Gluten Free Brownies

When you need a brownie and wheat flour is off the table, coconut flour comes to the rescue. It is naturally gluten-free, so there are no fussy flour blends or gums, just a rich, fudgy square of chocolate.

Coconut flour behaves nothing like wheat flour, and that is the whole point. It drinks up moisture like a sponge, so a small amount thickens the batter and yields a dense, tender crumb without any gritty or gummy texture.

The base starts with butter melted into cocoa over low heat, which blooms the cocoa for a deeper, darker chocolate flavor than dry cocoa stirred in cold.

Let that cocoa mixture cool before it meets the eggs. Pour it in hot and you risk scrambling them, which is the difference between silky batter and a curdled one.

A handful of chocolate chips folded in melts into gooey pockets that keep these brownies decadent down to the last crumb.

Chef Tips

• Let the butter-cocoa mixture cool before adding the eggs to avoid scrambling them.
• Stir until the batter is fully smooth, since coconut flour can leave lumps if rushed.
• Do not overbake; pull them when the center is just set for a fudgy interior.
• Let them cool before cutting, as coconut-flour bakes firm up as they sit.

Variations

• Stir in chopped walnuts or pecans for crunch.
• Swap the chocolate chips for chunks of a dark chocolate bar.
• Add a spoonful of espresso powder to deepen the chocolate.