Lillea's gluten-free deep rich brownies

Today's recipe for gluten-free brownies comes from Lillea B. of Pender Island, BC.

We’ll be featuring recipes from the 2014 Cityline Holiday Cookie Swap all month long! Don’t forget to download this year’s cookie book — it has 31 delectable viewer-submitted recipes for you to try!

Lillea’s gluten-free deep rich brownies

Ingredients:

  • 8 tablespoons (113 g) unsalted butter cut into several pieces
  • 4 ounces (113 g) unsweetened chocolate (or dark chocolate with a high
  • cocoa count – 75% or greater) chopped
  • 2/3 cup (134 g) superfine white sugar (or just regular white sugar. See Note)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup (40 g) rice flour
  • 1/4 cup (36 g) arrowroot powder OR tapioca flour

Method:

Note: In Canada ‘superfine’ or ‘berry’ sugar as it sometimes is called isn’t the same thing as icing or powdered sugar (which contains cornstarch), it’s just a slightly finer grind of sugar than standard white sugar.

Set an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 375F.

Grease a glass 8-inch square baking dish with unsalted butter.

Melt chocolate and butter together: fill a saucepan partway with water. Place a large metal or heat safe glass bowl on top so the bowl is suspended over the water not touching the bottom of the bowl. Put the chocolate and butter into the bowl and turn the heat onto medium low, allowing the water to come to a simmer. Stir the chocolate and butter occasionally as they melt. Mix until smooth. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and stir well. Add the rice flour and arrowroot (or tapioca flour) and stir until combined. Pour in the melted chocolate-butter mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until everything is mixed well. The batter will be thick yet runny.

Pour the batter into the greased baking dish. Smooth the top of the batter with a spatula and jiggle the dish back and forth a little to even out the surface and get rid of extra air bubbles.

Bake for about 19 minutes, until firm on top, a bit cracked, and slightly darker around the edges. It may puff up in the middle if the batter was beaten a bit too hard, but the puff should go down as the brownies cool.

Cool the pan on a cooling rack then slice into squares or rectangles and serve!

Submitted by Lillea B.
Pender Island, BC