The Wimpy Vegetarian

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Brownies & Strawberry Syrup

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Melt-in-your-mouth coconut flavored gluten-free brownies made with quinoa flour and coconut oil.

Quinoa and Coconut Brownies : The Wimpy VegetarianThese brownies are made without any wheat flour, butter, or granulated sugar, and instead of tasting like the graveyard dirt – the possibility of which I was a little haunted by, neither texture nor flavor are sacrificed.

Big, huge sigh of relief.

There’s typically a trade off when switching to healthier alternatives to long favored foods, but so far I can’t find any with this recipe.

A little about what I did:

  • In place of traditional wheat flour, I used quinoa flour, and only quinoa flour. One of the things I like about working with this flour is that it doesn’t require gums, such as xanthan or guar gum, for it to hold together nicely in a baked product. If quinoa flour is relatively new to you, it has essentially the same texture as wheat flour (perhaps a little grittier), and has a nutty flavor. I’ve also seen the taste described as a little soapy, something I don’t disagree with. Because it does lend a distinctive flavor to baked goods, I strongly recommend using it in recipes with a strong counterbalancing flavor like chocolate for your first trial bake to ease the way. This brownie was a perfect vehicle.
  • Next, I swapped coconut oil in for the butter. This is my new go-to cooking and baking oil thanks to my husband’s stepdaughter Robin. I wasn’t at all familiar with it until she brought it to my attention when making this fabulous no-bake fudge when she and her family visited us last summer. My cholesterol has insinuatingly creeped up over the years, and coconut oil looks to be a fantastic alternative to butter. In fact, there is increasing evidence that this former bad boy is actually good for you, but I should warn that it does have a coconut flavor, so you might not want to use it when scrambling eggs.
  • And finally we come to the sugar. Brownies typically have a combination of sugar and brown sugar, but I’m trying to cut back on my processed sugar intake by at least half this month as my commitment to October Unprocessed. I went through the usual alternatives. I nixed agave nectar: I’m reading more studies indicating that agave nectar isn’t really much better for you than granulated sugar because of its high levels of concentrated fructose. Honey was quickly eliminated: I wasn’t looking for a honey flavor in the mix with the chocolate and coconut rumba. Scanning my shelves, my eyes lit up when I saw a bag of blonde coconut palm sugar. It was perfect with its faint brown sugar flavor, has some compelling advantages over sugar, and passed my unprocessed test with flying colors.

I made these little brownies a couple of times to get the texture and baking times right – my first attempt resulting in a brownie more cake-like than I prefer. So the second time through, I changed my eggs from large to extra-large, and cut back on both the flour and baking time to increase the chewiness. The result was a chocolaty brownie with faint overtones of coconut and cardamom that I plan to keep in my regular rotation!

As I note, the tombstones are shards of white chocolate and the RIP is white chocolate tinted with red food coloring (I use a powdered form). I placed the white chocolate tombstone shards in the freezer for 15 minutes. I melted some white chocolate with a couple of zaps in the microwave oven, added some food coloring, stirred well, cooled slightly, and piped onto the tombstones. It hardened immediately on the cold tombstones.

The pool of blood strawberry syrup is just melted strawberry preserves, strained.

Graveyard Brownies : The Wimpy Vegetarian
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(Graveyard) Quinoa and Coconut Brownies

Cuisine: dessert

Ingredients

Brownies

  • 3/4 cup quinoa flour 3.375 ounces
  • 1 teaspoon powdered instant coffee
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened chocolate powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 ounces coconut oil
  • 5 ounces unsweetened bar chocolate cut into small pieces (I used Sharffenberger)
  • 1 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
  • 3 extra large eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon powdered cardamom

