One of my favorite readers, Courtney, requested this brownie recipe in a comment last week.
Here is what she said, “Can we have another VOTE?? Every post I am hopeful that I might open it up to find your recipe for scrumptious dark chocolate brownies… I am NEVER disappointed by your posts, but I am still hopeful that I may experience this recipe in the future…”
Now that is just too cute. How could I say no to this sweet request? Courtney lives in Tennessee and I was fortunate enough to meet her at one of my cooking classes here in Boulder, Colorado. She has a great website with all kinds of interesting natural products on it.
Furthermore, this is my older son’s favorite treat. Whenever I ask him what he would like me to bake for him, he says, “brownies.” He loves packing these higher-protein treats in his lunch for dessert.
So, there you have it, everyone! Brownies.
Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 16 ounce jar creamy roasted almond butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1¼ cups honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup cacao powder
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth with a hand blender
- Blend in eggs, then blend in honey and vanilla
- Blend in cacao, salt and baking soda, then fold in chocolate chips
- Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish
- Pour batter into dish
- Bake at 325°F for 30-40 minutes
Last spring, I discovered this great Peanut Butter Bar recipe from celiacchicks.com which gave me the idea to make treats out of nut butters. When I coached my son’s little league team, I brought either these nourishing brownies, or Almond Butter Blondies to just about every baseball game.
I recently discovered a fun website called Flavorista.com. Low and behold, I checked it out this morning and saw a fantastic write up on gluten-free by the site’s author, Barr. What I liked best about her take on this timely topic, is that she is one of the few mainstream chefs to offer an “outsider’s” perspective on the world of gluten-free. Very refreshing, witty and informative. Thanks Barr!
Claire says
wow…these are absolutely amazing!! I just about ate half the pan by myself! :D Are these really healthier than normal brownies calorie wise? I know they have proteins and vitamins, but are they ok to eat throughout the day as a small snack or should I be careful because these pack a lot of calories? :D Just curious if I need to make these only when guests are over so I don’t eat as many! Thanks for the recipe though!!!! Brownies were my favorite dessert before going GF, so i was so excited when these turned out just like the real thing. Thank you Elana for another great dessert recipe! You’re awesome!
Donna says
Laura, thanks for that info. Unfortunately, coffee is one of my allergies. Appreciate the thought tho. Did you get them to work for you? If so how?
bakingfool
Laura says
These brownies did work for me, with the coffee. I like to use big chocolate chips and keep them in freezer. This way they don’t melt as fast as they bake and you bite into nice chocolate bits. I also get the giant bottle of almond butter from costco and guesstimate the 16oz – I use about two heaping cups. Maybe I’m not using as much almond butter as required. I also slightly under-bake the brownies so they are more moist.
If you can’t use coffee, maybe add more vanilla, or some peppermint extract (if you like the chocolate-mint combination). I thought I read someone using a Splenda or Stevia syrup instead of agave nectar…..
Donna says
Laura, sorry, I went back and reread all your posts above. I guess your posts didn’t sink in the first time, I misunderstood you.
I got the taste worked out for me. I used fresh ground pecan butter and added melted unsweetened chocolate and more maple sugar.
The texture is still not what I was looking for but the taste is right on now. I have a freezer full of choclate-y treats!
Thanks for all the help!
bakingfool
Melissa says
These are the BEST gluten-free baked goods that I have ever ever tried/made!
Seriously, I just ate 2 (out of 24), and I’m having an extremely hard time resisting a 3rd, 4th, and 5th =).
They are THAT good… trust me, best 15$ I have ever spent on food! (10 for the almond butter and 5 for the agave nectar).
I only put in 1 cup of agave nectar, and they turned out amazing!
<3 Melissa
PS The batter for these brownies has to be one of the best I've ever eaten :D
Donna says
Sorry, I hate to be a “negative Nelly”, but while these are OK I’ll keep looking for a better recipe. I know it’s probably my tastes as there was nothing wrong with the recipe, it came out fine. I love almonds, just not almond butter. I taste the almond butter above everything else in this recipe. I can barely taste the chocolate and the sweetness is just an after taste to me even though I added 1/4 cup extra because I wasn’t using the chips. I used maple syrup since it seems agave doesn’t agree with me. The texture for me, is too much like a cake and nothing like I expect a brownie to be.
They won’t go to waste though because hubby loves the almond butter and will probably gobble these right down.
