Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies

I love a good fudgy chocolate brownie. I have a favorite local spot that makes the most delicious triple chocolate brownies, but they recently closed temporarily due to Covid-19. So I have been back to baking my favorite things as my state has put into effect a "Stay at Home" order.  

Luckily, I have lots of flour, eggs, sugar, and tons of chocolate chips, all things I can live off of, maybe not the most nutritious of things, but definitely will make me happy.

I had a huge bag of gluten-free flour, so I used it to make this recipe, or you can use regular all-purpose flour. I didn't taste a difference, nor was the texture that different.

Let's make some brownies!

This recipe is from King Arthur

Ingredients

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional for enhanced flavor

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup unsalted butter (I used 1 1/2 sticks of butter)

2 1/4 cups sugar (I only used 1 1/2 cups of sugar)

1 1/2 cups  King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour (I used 1 cup of flour - I adjust a little because I cut out a bit of butter)

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan or do what I usually do - just cover my brownie pan with parchment paper (easier clean-up).

Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them. Add the cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla for about 1 minute, or until smooth. 

You can also add the espresso powder, but this is optional. Blend until smooth.

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine.  Continue to heat (or microwave) briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will help produce a shiny top crust on your brownies.

Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth.

Add the flour and chocolate chips, stirring until smooth. Again, adding the chips helps produce a shiny top crust.

Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan, or one covered in parchment. The brownie batter feels a bit heavy, I did not pour it in to the pan, I had to spoon it in.

Bake the brownies for 28 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not raw batter. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving. 

As a note, I overcooked these. When I inserted the knife to test, I kept getting chocolate and was worried it did not bake, turned out I was inserting it in the melted chocolate chips, yup, so I kept putting it back in the oven.  The brownies still tasted moist and delicious, so I was lucky, but I baked it an additional 7-9 minutes that it did not need, and this batch would have been ever more moist.

I hope you are enjoying your favorite little things if you are staying indoors. These made quite a few brownies, and I am enjoying one with a small cup of milk every night. Cheers!