Jess' Recipe Adventure: Gluten-free brownies (with added gluten...)
When I get this recipe from Nev, I get dizzy with excitement, instantly having visions of myself as a buxom Nigella Lawson, licking melted chocolate from my fingers and making provocative ‘mmmm' noises. I trot, nay, I skip down to my local grocer (that would be Tesco Metro) and merrily pick up all manner of thrilling foodstuffs. There's something incredibly liberating about carrying a piece of paper that tells you to buy chocolate. I feel guilt-free. And hungry.
Ingredients
- 300g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 225g unsalted butter
- 75g cocoa powder
- 75g gluten free flour
- 225g plain chocolate
- 100g hazelnuts
- 100g white chocolate buttons
Method
When I get this recipe from Nev, I get dizzy with excitement, instantly having visions of myself as a buxom Nigella Lawson, licking melted chocolate from my fingers and making provocative ‘mmmm' noises. I trot, nay, I skip down to my local grocer (that would be Tesco Metro) and merrily pick up all manner of thrilling foodstuffs. There's something incredibly liberating about carrying a piece of paper that tells you to buy chocolate. I feel guilt-free. And hungry.
Sadly, Tesco Metro on Whitechapel High Street isn't quite as extensive as Nigella's local haunts, and I'm forced to buy salted butter and flour without the ‘gluten-free' bit, which possibly defies the point...but by golly I'll be damned if I'm going to be stopped now - I've got a trolley full of chocolate and I'm determined to use it!
I pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line a tin with baking parchment. Then I drag out my plastic, almost Fisher Price-esque set of weighing scales and start weighing up all my ingredients. I melt the butter on a low heat and set up a bain-marie for the chocolate (check me out, I'm using a flipping bain-marie!).
Meanwhile, I whisk up the eggs and sugar, before adding the melted butter gradually. Then the sieved flour, with all its gluteny badness, and the deliciously decadent cocoa powder, join the party.
I spoon in the gooey chocolate, chuck in the chopped nuts, and then rip open four packets of chocolate buttons, flinging them into the bowl. Is this not one of the most glorious sights you're eyes could see?! Pouring the mix into my tin, I whack the brownies in the oven for 30 mins.
After 10 mins, I open the oven and there it is, my brownie bonanza. Starting to get a little crispier on the top. And... suspiciously wobbly looking underneath.
I whack the brownies back in the oven for another 10 mins.
And another.
It is at this point I realise that I have actually had the oven on 140... I forget all my earlier notion of Nigella poise and launch into a four-letter explosion that Gordon Ramsay would be proud of.
So... After a lot longer than initially intended, the brownies are finally more or less ready. It's also 11pm and I'm knackered, so I leave them to cool down and cut them into squares in the morning.
They're a little bit crumbly, and my kitchen ends up looking like a cake massacre scene.
- 300g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 225g unsalted butter
- 75g cocoa powder
- 75g gluten free flour
- 225g plain chocolate
- 100g hazelnuts
- 100g white chocolate buttons
When I get this recipe from Nev, I get dizzy with excitement, instantly having visions of myself as a buxom Nigella Lawson, licking melted chocolate from my fingers and making provocative ‘mmmm' noises. I trot, nay, I skip down to my local grocer (that would be Tesco Metro) and merrily pick up all manner of thrilling foodstuffs. There's something incredibly liberating about carrying a piece of paper that tells you to buy chocolate. I feel guilt-free. And hungry.
Sadly, Tesco Metro on Whitechapel High Street isn't quite as extensive as Nigella's local haunts, and I'm forced to buy salted butter and flour without the ‘gluten-free' bit, which possibly defies the point...but by golly I'll be damned if I'm going to be stopped now - I've got a trolley full of chocolate and I'm determined to use it!
I pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line a tin with baking parchment. Then I drag out my plastic, almost Fisher Price-esque set of weighing scales and start weighing up all my ingredients. I melt the butter on a low heat and set up a bain-marie for the chocolate (check me out, I'm using a flipping bain-marie!).
Meanwhile, I whisk up the eggs and sugar, before adding the melted butter gradually. Then the sieved flour, with all its gluteny badness, and the deliciously decadent cocoa powder, join the party.
I spoon in the gooey chocolate, chuck in the chopped nuts, and then rip open four packets of chocolate buttons, flinging them into the bowl. Is this not one of the most glorious sights you're eyes could see?! Pouring the mix into my tin, I whack the brownies in the oven for 30 mins.
After 10 mins, I open the oven and there it is, my brownie bonanza. Starting to get a little crispier on the top. And... suspiciously wobbly looking underneath.
I whack the brownies back in the oven for another 10 mins.
And another.
It is at this point I realise that I have actually had the oven on 140... I forget all my earlier notion of Nigella poise and launch into a four-letter explosion that Gordon Ramsay would be proud of.
So... After a lot longer than initially intended, the brownies are finally more or less ready. It's also 11pm and I'm knackered, so I leave them to cool down and cut them into squares in the morning.
They're a little bit crumbly, and my kitchen ends up looking like a cake massacre scene.