A quick whirl around the interwebz will reveal lots of brownie recipes, but nary a gluten-free vegan recipe!  things just get too complicated where chocolate or cocoa solids are involved to be mucking around without eggs!!!

There was a bit of an exchange about using extra baking powder, and other options, and I went away thinking (so did Karina as it turned out!).  A couple of days later, here’s my solution to the gluten-free vegan brownie success!  As I was thinking, I convinced myself that some extra structure with oomph was in order to prevent brownie fail.  Most of my previous efforts were soggy in the middle, or cooked in the centre, but totally overcooked on the edges.  I had successfully made chocolate cake, but the trick with the brownies is to have something slightly denser, without being gummy.   I was aiming to add extra structure through the protein in teff flour, and the setting properties of potato starch and agar powder at around 180 to 190 degrees.

Karina’s solution was pretty ingenious, but also tackled the structure issue head-on with the use of quinoa flakes and extra protein in quinoa flour.   You can see her recipe here.

For my brownies there were a few criteria:

• the brownies had to have that characteristic shiny cracking top
• The brownies had to bake in a “standard” pan — no cheating by baking them in small muffin pans, or the infamous “Edge” pan.  i was aiming for a recipe people could make with standard kitchen wares.
• i like my brownies on the cakier side, so they had to be rich and chocolatey, but not gummy.
• there had to be enough structural integreity in these puppies that they would carry some chocolate chips if I felt like folding them in for xtra chocolate shock-value
• they had to be completely vegan and soy-free, for those avoiding eggs and dairy, and unable to eat soy.  This ruled out options like tofu and Earth Balance shortening.

These are pretty tasty little morsels.  There is enough leeway in the recipe that if you want them a little bit richer, you can increase the coconut oil by 2 tablespoons while reducing the water mixed with the Ener-g by the same amount.  The recipe will also accommodate up to 1 cup of vegan chocolate chips folded in at the end, or nuts if you’re into that kind of thing.

finally, a quick word about chocolate:  many chocolates, while gluten-free, contain milk solids and therefore aren’t vegan.  I use a couple of chocolates regularly that contain none, including Scharffenberger (both the 62% and 70%) and Ghiradelli semi-sweet.  If you aren’t worried about the milk solids, Nestle is now labelling its chocolate as gluten-free.

Glutenfree, Vegan Brownies

Makes one 8-inch square pan of brownies, which will make 16 individual brownies.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with  whisk until well combined

• 70 grams teff flour
• 70 grams potato starch
• 1 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon agar powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Melt together and set aside:

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil

Mix together and set aside:

• 4 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
• 2 Tablespoons hot water
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

Whisk vigorously or with a hand mixer:

• 2 tablespoons Ener-g egg replacer
• 8 Tablespoons cold water
• 1 cup light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with coconut oil and dust with cocoa powder.

Add the chocolate and the cocoa powder mixtures to the egg replacer/sugar and mix well.  Then add the dry ingredients, mixing until everything is well incorporated.  If you are adding nuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now.  then add the dry.

Pour into an 8-inch square greased pan, bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Adapted from a Cooks Illustrated brownie recipe