Once upon a brownie…. 

A long, long time back…. in what seems to be another lifetime, I used to make brownies for The Corner House, in Bangalore.

Spurred on by my lovely friend (and main customer) Sagarika, to bake cakes and cookies, brownies and breads, I took my first steps towards setting up a small business.

The first year, I hovered in the uneasy realm between hobby baker and reluctant entrepreneur. But this time was invaluable! I added a whole slew of popular bakes to my repertoire and started to experiment with those I’d mastered.

Brownies were one of those. I tried them from every book or magazine I came across, unsure initially how they were different to a chocolate cake.

My earliest attempts were labelled “third rock from the sun”, but in time, having read everything written about brownies, I finally learned their secrets…

My brownies were fudgy and chewy. With perfect crackly tops and gooey insides. Perfection!

Life led me to become a cake decorator, and my brownie days seemed to be a long forgotten memory– except when my Diva came into town. Then she wanted her favourite brownie.

I was pleasantly surprised when asked to make gluten free brownies by mom N. So I tried it with the Bob’s Red Mill gluten free blend.

Perfect crackly top, moist fudgy centres and great taste!
Happy that I haven’t lost my my touch.

Ingredients :

1 cup/ 200g butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, lightly whisked

1 1/3 cups gluten free flour*

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Directions :

Prepare an 8″ square tin with baking parchment. Spray or brush the parchment with oil.

Melt the butter in a deep saucepan, over low heat. Once melted add the cocoa powder and the sugar and stir to combine.

Set aside to cool for 20 minutes. You can speed up the process by putting the saucepan into a cold water bath.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.

Once the butter-sugar mixture has cooled, add the lightly whisked eggs into the batter and mix to combine.

Add the gluten free flour and mix until no lumps remain.

Pour into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is shiny and a toothpick inserted, comes out with a few crumbs.

Cool and cut into 16 squares.

Enjoy!

Notes:

I used Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten-free baking flour the first time. But these can be made with any home made gf blend that suits your needs.

The 2 cups of sugar can be reduced as per your level of sweetness.

White sugar can be substituted for brown or raw or coconut sugar.

The butter can be replaced with oil, but I have a partiality for butter in brownies.

One can make this recipe vegan by substituting the eggs for flax eggs, but you won’t get the crackly top.

Try out the recipe, make it your own and do share your results with me!