I’m happy to welcome Spencer Ellsworth with a Bready or Not guest post! His debut novel is out today. I was lucky enough to read A Red Peace a few months ago, and blurbed it: “This is space opera candy!” Seriously, if you love space opera, GET THIS. It’s fresh and fun, mixing up cozy tropes in fantastic new ways.
Which is pretty much what Spencer does with this recipe today, too. He shares a recipe for gluten-free brownies that look absolutely delicious. I bet they’d be perfect to eat in accompaniment with a brand new space opera novel…
I’m Spencer, and I have two big things in common with Beth: we both like to write a good swashbuckling adventure (here’s mine) and we both like to bake.
Unlike Beth, I have celiac disease, which means, although I bake all the time, I use gluten-free flours. I was diagnosed way back in the dark ages of 1985. I did all of elementary school in the 1980s gluten free. Let us all turn and salute my mother, who had to bake “special cupcakes” every time someone else in the class had a birthday and brought in gluten cupcakes.
*Salutes Mom*
Ahem.
Celiac disease is, like Crohn’s, arthritis and lupus, an autoimmune disease. Our immune systems, upon consumption of gluten, attack and inflame our intestinal lining, preventing the absorption of any food. Because autoimmune disease is on a spectrum, people often have reactions to gluten that are tricky to diagnose without an endoscopy or colonoscopy.
There are two great lies about gluten-free food
1) you can just substitute GF flour mix in most recipes
2) gluten-free food just doesn’t taste as good
1 isn’t true because different proteins act differently in different grains. Gluten-free flours are not sticky like wheat. You don’t need to knead any gluten-free bread product; you just need to mix the dough and let it rise. You may find certain GF flours, like sorghum or millet or brown rice, less palatable than wheat. But most celiacs can find a preferred flour mix.
This picture shows plain rice flour (the fine-textured flour), a gluten-free mix, and a gluten-free pancake mix (the one with dark specks).
However, that leads me to…
2 isn’t true because there are a LOT of celiacs out there making a LOT of amazing food. But you do have to do some baking on your own. The best gluten-free food is made at home, with patience. Commercial kitchens can’t take the time and ingredients necessary.
So if you’re new to GF baking, here’s an un-ruinable recipe to start. Peruse Gluten-Free & More (formerly known as Living Without) for anything else you need, or just contact me through my website.
Un-Ruinable Gluten Free Brownies
These are totally un-ruinable because they can be made with just about any gluten-free flour, flour mix, or pancake mix. They will have a slightly different consistency depending on the flour, but they work with anything from plain rice flour to Pamela’s pancake mix.
Your celiac friends will appreciate the attempt to make real brownies, rather than those flourless peanut butter cookies or rice krispie treats we ALWAYS get.
Make sure to clean ALL your work surfaces very well first. All counters and bowls should be scrubbed clear of any trace of gluten. Use non-porous materials like Teflon or glass. Make sure they are scrubbed completely clean of every last scrap of anything that ever contained gluten. (Even better, use the excuse to treat yourself to a new dish and new mixing bowl.)
4 eggs
1 cup sugar (add more to taste, especially if not using chocolate chips)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup cocoa powder (I much prefer the darker, richer Ghiradelli’s over the chalky Hershey’s)
1/2 cup butter, margarine or coconut oil
1/2 mushy avocado (this is weird, but it makes the whole endeavor much fluffier)
1 cup of any gluten-free flour, baking mix or pancake mix
2 tsp baking powder (if not already included in your mix)
Chocolate chips & nuts to taste
Set oven to 350.
Beat the eggs with the sugar and avocados.
Melt the butter or oil in a saucepan or microwave-safe dish, and add the cocoa powder and beat until smooth.
Allow the butter/cocoa powder mix to cool a bit, then mix into eggs, sugar and avocado.
Mix your flour in with the rest. Add baking powder if you simply have a basic flour mix.
Pour into a greased baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes on 350.
Bready or Not Guest: Spencer Ellsworth's Un-Ruinable Gluten Free Brownies
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup white sugar add more to taste, especially if not using chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder I much prefer the darker, richer Ghiradelli’s over the chalky Hershey’s
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine or coconut oil
- 1/2 mushy avocado this is weird, but it makes the whole endeavor much fluffier
- 1 cup of any gluten-free flour or baking mix or pancake mix
- 2 tsp baking powder if not already included in your mix
- Chocolate chips & nuts to taste
Instructions
- Set oven to 350.
- Beat the eggs with the sugar and avocado.
- Melt the butter or oil in a saucepan or microwave-safe dish, and add the cocoa powder and beat until smooth.
- Allow the butter/cocoa powder mix to cool a bit, then mix into eggs, sugar and avocado.
- Mix your flour in with the rest. Add baking powder if you simply have a basic flour mix.
- Pour into a greased baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes on 350.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
A Red Peace, first in Spencer Ellsworth’s Starfire trilogy, is an action-packed space opera in a universe where the oppressed half-Jorian crosses have risen up to supplant humanity and dominate the galaxy.
Half-human star navigator Jaqi, working the edges of human-settled space on contract to whoever will hire her, stumbles into possession of an artifact that the leader of the Rebellion wants desperately enough to send his personal guard after. An interstellar empire and the fate of the remnant of humanity hang in the balance.
Spencer Ellsworth has written a classic space opera, with space battles between giant bugs, sun-sized spiders, planets of cyborgs and a heroine with enough grit to bring down the galaxy’s newest warlord.
