Healthy gluten-free brownies
These sneaky brownies taste great even though they’re full of healthy ingredients. I had a group of third grade boys over the other day, and I decided to feed them these. I love the satisfaction of hearing them ask for another brownie. If I had told them the list of ingredients included dates, bananas, and coconut oil, I’m guessing they wouldn’t have responded so well. I must admit that my daughter, who has a very discerning palate, looked at me suspiciously as soon as she took a bite. “Is there avocado in this?” she asked accusingly. I said no, and she pointed at the tiniest speck of a date and said, “Then what’s this?” I told her that was some of the sweetener. She went on to eat the whole thing, and she asked for another one later.
Ingredients:
1 cup gluten-free flour*
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp. salt
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate (single ingredient: chocolate)
1/3 cup coconut oil
¼ cup dates
½ ripe banana
¾ cup maple syrup
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 7 x 11 or 9 x 13 inch pan with olive oil.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil. Cool slightly.
- Boil 2 cups of water in a small saucepan. Simmer the dates for about 5 minutes to soften them.
- In a food processor or blender, puree the dates and the banana.
- In a large bowl, combine the maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla. Add the dates, bananas, melted chocolate and coconut oil. Stir to combine well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Transfer the batter to the baking pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don’t overcook them or they will be dry.
Price Breakdown
These brownies cost $5.81 to make, or $.39 per brownie. Even with all the healthy ingredients, this batch of 15 brownies will disappear quickly.
*I get a lot of questions about substituting whole wheat flour for gluten-free flour, or vice versa. In most of my recipes, you can interchange white whole wheat flour with gluten-free flour and the results will be equally delicious. Whole wheat flour tends to be a bit thirstier, so you may want to add an extra tablespoon of liquid if you’re going from a gluten-free recipe to a whole wheat version. See below for a photo of this recipe using white whole wheat flour.
Linking to Gluten-Free Fridays.
Healthy brownies with white whole wheat flour
Oh, they look delicious! Love that they’re healthy too
You’re a genius! And your discening girl sounds like mine. I like your explanation to her, totally true!
-Dana
Celiac Kiddo recently posted..Yogurt Pops are the Bomb
Thanks, Dana. I try to give only as much information as she needs to hear.
I use soy flour in addition to the same GF flour that you have used but adding bananas seem interesting. I recently started using coconut oil but have not tried anything sweet.
Balvinder recently posted..Poha
Coconut oil is a great option for sweets. I use it all the time.
Love gf options! Will have to try this!
Thanks, Stacy! I hope you like it.
LOL, your daughter sounds like my kids: “are there any vegetables in this smoothie”?
Though to their developing discerning palates, my son did tell me that some spaghetti sauce I made ‘needed roasted eggplant’.
Thanks for a healthy tasty dessert recipe!
kirsten@FarmFreshFeasts recently posted..Butternut Squash Waffles
Wow, that’s impressive. I would throw a big party if one of my children told me my sauce needed roasted eggplant.
Wow, seriously easy and seriously yummy!! Got this on my to make list!
Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest!
Thanks for linking back to the Gluten Free Fridays post!
We had a ton of great looking entries for our Namaste sponsored party last week! Stop by this week to check out the winner that was randomly selected!
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Cindy (Vegetarian Mamma) recently posted..#glutenfree review: Viviana Foods
Brownies aand gluten free??? This is definitely something for me!! Yum yum yum
BigFATcook recently posted..Mickey Mouse Favors
Thanks! I hope you enjoy them.
I can’t find any chocolate that just says “chocolate”..! Super frustrating. Any substitutions? Thanks.!
Have you seen Baker’s unsweetened chocolate? It’s in the baking aisle at most grocery stores. If you can’t find it, just get the darkest chocolate you can find.
Does it need to be organic or is that not necessary.? Thanks for your reply.
That’s up to you, Jill. It’s always best to buy the highest quality ingredients you can afford. The Baker’s brand chocolate squares that I buy aren’t organic, but I do buy organic chocolate if I see it on sale for a good price.
These look amazing! I have been looking for a healthy brownie recipe. I hope I can easily convert it to vegan.
melissa @ my whole food life recently posted..Strawberry Ice Cream
Thanks, Melissa! Flax eggs should work fine here.