Flourless Brownies

I may have mentioned how much I love the Whole Foods Recipes app a time or two dozen on here. It's very user friendly and has a great bank of recipes. I particularly like the Flourless Brownies because they're made with a secret ingredient: black beans. That's right, you use a can of unsalted black beans (that have been well rinsed and drained) instead of flour. Every once in a while I get experimental and try the beans-for-flour sub in other recipes, but lately I've been playing around with this one trying to make it... better.

Not that there's anything wrong with the brownies when you make them according to the recipe. It's just that they come out fairly dense, almost fudge-like. Yet they don't taste chocolaty and rich enough to be fudge. The recipe calls for three eggs, and I had the bright idea of separating them, beating the whites until stiff, and then folding them into the brownie batter just before baking to try and lighten the texture. I figured it was at least worth a try.

Flourless Brownies (my way)

1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added black beans, drained and rinsed
3 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F and spray an 8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the black beans, egg yolks, melted butter, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth.

In a clean, grease-free mixer bowl, beat egg whites until peaks form.

Remove the food processor blade from chocolate mixture and gently stir in a few small spoonfuls of the beaten egg whites. Transfer to mixing bowl, and fold in remaining egg whites.

Stir in the chocolate chips, and pour into the prepared pan. Bake the brownies for 30 to 35 minutes, or until just set in the center. I think I might have left mine in a few minutes too long.

Cool before cutting into squares. The egg whites did lighten the texture a bit, but it's still lacking any real crumb, so they're more of the gooey kind of brownies as opposed to cake-like. They're still seriously yummy, though. Unless you tell people these brownies are made from black beans, I don't think they'd know. 

 

In fact, I must confess that these went so quickly I didn't have a chance to take a picture of a cut brownie to show you the crumb. This meant I had to bake another batch, of course. Only I forgot to add a key ingredient. A good 10 minutes after I put them in the oven, I noticed the prep bowl of chocolate chips still sitting out on the counter, which meant they couldn't be in the brownies. So you'll just have to imagine chunks of chocolaty goodness in the one pictured above.

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Carrot Date Muffins (gluten free)

Here's yet another recipe I found on my Whole Foods Recipes app, but if you don't have an iPhone, the recipe is also posted on the Whole Foods website. Let me just go ahead and admit that I didn't have any amaranth or millet flour when I decided I had to make these muffins, but I did have exactly 3/4 cup of Pamela's Baking Mix sitting in my pantry just begging to be used, so that's what went into my muffins instead.

For the muffins, you'll need:

2 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
3/4 cup amaranth flour or millet flour (except I used Pamela's Baking Mix)
3/4 cup ground almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

I hadn't beat the eggs or melted the coconut oil when I took a picture of the ingredients, but don't worry, it all got done.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cavity standard muffin tin with paper baking cups. Put the dates and carrots in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the walnuts, and pulse until they're finely chopped.

 

Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl, and then add the coconut oil, lightly beaten eggs, and maple syrup. Stir it all together to combine completely.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients. 

The recipe says to then pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients, but I did it the opposite way because my wet ingredients were in a bigger bowl. Stir the mixture until just combined. 

Divide the batter evenly between the lined muffin cavities. I forgot to snap a photo of this step, and I didn't do such a great job of dividing the batter evenly, but they still came out okay.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. After a few minutes, remove them from the pan and let the muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

These are delicious, and I really want to make them again using amaranth or millet flour like the recipe calls for, just to compare and see what (if any) difference it makes in the taste and texture. They are plenty sweet and don't need any kind of topping, but they also taste a lot like carrot cake, so I think a modest amount of cream cheese icing on the top would be seriously yummy. If you like carrot cake, that is. 

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Mud Pie: Gluten-Free Chocolate Tart Topped With Almond Pastry Cream

Have I mentioned how much I love the Whole Foods recipe iPhone app? My most recent experiment was based on the Apricot Tart in Quinoa-Almond Crust recipe I found on there, which is also available on the website.

I had some leftover quinoa flour I needed to use up, so this seemed like a good recipe to try. Of course, I was missing a few of the key ingredients, namely evaporated cane juice and apricots, so instead I made some ganache with coconut milk and dark chocolate for the tart filling and used the pastry cream as a topping. I'm always in the mood for chocolate.

