Full Disclosure: These brownies are not 100 percent Drink Your Carbs compliant. The Basic Drink Your Carbs diet eliminates both maple syrup and honey. When it comes to sweeteners, Drink Your Carbs is more restrictive than Paleo or pretty much any other diet we’ve seen. Our reasoning is simple. If we want to continue drinking alcohol, we have to cut calories elsewhere. Eliminating sweeteners is the easiest and most efficient way to accomplish this.
If we want something to finish a meal, our choice is invariably another glass of wine, beer or an occasional Scotch. But even we bust out this recipe for special occasions. If we plan to make dessert for a party, these are our go to choice.
If we want something to finish a meal, our choice is invariably another glass of wine, beer or an occasional Scotch. But even we bust out this recipe for special occasions. If we plan to make dessert for a party, these are our go to choice.
Fact: Not all cheats are created equal. If you are going to treat yourself, these are the highest protein, lowest sugar dessert we’ve come across. And more importantly, they don’t taste like it.
One Final Word Of Warning: If you make these all the time you will blow you diet. We even think moderation is too excessive. The key here is that these brownies should remain a treat. Use them sparingly and you’ll be fine; after all, on Drink Your Carbs 90% compliance is still an A.
Fact: Arthur C. Clarke wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Most people assume he was referring to things like computers, smart phones and marital aids. It’s equally possible that he was anticipating this brownie recipe.
These brownies are dairy and gluten-free. They contain no grains. They are composed almost entirely of almond butter and the chemistry behind them is as impressive as any advanced technology and/or magic that Clarke might have imagined. We have a reasonable understanding of chemistry yet we are stumped by the fact that we can mix up nut butter with a few other ingredients, shove it into the oven and pull out a tray of brownies.
Fact: When we say “tray of brownies,” we mean it. A while back, we served these to a friend. After taking a bite of his brownie he jumped into a full-fledged cooking intervention: “These are good, but I need to send you a real recipe.”
“Real recipe?” Andrea asked.
“I mean a recipe that doesn’t use a box.” Based on color, texture and taste he assumed that the brownies came from a Betty Crocker mix.
Drink Your Carbs Brownies:
Ingredients:
Method:
Grease a 9”x13” inch baking dish with coconut oil
- 1 (16 oz.) jar of creamy roasted almond butter.
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of maple syrup or honey (Clover honey yields the tastiest results, if you decide to go with honey.)
- 1 tbsp. of vanilla extract
- ½ cup of cacao powder
- ½ tsp. of sea salt
- 1 tsp. of baking soda
- 1 cup of dark chocolate chips (We use dairy-free, non-cane sweetened and the results are awesome.)
Method:
Grease a 9”x13” inch baking dish with coconut oil
- In a large bowl, blend almond butter with a hand blender until smooth. This is very important. Blending the almond butter to super smooth is key to getting the brownies to have the right texture.
- Blend in eggs and then add the maple syrup (or honey) and the vanilla. Beat again until smooth.
- Blend in cacao. Beat once more until smooth.
- Blend in salt and baking soda. Beat one last time, until all of the lumps are gone and the mixture is uniform.
- Stir in chocolate chips. It probably goes without saying, but don’t use the hand blender for this step as it will reduce the chips to rubble.
- Pour the batter into the baking dish.
- Bake at 300 degrees for 45-50 minutes. All ovens vary, so around minute 40, check the brownies by inserting a toothpick into the center; the brownies are done when the toothpick comes out clean. The edge will be quite crisp. This is a good thing.
- Allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting. If we can restrain ourselves, we make them the night before and leave them to cool overnight lightly covered with a towel. As strange as this sounds, they are better the second day.
- Add ½ cup of chopped walnuts or pecans.
- Skip the cacao powder and add ½ cup nuts and ½ cup raisins for an awesome Almond Butter Blondie.
Be Sure To Beat The Mixture To Smooth After Each Ingredient Is Added:
Finished Brownies:
Credit Where Credit Is Due: This recipe was adapted from Elana’s Pantry (www.elanaspantry.com) who adapted it from the Celiac Chicks. (www.celiacchicks.com) We definitely recommend both websites for anyone looking for grain-free recipes. One caveat: The Celiac Chicks website appears to be hosted on an old Speak & Spell. The site fails more often than it loads. Keep trying and you’ll eventually get in.
