The Perfect Clean Eat Brownies

These brownies are good.  No, seriously, they are GOOD.
These little baked squares of rich, chocolaty decadence attains a perfectly crinkled top, and, depending on how long you bake them, can vary between fudgy and cakey.

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Here’s why you’re going to love these brownies:

• They are clean eating and gluten-free.
• They’re made using heart healthy coconut oil and coconut sugar (ranked as a low-glycemic sweetener).
• They can be baked to be either fudgy or cakey depending on your preference.
• They bake up to be rich and chocolate in the best of ways
• They use just 9-simple pantry staple ingredients to make.
• They take about 10 minutes of active prep time.
• You can add mix-ins such as spices, chopped nuts, or dark chocolate chunks to make them extra decadent and customizable.

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Here’s the ingredients you’ll need to make these decadent brownies:

• Dark Chocolate: You can use any percentage of your choosing but I highly recommend anything from 60-80%.
• Coconut Oil: This is our heart-healthy oil and it adds  a touch of flavor to our brownies.
• Eggs: This adds both moisture, richness, binds our ingredients together and helps our brownies to rise.
• Coconut Sugar: Also known as palm sugar, this is our main sweetener that adds rich caramel undertones of flavor to our brownies, as a bonus, coconut sugar is a low GI sweetener.
• Almond Flour: The main dry ingredient for our brownies, almond flour makes these gluten-free.
• Cocoa Powder: This adds a deeper depth of chocolate flavor to our brownies.
• Baking Powder: This is our rising agent that works with the eggs.
• Salt: I’m using a pink Himalayan salt but you can also use a sea salt.
• Vanilla Extract: This adds depth and flavor to our brownies and complements the chocolate.

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Subbing ingredients: 

• Coconut oil can be substituted with equal amounts of olive oil or melted butter (if using salted butter omit the use of salt).
• Almond flour can be substituted with equal amounts of almond meal (unblanched almond flour) or other nut flours like cashew flour.
• Coconut sugar can be substituted with raw cane sugar or date sugar (just be aware that both options are sweeter so you may need to use less).

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Here’s how to make our brownies:

We’ll need three bowls to combine the ingredients into three parts:
1. Melt and mix the coconut oil and chocolate (I do this by setting it in the microwave in 30 second increments) in a large bowl. When the chocolate has melted and mixed together with the coconut oil completely, set it aside to cool.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until a thick almost caramel syrup-like consistency is reached.
3. Combine all the dry ingredients (almond flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder) together in a large bowl.

The next step is to combine the (cooled) chocolate and coconut oil with the egg and sugar mixture. Once mixed together, add in the vanilla extract and mix once more. Note that the mixture will thicken up a bit once the extract is added. This is normal and happens when liquid is introduced to tempered chocolate. Finally, blend the dry ingredients thoroughly in their bowl…

…And add it (the dry ingredients) into the wet ingredients.

Mix your batter until fully combined. This will be a thick batter but if it seems *too* thick, you can add a couple tablespoons of milk or coconut milk to it and whisk again until the liquid is fully incorporated.
For all intents and purposes I will recommend that you resist the urge to sample the raw batter since there are uncooked eggs in there. That being said…what you do if I’m not looking is entirely up to you and I cannot be held accountable 😉. I should also mention that you can throw in a handful (or two) of dark chocolate chips or morsels at this stage if you’d like to make these brownies extra decadent.

Pour your batter into an 8″ x 8″ baking dish or tray that’s been greased with coconut oil and lined with parchment paper. The parchment isn’t necessary but makes lifting the brownies out so much easier. Pop your brownies into your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted one inch from the edge comes out clean. If you stick the middle, chances are it’s going to come out wet which is normal.

Allow the brownies to rest for at least 10 minutes  in the pan before trying to lift them out. This is important since your brownies are actually still cooking. I know it’s tempting, but resist the urge to touch them. After 10 minutes, lift them out using the parchment and allow them to cool (on a rack on the parchment paper) for another 20 minutes so that they can set just right. If you don’t wait you’ll risk them crumbling and falling apart when you try to cut them.

Once they’ve cooled, cut them into 9-16 squares (depending on the size you want them to be) and enjoy. Just look at those crinkly tops…so good! 🤤

I cooked mine for 25 minutes for a relatively cake-like texture. 20 minutes of bake time results in a more fudgy texture!

Served with a glass of milk or eaten just by themselves, or if you’re feeling particularly indulgent you can top them with a drizzle of this easy Butterscotch Sauce, these really are the perfect gluten-free, clean eat brownies.

I hope you give them a try and that they turn out even better than mine did! And if you do, let us know how they turned out by rating the recipe and leaving a comment below! 🥰