Brownie Points

Menu Notes:

• This was originally a recipe for gluten-free brownies on a blog called "Elfie's Edibles". I substituted stevia for sugar, tweaked a bit, and came up with the following recipe, which is low in both carbs and sugar but loaded with chocolate.
• I have identified a delicious dark chocolate sweetened with stevia, which I ordered online from Coco Polo. I made the brownies with this chocolate and they were the best and tastiest batch so far.

The Ingredients (for about 35 bite-size servings):

• 170 g (or 6 oz) of unsalted butter
• 2 bars of 70% dark chocolate, or approximately 200 g (7 oz)
• 3 eggs
• 5 ml (or 1 teaspoon) of pure vanilla extract
• Stevia equivalent to 50 g (or ¼ cup) of sugar
• 90 g (or ¾ cup) of finely ground almond flour
• A pinch (or ⅛ teaspoon) of baking soda
• 1.5 g (or ¼ teaspoon) of salt

The Method:

1. First clarify the butter by heating over the lowest heat for about half and hour, or until the milk solids have separated out from the fat.
2. Skim the floating solids off the top and, while it is still warm, filter the remaining butter into a bowl to remove solids that are on the bottom of the pan. I use unscented, ultra-soft toilet paper for the filter; it has just the right pore size.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Heat the oven to 160°C (or 325°F).
4. If necessary, butter or oil two mini muffin pans, or set out about 40 mini muffin paper baking cups.
5. Break one of the chocolate bars into small pieces for melting.
6. Cut the other chocolate bar into very small pieces to make chocolate chips.
   
7. Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk them lightly with the vanilla and the stevia.
8. Place the almond flour into a bowl, and mix it well with the salt and baking soda.
9. Melt the larger pieces of chocolate in the still-warm clarified butter, stirring until all have dissolved.
10. Mix together the egg mixture and the chocolate-butter mixture and stir vigorously until it becomes viscous.
11. Add the almond flour mixture and stir until it is thoroughly incorporated.
12. Fold in the prepared chocolate chips.
    
13. Fill each mini muffin cup almost to the top with brownie mixture.
14. Bake the muffins for 15 to 20 minutes, testing for doneness with a fine bamboo skewer or a toothpick.
15. Allow the brownies to cool before removing them from muffin pans.

The Story:

Gluten-free bakers often make use of high glycemic index flours such as rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour. I was so happy to find a recipe that worked using almond flour instead. It does not have the bitterness of chick pea flour, which completely ruined my attempt to make anicini a few months ago. I am ready to find out how many other ways I can work with this almond flour.