Brownie Sprinkle

  • 1 tablespoon cocoa nibs
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons coconut sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 8" X 8" baking pan with foil.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the quinoa flour, instant coffee, unsweetened chocolate powder, and salt. Set aside.
  • In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the coconut oil and the unsweetened chocolate together, stirring with a whisk to mix. Remove from the heat periodically so that the chocolate doesn't get too hot. Pour into the bowl of a standing mixer, add the coconut sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and cardamom. Mix on high for 3 minutes.
  • Fold the dry ingredients in just until they are completely mixed in.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth with a spatula.
  • Combine the three Brownie Sprinkle ingredients in a spice grinder and whirl it around a few times. Sprinkle the mixture on top across the top of the brownies.
  • Bake for 30 minutes. If you test the center with a toothpick, it will have a mixture of batter and crumbs on it. Remove from the oven and keep the brownies in the baking pan for 10 minutes.
  • Pull the brownies out of the baking pan by the edges of the foil, and carefully peel the foil away from the brownies. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and slice into individual pieces.

Notes

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Comments

  2. Renee says

    I’m going to have to try baking with coconut oil. My cholesterol has been creeping up too. I usually cook with olive oil and so I need to try something different for baking.

    Reply

    • The Wimpy Vegetarian says

      I used to use more olive oil, then butter started to creep in – especially once I went to culinary school. I absolutely have to get back to using it sparingly. When I do a butter substitution for butter, I do a 1:1 ratio. Good luck!

      Reply

  3. apuginthekitchen says

    I just bought some coconut oil, want to start incorporating that into my baked goods, and really love the coconut palm sugar instead of granulated. On the fence about quinoa flour, I think I will have to give it try, the brownies look wonderful and I dislike using the gums to hold gluten free baked goods together Really spooky looking with the strawberry puree and white chocolate headstones. Perfect healthful Halloween treat.

    Reply

    • The Wimpy Vegetarian says

      I’m not the crafty type at all, but wanted to do something simple for this week’s #SundaySupper gig. I don’t use quinoa flour for everything by a long shot, but it’s perfect for something like this where the chocolate flavor dominates. Baby steps 🙂

      Reply

  7. sunithi says

    Nice ! Love the white chocolate RIP ! Simple and creative 🙂 If am not mistaken, these are gluten free too right ? If they are would love to hook them up to my GF cafe. My clients are always looking for good GF recipes and brownies made with Quinoa would be fab !!!

    Reply

  9. Heather @girlichef says

    Oh my gosh, I am a sucker for brownies in absolutely ANY form – and these do sound wonderful. Nobody has to know they’re actually kinda healthy 😉 And love the spooked-up Halloween version! 😀

    Reply

  11. Lyn @LovelyPantry says

    Excellent ingredients, Susan! You know how much I love Quinoa anything 🙂 I too have been using coconut oil as a substitute for butter. So far, so good! Coconut sugar is awesome too!!! I like how you bake, Susan!!! LOL!

    Reply

  20. Bea says

    Yay, milk free brownies – they look delicious and my brownie loving girls would love them. BTW – our entire kitchen is dairyfree and I have been substituting Earth Balance {vegan “butter”} for “cow”. The results are fantastic and there is coconut flavor to it 🙂

    Reply

  23. Hannah says

    Love this Halloween treat! I have been baking more with coconut oil and just picked up quinoa flour (and also millet) to experiment with some gluten-free baking for the holidays. Thanks for sharing your spooky brownies – I can’t wait to make them!

    Reply

  26. Susan says

    A pool of blood was my first thought too!

    Love, love, love that these are Gluten Free. I’ve never used coconut oil for cooking. I bought some for cooking and to use on my hair but it goes hard and you have to dig it out to use it. Do you warm yours first before scooping it out for cooking?

    Looking forward to trying these brownies. Yum!

    Reply

  31. Sarah says

    I love all the healty swaps you made. I do not have coconut oil and coconut palm sugar but I love the sound of coconut flavor in a brownie. I think it would be fantastic!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  21. […] Vegetarian who used quinoa flour in her brownies and they looked and sounded fab ! You must check them out ! I did not have quinoa flour so I decided to cook the quinoa and added it to the bread. I used one […]

    Reply

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