In all my baking adventures, I have never made brownies from scratch. I don’t know why this seemed intimidating to me, seeing as how I survived French macarons, but hey, that’s why the term “irrational fears” exists. The thing about GLUTEN FREE brownies though, is that they either come out too much like cake, or too smushy like they’re under-baked. Well fear not, I finally found a recipe that tastes like a legit brownie!

• ¹⁄₂cup butter
• ¹⁄₂cup cocoa powder [ I use Hershey’s]
• 1cup sugar [I used sugar in the raw]
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¹⁄_{4 cup almond flour}
• ¹⁄_{4 cup gluten free flour blend}
• ¹⁄₄teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄_{4 cup od chocolate chips}
• ¹⁄₄teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your gfree flour blend already contains it)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8×2 pan. (OR You can line the pan with parchment paper so that you can easily lift out the brownies and slice them when they are done.).
2. Melt butter in a sauce pan or in a 1 quart container in the microwave. Remove from heat. Add cocoa until blended, then add sugar and mix well. Add eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla, flour, salt & xanthan gum – do not overmix.
3. Pour batter into pan and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
4. Bake 25-30 minutes

Now typically, I am a brownie purist, but this week I whipped up the best buttercream frosting for Justin’s birthday cake, and thought it would be amazing on top of these brownies. I was right! Now lets all pray that I don’t start putting this buttercream on top of every baked good, otherwise my diet is in trouble.

• 1cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 ¹⁄₂cupspowdered sugar
• 1teaspoon milk
• 1teaspoonvanilla extract
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon salt

Beat in a mixer until blended, with a smooth texture.

I was happy with the way this little experiment turned out! I don’t know why I was intimidated by brownies in the first place, but feeling proud now that I’ve mastered the perfect texture for gluten free brownies!