It worked out pretty well, except I used Rapadura to make the pastry cream in lieu of evaporated cane juice, and it gave the pastry cream a horrible greenish-brown mud color. So I called it a mud pie. I don't have step-by-step photos for this recipe because I made the ganache and pastry cream after dark, ad you guys already know about the lighting issues in my kitchen. Plus, how the heck am I supposed to take pictures while making pastry cream? That stuff requires both hands and due attention. Anyway, here is the recipe as I made it.

For the crust:
1 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup almond flour (I used Honeyville)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk

Place quinoa flour, almond flour, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.

 

At which point, mine looked like the photo on the left, so I processed it  a few more seconds, until it looked like the picture on the right.

  

Add egg yolk and pulse until dough holds together, without being wet or sticky. That's what the recipe says, anyway, but mine stayed a little sticky.

  

Flatten dough into a disk on a sheet of wax paper, then wrap it up and let it chill for at least an hour.

 

When well chilled, roll dough into a 12-inch round on a lightly floured surface (I used what little quinoa flour I had left for this). The dough was still a bit sticky and tricky to work with, and I had trouble with it falling apart as I tried to put it in my 9-inch loose-bottomed tart pan, so I ended up pressing it in the pan. It then needs to chill for another 30 minutes before baking at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until bottom is dry and tart shell is golden brown. The recipe says to prick the bottom with a fork, which I did, but I didn't use any pie weights. Allow crust to cool completely before adding filling.

While it's cooling, you can make the ganache and pastry cream. The ganache is easy, just melt a bag of dark chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli 60%, add a can of coconut milk, and stir until smooth. Let it chill in the refrigerator, and it will thicken up nicely.

The pastry cream is a little more involved, but well worth the effort. I used:
1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup Rapadura
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter

Over medium heat, stir almond milk and 2 tablespoons of the Rapadura in a small saucepan until it starts to simmer. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, remaining Rapadura, and cornstarch until pale yellow. Slowly add half of almond milk to egg-yolks, whisking constantly. This tempers the egg yolks so they won't curdle. Pour everything back into the saucepan. Still working over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil while whisking constantly. Once the mixture comes to a boil, continue whisking vigorously until it thickens, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and stir in almond extract and butter. Allow it to cool completely. Like I said, my pastry cream isn't the most appetizing color, so I think next time I may try making this recipe with maple syrup instead of the Rapadura.

When everything is cooked, baked, and cooled--in my case the following morning so I could have enough light to take photos--then fillings can be added to the tart crust. Since the chocolate was a lot thicker and heavier than the pastry cream, I spread that on the shell first, then added the pastry cream as a topping. Yum.

  

Here are more photos of the crust and filling once the tart had chilled for a while after the final assembly. Apart from the odd color of the pastry cream, I'm really happy with how this recipe came out. The crust is more like a cookie base than a flaky pastry, as one would expect with a fruit tart, which this was intended to be. The pastry cream is light and sweet, very similar in consistency to pudding, and the chocolate is awesome.

  

I won't lie, the quinoa flour does leave a bit of its flavor behind. It's not so much an aftertaste as more of a flavor undertone, but if you didn't know the quinoa flour was in there you might not even notice it. I'm glad I tried this recipe, as I think the crust could be used with a variety of sweet fillings. I may try it again with a different flour and see how it does.

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

I discovered these peanut butter cookies thanks to the Whole Foods Recipes app. That's easily one of my favorite apps, and it's free! I have it on my iPhone, but it may be available for other mobile devices. You can also access these recipes on the website here: Whole Foods Recipes.

Anyway, this recipe is incredibly awesome. Not just because it's for peanut butter cookies, which I love, but also because it takes so few ingredients and is so easy. I can't believe I haven't posted it on here before now. Very much my bad, sorry.

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies:

1 large egg
3/4 cup sugar (I use unbleached whole cane sugar, which is why it's brown.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract

The recipe also calls for 1/3 cup chocolate chips, which is an optional ingredient that I always include because for me chocolate is not optional. But for some crazy reason I didn't include the chocolate chips this time. Temporary insanity or something, I guess.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Beat together the egg, sugar, baking soda, and vanilla with a mixer until well combined.

Add the peanut butter and continue beating until a soft cookie dough consistency.

If you're using the "all natural" kind of peanut butter that has to be refrigerated and stirred, don't over beat the cookie dough or it will become all crumbly and won't stick together. Trust me on this one.

 

Drop dough with a disher onto baking sheet and use a fork to flatten tops.

Bake for 10 minutes, until set.

Cool briefly on cookie sheet then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

That's it. Super easy, and very yummy.