Really awesome GF-CF chocolate brownies in a thermomix
With all our food intolerances, and now with my wonder-baby-machine - my thermomix - on hand, I read quite a few cooking blogs for recipe tips and ideas.
Most of them are written by people who seem to just love cooking. They spend all day in the kitchen making up recipes. One woman remade a batch of coconut flour pancakes eleven (yes, 11!) times until she got them right.
I'm a reluctant cook. If it doesn't work out first time I frown and feel annoyed and stupid, but eat it anyway. Today, however, my 'throw it all together recipe' worked. First time. Successfully!
It came about because of sheer necessity. We've been away for a week or so and the cupboard is as empty as it's ever been. This evening I looked at the options for school snacks for tomorrow and assessed the situation as a bit dire. So I had to bake.
Normally I'd make dairy-free brownies and something else for the gluten-free kid but with limited ingredients all around, it had to be GF-CF, but edible enough so that the 'don't-even-try-to-feed-me-gluten-free' kid would put it in her mouth.
This is what came out of the thermomix. Gooey, yummy gluten free and dairy free brownies which are also a little bit good for you... (ie. they're not just all butter and sugar.)
Cecily's Lucky Break GF-CF Brownies in thermomix
First, grind 200g almonds and about 8-10 dates together in the thermomix for 20 seconds on speed 9. (If you don't have a thermo, use 200g almond meal and process the dates with a food processor.) Set aside.
Melt 200g of dairy-free margarine (or coconut oil or whatever you use for baking). In the thermomix I put it on 70C for 4 minutes on low speed.
Add the following:
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
5 tbsps cocoa
3 tbsps gluten free flour (I used teff)
pinch of salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
All of the almond meal/date mix
Process on speed 6 for about 10 seconds. (If no thermomix, just beat until well combined and smooth.) Pour into a prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes at 170C. Cool on a rack and then cut into squares.
Don't eat them all at once.
Oh, and here are two of my favourite GF-CF/health food style cooking blogs: www.quirkycooking.blogspot.com and www.realsustenance.com