GF Brownies

 OLIVE OIL COCONUT BROWNIES

 Listening to: Sharon Van Etten, "Tramp" album

Salt, chocolate, and coconut…#s 2, 3, and 4 of my most favorite flavors in the whole wide world. If you know me, you know what #1 is ;). 

The purpose of making these brownies was to congratulate two special people in my life on their new awesome jobs. The champagne was chilling in the fridge, I had three smuggled sparklers ready to light, and the intent on presenting a platter of these salty-chocolate dreams to these very special people.

Then my roommate Amanda came home. We sat at the kitchen table and proceeded to inhale the brownies without thinking much of it, leaving maybe half the platter. Woops…

The thing is, they are SO GOOD! And “healthy” too! Made with all gluten-free flours (my roommate has celiac), brown sugar instead of white, and olive oil instead of butter, you can’t really feel toooo guilty about putting these away the way we did. Had we gone and listened to the little guy in red on our shoulders, we would have polished off the whole dish, but we resisted, so we could share. Aww.

These are really easy to make and definitely a crowd pleaser. If you don’t like chocolate, well that’s weird. If you don’t like salty things, you could go a little lighter on that part, and if you don’t like toasted coconut, that’s weird too. After a bite, you will swear that coconuts were created with the sole purpose of uniting with chocolate and salt. Trust me.

INGREDIENTS: 

1 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (or carob)
2 1/3 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup olive oil
2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
about 2 tsp. sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a 9×13 baking pan by greasing it with olive oil.

• In a small bowl, combine the flours

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk the cocoa powder with the boiling water until smooth, then whisk in the chopped chocolate.Whisk in the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla.Once the wet ingredients are well combined, stir in the flour mixture and mix well. 
• Pour into prepared baking pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

• Carefully (and slowly) sprinkle the shredded coconut over the top of the batter, making sure to cover it as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the salt on top as well, working in a systematic way from top to bottom so you know where you’ve already salted. 

• Bake until the coconut is golden-brown on top and the batter is set, about 35 minutes. Let the brownies cool completely before cutting into 2 inch squares for serving. (I know it's hard, but be patient)