After spending the last few days at the Functional Medicine Conference in London, I needed to get back to my kitchen and savour the joys of baking.
Knowing what is in my food is extremely important to me, which is why I like making things from scratch, to avoid hidden sugars and fillers like xanthan gum or gellan gum.
If you’ve been told to go on a gluten-free or dairy-free diet, it’s easy to fall victim to “healthy” foods on your supermarket shelf, without realising that they often contain undesirable ingredients.
These brownies were inspired by Arizona-based Functional Medicine Practitioner, Dr Darrell Kilcup. His recipe called for hazelnut flour, eggs, chocolate chips, honey and baking powder. However, I improvised with almond flour, flaxseeds, and goji berries, maple syrup and baking soda so they are vegan, and paleo!
Dry ingredients
- 1 cup or 100g almond flour or blanched ground almonds
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
- 3 tablespoons ground raw cacao
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons goji berries sprinkled liberally throughout
Wet ingredients
- 3 tablebspoons of water for making “flax eggs”
- 1½ tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ cup maple syrup
Step by Step “How to”
- Combine 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds with 3 tbsps of water and allow to sit
- Pre-heat your oven to 175° C or 350° F
- Grease and line a square 8 x 8 pyrex dish with parchment paper
- In a mixing bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine all wet ingredients
- Then combine wet and dry ingredients, either by hand, or in a food processor
- Using a spatula, pour and spread into your dish
- Bake at 175° for 20 minutes until the top is hard
- Check with a toothpick that it comes out clean
- If you can wait, allow to cool in dish for 10 minutes
- The cooler it becomes, the fudgier it gets, so that might inspire you to wait!
