Friday, January 01, 2010

Almond Joy Coconut Brownies Recipe (Gluten Free)

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I started playing around with my favorite brownie recipe the other day after chatting with Alta of Tasty Eats At Home and came up with these delicious Almond Joy Coconut Brownies.  She mentioned her favorite brownies as one of her best recipes of 2009.  As I looked at her brownie recipe, I realized it’s very close to my favorite brownies, both of which are slightly different versions of Katharine Hepburn’s “famous” brownies.  Not sure anyone really knows exactly what her recipe was, but one of the keys to her gooey, perfectly chocolaty brownies is the small amount of flour that is used.

Alta cooks/bakes gluten free and mentioned that her brownies are even great with gluten free flour, like rice flour.  So I wondered and asked her about coconut flour as that is the only gluten free flour I have right now.  She thought that would make great brownies, especially if you like coconut.

Well, I LIKE coconut.  Kevin likes coconut.  One of both our favorite candy bars to snitch from the boys at Halloween are Almond Joys and I’ve even posted a recipe I made for Homemade Almond Joy Candy that uses mashed potatoes in the recipe.  They are really good and you’d never know there was mashed potatoes in them.

Back to the brownies.   Oh the brownies.  They are really, really good!  Just to play with the flavor, I used coconut oil in place of the butter and I used coconut flour in place of the all purpose flour, but of course, you could do these either way and they’d still be great.  One thing Alta’s recipe uses different from mine is chopped unsweetened chocolate and Dorie’s Tribute to Katharine Hepburn brownies that I use now as my go-to brownie uses cocoa powder.  So I decided to try the unsweetened chocolate.  There really isn’t much of a difference, but it is hard for me to really say that, since I also made these with coconut oil and coconut flour.  Just trust me that this is a very easy recipe to adapt.  Along with the coconut flour and oil, these have a delicious layer of sweetened coconut and almonds and it really makes these brownies!

Almond Joy Coconut Brownies (Gluten Free), by Katrina Smith

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (could use 1/2 cup cocoa powder)

1/2 cup coconut oil (could use 1 stick unsalted butter)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup coconut flour (could use 1/4 cup all purpose flour)

1/2 cup sweetened coconut

1/3 cup toasted, chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 8x8 inch square baking pan with foil, spray lightly with cooking spray.

Melt chocolate and oil in pan over medium heat.  Remove from heat.  Whisk together well.  Let sit 3 minutes.Whisk in eggs one at a time.  Add sugar and vanilla.  Fold in salt and flour until combined.  Spread half the batterevenly in pan.  Sprinkle with almonds, then coconut.  Press down carefully.  Put remaining batter in zip top plasticbag.  Snip off corner of bag.  Drizzle remaining batter over the coconut/almond layer. (This ensure more even spreadingof the remaining batter.)  Smooth carefully with a knife once the batter is drizzled.  Bake 20-25 minutes, until toothpick insertedin center comes out with just a few crumbs.  Let cool on cooling rack to room temperature.  Then chill for a few hours.  Cutinto desired size bars.  These are good and more gooey just slightly rewarmed but cut better chilled! 

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What?  You didn’t think I’d just stop there, did you?  I had to try these with a ganache on top!  These are such perfect little decadent bites.  I cut the brownies about 2x2 inches, then I cut some of them in to four pieces.  I made a quick ganache with 3 ounces of milk chocolate and 3 tablespoons cream.  Heat the cream in the microwave just to a boil (this only takes 20-30 seconds).  Pour the hot cream over the chopped melted chocolate and let it sit for a minute.  Then slowly whisk the chocolate and cream together until shiny and smooth.  Place a piece of the brownie on a fork and drizzle the ganache over the brownie.  Carefully scoot the chocolate covered brownie off the fork using another fork.  Place a sliced almond on top.  Let the ganache harden.  This ganache was a bit sticky, even after chilling, but it sure tastes good!

These brownies, and really any brownie, with all kinds of mix-ins would be delicious to make Chocolate Covered Brownie Bites.  You need to try these.  I love that these particular brownies are gluten free.  Now, if I could just figure out how to make them sugar free (without using sugar free sweeteners)! ;)

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Did you see my recent post about all the snow we've gotten?  Check it out!

30 comments:

Unplanned Cooking said...

I would love to try gluten free baking. I've read a lot about it / health benefits and am curious to see what I think of the taste. And what better place to start than a brownie? :) Happy New Year!

Leslie said...

Over the top??? yes indeed. These look amazing

mike said...

Ok, now I feel like I live in Siberia... where on earth do you get coconut flour??? Can you just grind unsweetened coconut? I've seen all sorts of flours and gluten free flours (rice/spelt/oat, etc) but never coconut flour. And I have little bottles of coconut oil (but those are for candymaking) - where do you get that much coconut oil? :) I have to make these - so let me know! Almond Joy and Mounds are the BEST to mimic in cookies/brownies/cakes! These look fantastic!

one said...