My advice for anyone else considering making these who is not a “fan” of almond butter is to not bother with it and use a different nut butter for your batch.
jessica says
wow… really? these are the BEST GF brownies i’ve ever had, and i’ve tried a few…
but then again you didn’t follow the recipe and use the recommended ingredients — so that’s probably why yours turned out unexpected…
also, if you do not like almond butter, and since it is a main ingredient, why did you think you would like the brownies in the first place?
sorry if this sounds like an attack, just curious!
Donna says
jessica, doesn’t sound like an attack to me. All’s well there.
I tried them because I was hoping the cocolate would be enough to cover the almond butter taste as it does with almond flour. Not that I have a problem with almond flour. It has a mild taste to me. No matter, now I know I need a different recipe for this item.
Sorry but I can’t use the agave nectar or the sugared chocolate chips for my body. The results are not pretty.
By the way Elana, my hubby loved this brownie recipe. He said they were just right on the chocolate taste. Not bitter to him like most brownies and he ate 4 right away. He rarely eats more than one because he doesn’t care for the dark chocolate taste of brownies.
4kiddos says
I used peanut butter and they came out wonderful. You can taste a hint of the peanut and for us it goes deliciously with the chocolate. Organic peanut butter is much cheaper then organic almond butter too. Also, I think I’d try a few drops of vanilla stevia and an extra egg instead of the maple syrup, maple and chocolate don’t seen to go together to me. Can you tolerate stevia?
Sesame butter might be a blander option as well.
Best wishes!
Shari says
Donna, I made my own own super creamy almond butter from 4 cups of almond flour blended in my food processor with 1/3 cup of coconut oil (could have used palm kernel shortening or a little less amount of almond oil). It took several minutes, with little rests for my wimpy machine, but the result was very smooth and a very mild flavor which I couldn’t taste at all in the brownies. I cannot use agave or honey, either, but coconut nectar worked very well. I chopped up a ChocoPerfection bar (erythritol sweetened) and the result was fudgy, chewy, chocolatey HEAVEN!!! (Thnk you so much, Elana, for all you do!!!!) I love the idea of making my own chocolate chips/chunks as sugar free/gluten free ones are nearly impossible to find – even with poor sweetener choices like maltitol and sorbitol or worse. Adrienne@www.wholenewmom.com has a good chip recipe as does Caroline@ http://www.mygutsy.com. Adrienne also has great tips for sweetener substitutions and conversions if you have to adapt recipes. Hope this helps someone.
Laura says
Perhaps adding a little instant coffee powder will help? I personally love these brownies, but couldn’t stand the raw batter because of the almond butter. Many chocolate desserts use coffee to help bring out the flavor more, so I thought why not? Good luck!
Kate says
I made these earlier in the week; they were very delicous. I think I will cut back a bit on the agave nectar next time because I think they would still be totally delicious with a little less sweetness (and also less imposing on my blood sugar). Thanks! I can’t wait to try more recipes.
Amber says
This is very innovative recipe for making low-carbohydrate brownies! I think I’m going to give it a try with stevia extract to see if I can make it lower in simple sugars. This is a great place to start, though. Thanks Elena!
gina says
i have to say these were the best brownies i have ever tasted, ever made. husband loved them as well. they are sexy, dark and never again will i ever have a store bought or someone else’s brownie again. it’s so not worth it to me. if i’m going to have a brownie, it’ll be this recipe. IMPRESSIVE!
Laura says
Gina- maybe your almond butter wasn’t completely mixed with its oil? If unmixed, your almond butter will be dry and hard to mix with other ingredients. I’ve made this recipe a dozen times and it always comes out moist and delicious. Good luck!
Gina says
Hi,
I made the brownies, but had a little difficulty. After I mixed the 365 brand (whole foods) almond butter with eggs, it became very thick and I could not mix the rest of the ingredients easily. I was expecting a cake batter consistency (or close to that) but at the end, it was clumpy and I patted the batter with my hands. The brownies are dry and I heat them up when I want to eat to make it a little softer and browny-like. Do you have an idea what was wrong?
jessica says
the batter is VERY thick (consistency of almond butter) and needs to be worked on thoroughly so there are no lumps left, otherwise it will not have a good consistency as you mentioned.
This recipe probably won’t work if you don’t use a hand blender as specified in the directions. I make this all the time and it is one of my favorites.
Good luck!
Rachel C says
Was it roasted almond butter? I made this mistake once- I used the Whole Foods almond butter that you crank out in the bulk section, and it was too dry – was never sure if it was because there was no oil added or if it was because it was raw almond butter.
Danielle says
Okay..Elana these brownies were fabulous! I shared some with my father who is diabetic. The cranberry bars were soooo good too..I am not sure which I liked better! Thanks for sharing your creations!