From The Happy Kitchen by Rachel Kelly and Alice Mackintosh
Ingredients
Makes about 15 squares
- 10 Brazil nuts
- 125g dark chocolate (ideally 100% cocoa, or use 85%)
- 100ml almond milk
- 150g coconut oil, plus extra for greasing the tin
- 250ml maple syrup
- Seeds from vanilla pod or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 50g raw cacao powder, sieved
- 3 eggs
- 130g spelt flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190C. Grease a 30cm x 20cm brownie tin and line it with baking parchment. Leave the paper sticking up at the sides to make it easier to lift the brownies out when they are cooked.
- Roast the Brazil nuts in the oven for 15 minutes, turning them once halfway through. They should be slightly browned. Leave them to cool, and then chop them up coarsely.
- Put the chocolate, almond milk, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla seeds or extract in a saucepan over a very gentle heat, stirring regularly, until everything has melted and you have a rich, glossy-looking batter.
- Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the cacao powder.
- Allow the mixture to cool for 10-15 minutes, and then beat in the eggs. Add the flour,baking powder and chopped Brazil nuts.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake it in the oven for about 12 minutes. Insert a cocktail stick and it should come out with a little chocolate residue. If you like your brownies less gooey, put the tin back in the oven for a further 3-5 minutes but take it out before the top starts to crack, otherwise the consistency will be more like cake.
- Remove the tin from the oven and use the baking paper to help you slide the whole brownie on to a cooling rack. Cut it into squares once it has cooled completely.
Though they are still a treat, you have more control over the ingredients as you are making them yourself. Spelt flour is wholegrain, meaning that it won’t lead to a sugar spike as white flour does, and Brazil nuts contain selenium which plays an important role in the immune system. Cacao is a rich source of magnesium and antioxidants.
Copyright Rachel Kelly 2016 | Photo credits: Laura Edwards