This is a recipe for the chocolate addicts, the bakers, the health-conscious eaters, the avocado lovers, and my non-gluten-eating friends. Despite the fact that I called these avocado brownies, these are regular brownies, that taste amazing. They’re not green, and the gluten-free aspect doesn’t change the texture or the taste of them. I know sometimes gluten-free baking results in a weird taste or texture you might not be used to, or like. I can assure you. These brownies are yummy!

Confession: I couldn’t wait for mine to cool before devouring…so it didn’t come too nicely out of the pan. (Note the giant holes.) It still tasted the great! 🙂

I used avocado as a butter substitute (yes, it works!). If you’re a vegan, or trying to cut back on your butter or dairy consumption, you should definitely try this out. You can use avocado in place of butter in any baking recipe. (I used eggs in my recipe, but if you’re a vegan, go ahead and use an egg substitute. Although, I’ve heard trying to substitute large amount of eggs in baking doesn’t always turn out too well.) It’s generally recommended to substitute the same amount of avocado for butter (1 tablespoon butter = 1 tablespoon avocado), but you can play around with how much avocado makes you happy. I always use more avocado (at least two times more). If you find your baking too dry…add more avocado next time. More avocado = moister. Less avocado = dryer.

Avocados are great for you! They’re full of good fats, good vitamins, and key nutrients. Click here to see some the health benefits they provide. If you’re going to make brownies, adding a little health into them can’t be a bad idea. 🙂

I used the recipe I found on the back of my coconut flour package and I loved it. (I changed it up a bit because I wasn’t using butter.) Using coconut flour is completely different from using regular flour. You can’t substitute them 1:1. Generally, 1/4 to 1/3 cup coconut flour is equivalent to 1 cup of grain-based flour and I’ve been told to use 6 beaten eggs per 1 cup of coconut flour when baking. You should be able to find this flour at regular grocery stores in the organic section. Coconut palm sugar can be found in the organic section as well. This sugar has a lower glycemic index than regular sugar and is without the chemicals found in aspartame or other artificial sweeteners. If you have friends or family with diabetes, try switching to coconut palm sugar as a sweetener. Diabetics should still treat this as they do regular sugar, but this is a much healthier choice.

Here are the brands that I use, in case you’re wondering. They are both organic.

If you’re new to baking with coconut flour, here’s a good Baking With Coconut Flour 101. You’ll learn everything you need to know, including health benefits.

Gluten-Free Avocado Brownies

Ingedients:

• Flesh of 1 ripe avocado, mashed (the original recipe used 1/3 cup butter)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 eggs (or equivalent)
• 1 cup coconut palm sugar (can use regular sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coconut flour, preferably sifted so it doesn’t clump (I’ve done it without sifting…it wasn’t a disaster)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (optional) (for extra chocolatey-ness)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium sized bowl, mash your avocado and mix in the cocoa powder.
(**If you’re using butter, you would melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat and blend with cocoa powder. Then remove from heat.)

3. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, sugar and vanilla. Doing this in a separate bowl allows you to beat the eggs and mix everything together better. However, as you can see in my pictures, I just whisked everything together in one bowl. (It was a rushed, late night experiment…as usual.)

4. Mix the egg mixture into the avocado/cocoa mixture.

5. Stir in coconut flour. Keep stirring until you get all the lumps out. (Coconut flour is known to get a bit clumpy.)

6. Add chocolate chips, if desired, and mix well.

7. Bake in a pre-greased 8×8 brownie pan. I used an 8 or 9-inch cake pan. I greased my pan with a non-hydrogenated vegan butter-substitute (Earth Balance) to keep things butter-free. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

**My brownies were almost not fully baked at 35 minutes, so make sure to check with a toothpick. If you stick a toothpick in the centre and it slides out easily and clean, you’re done! If your brownies aren’t ready, the toothpick won’t come out as easily and will probably come out with clumps of batter stuck to it.

8. Let it cool for a bit before removing from pan so that it’ll come out more easily…mine got a little sticky when I tried to take it out right away.

Stay healthy and enjoy! Let me know what you think of them! xx