Receta Fudgy Nutty Brownies that are Gluten-Free
Andrew
and I watch a fair number of cooking shows on TV. In the baking category, we’re tuned into
“Cupcake Wars” and “Unique Sweets”. For
quite a while now, we’ve scoffed, more than saluted, the number of bakers who
turn out Gluten-Free items. We simply could not imagine anything Gluten-Free
matching up to the sheer decadence of Baked’s Brownies (http://www.chewingthefat.us.com/2011/01/baked-brownies.html)
or Lisa Yokelson’s “Dark Shadows” (http://www.chewingthefat.us.com/2012/02/they-may-look-like-brownies-to-you-but.html),
both of which are outstandingly rich and irresistible. But, as readers of Chewing the Fat know,
we’ve got more than one friend who didn’t just choose to be Gluten-Free, she
had to be. So when Andrew volunteered to
bring dessert to a recent party, he pulled out all the stops to find a truly
fudgy, nutty brownie that could pass Gluten-Free muster. And boy, did he succeed.
The
recipe for these Fudgy Nut Brownies came from Martha Stewart’s “Everyday
Food”. The Reader’s Digest-sized
magazine disappeared as a free-standing publication earlier this year. It’s been folded into “Martha Stewart Living”
and I doubt that many people miss it.
The thing about “Everyday Food” was precisely that it was so
everyday. I don’t know about you, but I
go to food magazines and cookbooks to find fresh ways of cooking the familar,
“Everyday Food” since we started “Chewing the Fat”, only one recipe has earned
so much as a mention here. And then, only after we’d merged it to another
magazine’s recipe. But to paraphrase
Julia Child, ‘a cookbook is only as good as its worst recipe’, if only Everyday
Food was always as good as this recipe. The magic here is replacing wheat flour with cornstarch. As Andrew pointed out, truly fudgy brownies don't contain all that much flour to begin with--think Flourless Chocolate Cake and you're in the same ball park. The original called for pecans. Andrew substituted walnuts. You can choose between the two or, for that matter, go with whatever nut you fancy. Here's the recipe:
Recipe for Gluten-Free Fudgy Pecan Brownies from Martha Stewart’s
Everyday Food
Prep Time: 20 Minutes. Total Time:
50 minutes plus cooling. Makes 16 brownies.
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into
- pieces, plus more for pan
- 1/3 cup cornstarch (spooned and leveled)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped toasted pecans or walnuts.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly butter an 8-inch square
baking pan and line with parchment
paper,leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides.
Whisk together cornstarch, cocoa, cinnamon, salt.
In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave butter and
chocolate in 30-second increments,
stirring each time, until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes.
Stir in sugar and vanilla. Stir in eggs, one at a time,
until combined. Add cornstarch mixture
and stir vigorously until mixture is smooth
and begins to pull away from side of bowl, about 2 minutes. Stir in walnuts or pecans.
Pour batter into pan and smooth top. Bake
until a toothpick inserted in center
comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Let cool completely
in pan on a wire rack.
Using paper
overhang, lift cake out of pan and cut into 16 squares.