Domesticity Nouveau

Monday, June 7, 2010

Chocolate Mint Satisfaction!

Brownies sell cookies I can’t eat.  It makes me sad.  Even though the Girl Scout cookie season has come and gone around here, I’m still a bit jealous that I wasn’t able to hide in the closet with a box of Thin Mints.

I stumbled across some copy-cat recipes for Girl Scout Cookies, and I thought about transitioning them to gluten-free.  And that is where it stopped.  I thought about doing it, and maybe someday I will, but what I really needed was quick satisfaction to my craving.  I needed the quickness that comes from buying the box from an adorable young woman hocking her sugary treats outside the market.  I needed the satisfaction that comes from ripping the box open as I drive away and eating the whole thing on the way home in a bliss induced stupor that makes me wonder how the car got itself into the garage.  I needed instant; not the hassle of recalculating a recipe, fussing with precise cutting of thin chocolate mint circles, baking them, waiting for them to cool and the tedious process of tempering chocolate to dip cookies in one by one, then waiting for them to cool.  It’s a lot of work for a cookie binge!

I happened to have a bag of gluten-free bun mix hanging out on the counter.  (I like to make up baggies of things I commonly bake so I don’t have to go to the hassle later on.  I just mix the dry ingredients together, stick in a note listing the remaining ingredients and directions.)  I had run out of yeast when I mixed up the last batch, so this bag was patiently waiting to be completed, but was re-purposed for my chocolate mint craving.  After reading though too many brownie recipes to count, I took my notes and created the following recipe, which surprisingly, worked out on the first try!!!

These brownies are more cake-like than fudgy, but I like them that way.  To conquer my craving for Thin Mints, I frosted them with peppermint icing.  Not exactly a Girl Scout cookie, but I was still able to hide in the closet with a grin on my face!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Brownies

5.6 oz Brown Rice Flour
1.7 oz Potato Starch
1 oz Tapioca Flour
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/3 cup dry milk powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp egg replacer (I use Ener-G)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 stick butter, melted
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup warm water
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in the bowl of a heavy duty mixer.  With paddle attachment, mix the melted butter and oil into the dry ingredients, then add the eggs one at a time.  Add the water and mix for 2 minutes.  It will be more like dough than batter.

Place in the baking dish, and with wet hands, press the mixture into an even layer.  Bake for 30 minutes.

You can cut the recipe in 1/2 and bake in a square 8x8 or 9x9 for about 20 minutes.  You can also just make the regular batch and freeze some if a giant pan of brownies is too much bliss for you to handle at once.

Frost or leave plain or cut into the shape of Girl Scouts and frost little uniforms onto them.


Once you make these and you know you like them, I recommend making up a few containers of brownie mix to have in your cupboard for those times when you need a quick fix of chocolate. 

Peppermint Frosting

3 tbsp butter, room temperature
2 1/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp cream, half and half, or milk
1/4 – 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Whip the butter until light and fluffy.  Slowly add in 2 cups of powdered sugar until incorporated.  While still mixing, add cream and peppermint extract, then the remaining sugar.  Use extra cream or powdered sugar until your desired consistency.  Peppermint extract is really strong, so start with a 1/4 tsp and work your way up until you get your desired minty-ness.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/4 cup peanut butter
2 1/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp cream, half and half, or milk
1  tsp vanilla extract

Whip the peanut butter until light and fluffy.  Slowly add in 2 cups of powdered sugar until incorporated.  While still mixing, add cream and vanilla extract, then the remaining sugar.  Use extra cream or powdered sugar until your desired consistency.

Gluten-Free Brownies on Foodista

7 comments:

  1. oh my gosh, I'm drooling over that photo!

    Oh and I used powdered ginger but I'm sure fresh would be even better!

    ReplyDelete
  2. p.s. I'm SO happy you tried the recipe and enjoyed it! That just makes all the blogging worth it! :) Thanks for letting me know!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That looks super-yummy!
    Robyn

    ReplyDelete
  4. These were so good! Thanks for helping get gluten out of our diet without sacrificing taste!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a pretty blog, and great picture. Very enticing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yum!This brownie looks delicious!Hope you wont mind I'd love to guide Foodista readers to this post.Just add the foodista widget to the end of this post and it's all set, Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Doesn't that just look yummy, thank you for a nice looking recipe, look forward to giving it a whirl.

    ReplyDelete