I started playing around with my favorite brownie recipe the other day after chatting with Alta of Tasty Eats At Home and came up with these delicious Almond Joy Coconut Brownies. She mentioned her favorite brownies as one of her best recipes of 2009. As I looked at her brownie recipe, I realized it’s very close to my favorite brownies, both of which are slightly different versions of Katharine Hepburn’s “famous” brownies. Not sure anyone really knows exactly what her recipe was, but one of the keys to her gooey, perfectly chocolaty brownies is the small amount of flour that is used.
Alta cooks/bakes gluten free and mentioned that her brownies are even great with gluten free flour, like rice flour. So I wondered and asked her about coconut flour as that is the only gluten free flour I have right now. She thought that would make great brownies, especially if you like coconut.
Well, I LIKE coconut. Kevin likes coconut. One of both our favorite candy bars to snitch from the boys at Halloween are Almond Joys and I’ve even posted a recipe I made for Homemade Almond Joy Candy that uses mashed potatoes in the recipe. They are really good and you’d never know there was mashed potatoes in them.
Back to the brownies. Oh the brownies. They are really, really good! Just to play with the flavor, I used coconut oil in place of the butter and I used coconut flour in place of the all purpose flour, but of course, you could do these either way and they’d still be great. One thing Alta’s recipe uses different from mine is chopped unsweetened chocolate and Dorie’s Tribute to Katharine Hepburn brownies that I use now as my go-to brownie uses cocoa powder. So I decided to try the unsweetened chocolate. There really isn’t much of a difference, but it is hard for me to really say that, since I also made these with coconut oil and coconut flour. Just trust me that this is a very easy recipe to adapt. Along with the coconut flour and oil, these have a delicious layer of sweetened coconut and almonds and it really makes these brownies!
Almond Joy Coconut Brownies (Gluten Free), by Katrina Smith
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (could use 1/2 cup cocoa powder)
1/2 cup coconut oil (could use 1 stick unsalted butter)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup coconut flour (could use 1/4 cup all purpose flour)
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
1/3 cup toasted, chopped almonds
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 8x8 inch square baking pan with foil, spray lightly with cooking spray.
Melt chocolate and oil in pan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Whisk together well. Let sit 3 minutes.Whisk in eggs one at a time. Add sugar and vanilla. Fold in salt and flour until combined. Spread half the batterevenly in pan. Sprinkle with almonds, then coconut. Press down carefully. Put remaining batter in zip top plasticbag. Snip off corner of bag. Drizzle remaining batter over the coconut/almond layer. (This ensure more even spreadingof the remaining batter.) Smooth carefully with a knife once the batter is drizzled. Bake 20-25 minutes, until toothpick insertedin center comes out with just a few crumbs. Let cool on cooling rack to room temperature. Then chill for a few hours. Cutinto desired size bars. These are good and more gooey just slightly rewarmed but cut better chilled!
What? You didn’t think I’d just stop there, did you? I had to try these with a ganache on top! These are such perfect little decadent bites. I cut the brownies about 2x2 inches, then I cut some of them in to four pieces. I made a quick ganache with 3 ounces of milk chocolate and 3 tablespoons cream. Heat the cream in the microwave just to a boil (this only takes 20-30 seconds). Pour the hot cream over the chopped melted chocolate and let it sit for a minute. Then slowly whisk the chocolate and cream together until shiny and smooth. Place a piece of the brownie on a fork and drizzle the ganache over the brownie. Carefully scoot the chocolate covered brownie off the fork using another fork. Place a sliced almond on top. Let the ganache harden. This ganache was a bit sticky, even after chilling, but it sure tastes good!
These brownies, and really any brownie, with all kinds of mix-ins would be delicious to make Chocolate Covered Brownie Bites. You need to try these. I love that these particular brownies are gluten free. Now, if I could just figure out how to make them sugar free (without using sugar free sweeteners)! ;)
Did you see my recent post about all the snow we've gotten? Check it out!
