Beggin For Brownies…..

I’ve been on a quest to find the best Vegan brownie recipe in the world. Well, after a number of failed “experiments” I pretty much gave up! My dog even stole one set (that was harder than a hockey puck) out of my kitchen trash. Suitable to be a dog cookie? Enough said! Because of all of the dry ingredients, the dough just needs some help rising to be edible.

After taste testing a few recipes, I came up with this version of gluten-free goodness! They do have eggs in them, so they would not be considered Vegan. These are great, and you don’t need a very big piece to get a chocolate fix.

The base for the dough is arrowroot. It’s a starch that’s gluten-free and is used in place of flour most frequently to firm up puddings, custards, and in our case here, brownies. The walnut oil is a little pricey but it’s really high in your Omega 3 and 6, so I’m sure that makes it safe to rationalize having a second piece! Both the walnut oil and the arrow root might be hard to find in a traditional grocery store, but you should be able to locate them in a more “health oriented” stores.

Best Brownie Ever

Ingredients:

1 cup raw pecans

6 Tablespoons walnut oil, plus extra for the baking pan

½ cup agave nectar

2 whole omega-3 eggs

½ cup cocoa powder

¼ cup arrowroot

Sunspire chocolate chips and toasted, chopped pecans (unsalted) for “frosting”

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Oil an 8x8x2 inch baking pan with the walnut oil. In a food processor, grind the pecans to the consistency of meal. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the 6T walnut oil, agave nectar, eggs, cocoa, and arrowroot. Stir to blend. Pour into an oiled 8x8x2 inch baking dish.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Immediately put some of the Sunspire chocolate chips on the top of the brownies just when you pull the pan out of the oven. When melted, use a small spatula to spread. Sprinkle toasted pecans on top. Let cool, then cut into 1 inch squares.

Variation: I used ground almond flour in the dough rather than 1 cup raw pecans; you can purchase the ground almond flour in the baking section at Trader Joe’s.

You could also lose the chocolate chips and dust the top of the cooked brownies with a dusting of powdered sugar.

These are not “vegan” due to the incorporation of eggs, but they are gluten free and dairy free depending upon the type of chocolate chips you use for the frosting.

Adapted from: The UltraMetabolism Prescription, Dr. Mark Hyman available from: http://www.amazon.com/Ultrametabolism-Simple-Plan-Automatic-Weight/dp/0743272560