Another really creative version of a traditional treat! I love the idea of coconut flour (didn't know such a thing existed). I use coconut a lot in my baking, so this is the perfect idea. One of my specialties is devising sweets without sugar (or artifical sweeteners). With no sucrose at all (or a type of sweetener that ends in "ose") the ingredients don't react properly or cook right, so I always have to put a little in, such as agave nectar. But I can get by with very little using the right stevia product. If I do this one, I'll let you know.

♥peachkins♥ said...

Happy New Year! Looking forward to your goodies this year!

Isabelle said...

These look delicious - I love coconut!


Wishing you all the best for 2010 Katrina!

Tasty Eats At Home said...

I am so glad that these turned out so well! They look AMAZING. I am going to experiment with making a sugar-free version using agave, I'll let you know how it goes! Mike - as for locating coconut flour, Bob's Red Mill makes some - I have found it at Whole Foods and other natural groceries like that.

Megan said...

Oh man, these look so good. I love Almond joys and you had me at the title. But then I saw them with the ganche and I want them. I'll have to bookmark them. Today I started the 10in10. Hate to give in on the first day but these are tempting!!!

Katrina said...

My coconut flour is Bob's Red Mill also.

Karine said...

That is indeed very creative! And it looks delicious too :)

Lori said...

These sound so great. I'm bookmarking them for sure. Perhaps they'll make my Valentine baking list. :) I love the use of the coconut oil and flour.

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Yep, that all goes with me. I just ate a huge piece of chocolate, not that I need any more after all I've eaten during the holidays. Anyway even after having eaten chocolate I could eat those brownies and the bites, no problem! And wow that was a LOT of snow!

Valerie said...

Who would not loooooove these? You are so good! I've never tried coconut oil or flour when baking. Sounds fun.

Donna-FFW said...

I am loving the idea of brownie bites. Also a huge almond joy fan, I may have to give these a try Very soon! Happy New Year to you!

Anonymous said...

These sound so good, and the brownie bites are very elegant! I love Almond Joy and Mounds. I've never tried coconut flour or coconut oil, but they sound interesting!

CDC said...

they look amazing!

Maria said...

That is a lot of snow. We have some too! Happy New Year to you!

noble pig said...

Those look awesome!! I love Almond Joy. Happy New Year my friend.

Emily said...

I've been reading, but haven't commented in a while. Sorry! That was so much snow. I can't believe it. We got some of that, but not nearly as much. I think it's supposed to snow a lot this week, too. Little Sam is so cute! I can't believe he got all of those books down! Crazy kid.

I really like this brownie recipe. I'm an Almond Joy lover. They're my favorite. I'll have to try using coconut flour soon. Have you ever used cacao nibs before? I'm trying to figure out what to do with them.

Barbara Bakes said...

These sound amazing! Especially with the ganache!

Anonymous said...

I have two blogs, one of which is gluten free. I have to try this. I am so used to baking gluten free, that when I baked a regular cake yesterday, I did not leave enough room for it to rise.

This is my kind of food and I am not the gluten food eater but who cares. I want to make this soon.

Off to print it. Thanks for sharing this.

Shelby said...

I will have to try this recipe for my friends who have to eat gluten free! I love those brownie bites!

Eliana said...

Alomd Joys are some of my favorite candies! These brownies look outstanding.

easy recipe said...

Woow it looks great.

eatme_delicious said...

Those brownies look so good!! I love the little brownie bites you made covered in ganache too. And how you used so many coconut products in these! I've yet to try coconut flour.

Stella said...

Hi Katrina, though I didn't use your recipe, it inspired me to try to de-gluten my own typical brownie recipe I use. They're in the oven now, so we'll see. Thanks!

Unknown said...

I just stumbled upon your recipe and gave it a try! I write for a website called Courageous Homekeeping (dot com) and reviewed the recipe there. I linked back to your blog so we could share the love! My whole family loved these and they even passed the 'guest test'! Thanks you!!!

Anonymous said...

Delicious! I just made these for a dinner party we're going to, and they are fabulous. I'm gluten-free and the hostess is dairy-free, so these were perfect. I made a few tweaks - I used almond flour b/c that is what I had on hand, and I accidentally used 1/2 cup instead of 1/4 cup. To add moisture, I threw in 2 tbsp of coconut milk. Also used cocoa powder instead of chocolate for the dairy-free aspect.

These are so dense and chocolatey! Yum!!

C.Green said...

Hey, although more natural, agave is NOT sugar free! In fact it is higher on the GI index than white sugar. It is not a healthy substance. I have found just a touch of stevia in recipes for sweets is very good, especially in chocolate treats. Be careful not to use too much as you will get a bitter aftertaste!

C.Green said...

The little bottles of which you speak are coconut extract, not oil. Coconut oil is the solid white stuff that comes in jars on the shelves where other oils are sold. As for making coconut flour out of coconut, I'm not sure. The coconut flour I get is light beige & very dry. I think it must be made otherwise as it also does not taste like coconut. It is available in most stores these days but for sure in Sprouts or Whole Foods in the bulk section.