BVC Eats: Gluten-free brownies

JUDI’S GLUTEN-FREE BROWNIES

I know this may shock some, but I think I like these better than my classic brownies with whisky-soaked cherries.

Judi Mui created these brownies when she learned that two of her sons were gluten-sensitive. I tasted the brownies, OMG they melted in my mouth, and immediately I begged for the recipe. Then it took me twenty actual years to get around to, you know, baking them, because I was finally trying to get gluten out of my life, but not sugar. (I know, I know.)

First you need your gluten-free flour mix. Here’s Judi’s mixture:

3 parts white rice flour
3 parts glutinous rice flour
2 parts potato starch
1 part tapioca starch

I get these flours from the Chinese grocery. They each come in the same size bag, so I run out of the white rice flour and glutinous rice flour soonest. Judi notes: Bob’s Red Mill versions are much coarser. She doesn’t like them as well as the Asian versions. The reason these brownies melt in your mouth is that the flour mixture is ultrafine.

I’ve substituted more tapioca starch for potato starch because the potato starch is coarsest. The other three are finer than baker’s cake flour. I can really tell the difference in mouth-feel.

Be careful how you mix up these flours. They will get all over the damn kitchen.

1½ C gluten-free flour mix
scant 1 t salt
1 t baking powder
2 10-oz bags dark chocolate chips, separated
12 T butter, softened or cut in chunks
4 jumbo eggs, room temp
1 T vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325 f

Line a 9×13 pan with foil or parchment paper, overlapping at the sides. Butter the lining.

Whisk together GENTLY in a 2 quart bowl the flour mix, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. Careful when mixing the flour. It gets all over!

Beat the eggs thoroughly in a deep 2 quart bowl. Set aside.

Nuke the first bag of chips and the butter in a deeper bowl, say, half-gallon size. Stir thoroughly.

Add the sugar to the melted butter & chocolate. Beat thoroughly.

Add the beaten eggs and the second bag of chips to the butter-chocolate-sugar mix. Optional at this point: vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture in thirds to the batter, folding in slowly and carefully until it is homogenous. This batter will stick together like bread dough. Nothing left to lick off the bowl or the spatula! (Sorry, honey.)

Bake at 325 f in the lined pan for 40 minutes or more. Judi says 30-35, but for some reason it took longer for me. A toothpick inserted halfway between middle and edge will come out a bit sticky.

Cool the brownies completely before cutting.

I tend to leave the pan on top of the stove and just nibble away at them until they’re gone. Hey, my husband helps. Even though he always has a batch of the regular brownies with whisky-soaked cherries on hand.

Half Recipe

In case you feel guilty about leaving the whole-batch pan on the stovetop until they’re gone:

¾C flour mix
½t baking powder
¼t salt
2 jumbo eggs, room temp1C sugar
1 10-oz bag dark chocolate chips
1t vanilla

Mix and bake as above.