Recipe: Chocolate and Berry Brownies (Gluten-Free & Vegan)

I am so ridiculously proud of these brownies.  They are richly, deeply chocolatey with sharp, acidic raspberries and mellow blackberry jam in the background, and did I mention that they are magnificently chocolatey?  They are incredibly easy and fast to make – by far the most time-consuming part of the recipe is measuring all the different kinds of flour.  Once you’ve done that, you basically add the wet to the dry, mix and bake.  And they are made without eggs, dairy, or gluten.  You can make them nut-free quite easily, too, just by taking out the chestnut flour and adding a little cornflour and rice flour to make up the amounts.  In other words, they are very allergy-friendly, and you’ll never miss the eggs and butter…

This recipe was inspired by the blueberry and chocolate brownies in Veganomicon, to which it bears a family resemblance (though their version contains gluten).

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1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup quinoa flour

1/4 cup cornflour (the squeaky stuff, not polenta – and do check that it is actually made from corn, as a lot of cornflour is made from wheat)

1/4 cup chestnut flour (almond or hazelnut meal would also do here)

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably fair trade and dark

1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 – raw sugar

300g good quality blackberry jam (or other berry jam, but make sure it doesn’t use wheat-based glucose as the sweetener – try to get something made of fruit, sugar and pectin only)

1/4 cup soy milk (you could use rice milk or coconut milk if you are allergic to soy)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup raspberries (I think I used about 1 1/2 cups, actually, so feel free to make your cup a generous one)

200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped (check that it is dairy free – I recommend Lindt 70%)

Now what will you do with it?

Preheat the oven to 160°C, and line a swiss roll tin (about 22 x 32cm, and fairly shallow) with paper.

Put all your flours, your cocoa, salt, baking powder and bicarb into a sieve and shake through into a bowl.  Combine with a fork.

Put the canola oil, sugar, jam, vanilla, and non-dairy milk of your choice into a bowl, and mix together until there are no lumpy bits of jam remaining.  Well, maybe a few lumpy bits of jam – how industrious are you feeling?

(at this point, incidentally, you could leave everything nicely covered for a few hours or even overnight, so that you just have to whack it all together in the morning)

Melt 120g of your chocolate, and let cool slightly.  Very slightly.  I’m impatient.

Pour your jammy mix into your cocoa mix, and mix together well.  Add the melted chocolate, and keep mixing.  You aren’t waiting for it to change colour or anything, nor are you trying to mix it minimally, muffin-style – just get it all well combined and consistent.  Fold in the raspberries and the rest of the chocolate chips, and yes, it is ridiculously thick at this point.

Try to spread it into the tin.  Yeah, I know, it doesn’t want to.  I just blob it into the middle and try to press it out to the sides as much as I can with the spatula.   I blob a few bits into the corners as well, which helps, but it will spread while it cooks.  You could use a slightly smaller tin, but that would be cheating, and would also take longer to cook.

Bake for about 45 minutes.  This cake doesn’t pass the skewer test; it’s done when it’s cooked on top, doesn’t wobble when shaken, but still a bit soft when you press on it – it doesn’t quite leave a finger indentation, but it feels like it might if you pushed your luck.

Let cool for a few minutes, then turn out onto a rack, remove the paper, and turn back onto another rack.  I do hope you used the paper, because this cake is sticky.  Let cool for maybe 15 minutes if you want to eat it warm, then cut into rectangles to serve.

If you are feeling especially decadent, serve it with Raspberry Soy Ice-Cream.