Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies (gluten free, vegan, low sugar)

Every Friday night my family enjoys what we call "treat night".  

We eat our dinner in front of the tv (horrific I know), and enjoy the treats we have been longing for ALL week!  

As you may or may not know, it is Lent for some of us - which means abstaining from certain chosen things for a period of 40 days before Easter.  Some people choose to abstain from things like Facebook, or television, and chocolate seems to be popular.  

Our family enjoys choosing extreme challenges during Lent - like the three years we cut our grocery allowance to $2.00/day per person.  

Well, Friday night treat night is not exempt from Lent.  I was worried the kids would be sad and not have motivation to achieve the goals I've set for them to be able to participate in treat night, but after our first successful week with these cookies I KNOW they are motivated to make it to next Friday. 

They know the leftovers are in the freezer and are counting down the days

until Friday.  

Who could blame them?

Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 6 tablespoons water

1/2 cup virgin coconut oil (do not melt)

1/2 cup almond butter (natural)

1/3 cup unpacked brown sugar

1/3 cup natural cane sugar

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a small dish mix together the flax and water and set aside for a few minutes so it can thicken up. Whisk the flax again once thickened.

In a large mixing bowl (preferably stand mixer) cream your coconut oil until light and fluffy. Continue to add the wet ingredients - sugars, applesauce, vanilla and flax mixture. 

Baking with my little "helpers".  Matilda turned the mixer on high after adding the oat flour and we had an explosion of flour in the kitchen.  Fun times.  

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 cups gluten-free rolled oats, processed into flour (just pulse in your blender for flour)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (dairy free)

Add dry ingredients one at a time.  If your dough is a bit dry, add a little more applesauce. The dough should be moist enough to form balls without cracking, but not super sticky.  Lastly, add the chocolate chips.  

I used my ice cream scoop to measure out my cookies (I use it for everything, I wish I had all the sizes).  I filled it half way each time and that gave me roughly 2tbsp sized balls.  Place on the cookie sheet 2-3 inches apart and press down just a bit so it's more of a disc and not a ball.  Bake for 12 minutes.  

Makes roughly 2 dozen large cookies.  It's hard to say - my little helpers ate a LOT of the dough before I had a chance to put it in the oven.  

No raw eggs = cookie dough pig out.  

These are excellent when slightly warm or when completely cooled.  They are not fragile or difficult to handle like some gluten free cookies, so feel free to handle them like a "normal" cookie.  

Happy Baking!

*This is an adaptation of a DELICIOUS cookie from Oh She Glows.  The original recipe uses more sugar than I'd like, so I doubled the batch and kept the sugar the same adding applesauce to sweeten and moisten.  If you'd like to give the original a try, visit her site and try the other recipes she has - it's a new favourite of mine!*  http://ohsheglows.com/2014/02/27/one-bowl-double-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

Cheesecake Brownie Bars

I've tried several of these recipes - where you mix brownie and cheesecake together and bake them magically into a bar that is both chocolatey and creamy.  They've never turned out.

I'm not a professional baker, but I bake a lot so when a recipe doesn't work, I automatically assume it wasn't my fault (insert laughter here).  

Whether or not it was my fault, I've FINALLY come up an excellent recipe that even I, the lowly home baker, can manage to pull off. 

Preheat oven to 350

Brownie Batter

3/4 cup butter

1/4 cup semi-sweet or bitter chocolate chips

Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan on low heat.  If you don't trust yourself not to burn the chocolate, use a double boiler.  

Add:

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs (be sure the mixture is cool enough not to make scrambled eggs)

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup 0% greek yogurt, or sour cream

Mix well

Add:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup dutch process cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

I like making as few dishes as possible.  When adding dry ingredients to wet, I simply add the flour first and then add the baking soda, baking powder or salt on top - and mix it a little before incorporating it fully into the batter.  It always works for me, so take that Martha Stewart.  Full disclosure, I love Martha Stewart. 

Cream Cheese Batter

8 oz cream cheese (one brick), softened

4 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Be sure your cream cheese is really soft before beginning.  If you forgot to take it out in enough time, just cut into cubes and pop in the preheated oven for five minutes or so.  Be sure to use an oven safe bowl.  Once it's out, use an oven mitt to hold the bowl and mash with a fork until creamy and smooth.  

Once cream cheese is soft and creamy - add sugar, egg and vanilla.

Line a 9X9 or 7X11 baking dish with parchment paper, or grease well with butter.  Add blobs of brownie mixture and do not spread.  Fill the remaining spaces with your cream cheese mixture.  If your brownie blobs run into each other - don't sweat it, it will still be delicious - just less swirly looking.  Use a butter knife to cut the brownie and cheesecake batters together, creating a swirl effect.  You want your bars to have even amounts of cream cheese and brownie so keep that in mind while swirling. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes, let cool for at least an hour and ENJOY!  The leftovers should be refrigerated…. if you have leftovers.  

The next time I make this, I will prepare ahead of time and purchase a tray of raspberries to make a raspberry compote to accompany.  Raspberry compote is delicious on ice cream, lemon sorbet, lemon cheesecake, well… any cheesecake, and lots of other things.  It's an easy way to add pizazz to a recipe without a lot of work.  If you have raspberries, give it a try:

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil.  Add 1 cup of sugar, and a pint of raspberries.  Boil for 20-25 minutes on medium high heat until it reaches desired consistency.  

Happy Baking!

Rosie's Haystack Brownies

Originally posted to the Lent Experiment 12/19/10

Sometimes I go out and eat something yummy - want to replicate it at home and can't find a recipe!  I came up with this recipe all by my lonesome and I have to say, it's everything a sugar addict could hope for.

Begin with the brownie base:

• 1 cup melted butter
• 2 cups organic white sugar
• 1 tsp pure organic vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup organic cocoa
• 2 cups organic all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar. This works well with a mixer, but you can do it by hand.
3. After the creaming stage, do switch to a spoon for mixing. Brownies tend to get tough if worked too much.
4. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix just until smooth.
5. Pour in cocoa and flour. Again, mix until smooth and lumps are broken up. But, don't go to wild on the mixing.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in 11 X 7 pan lined with parchment paper. You are taking these out of the oven 10 minutes premature and they will not be fully baked.

Prepare the macaroons while the brownies are baking....

• 4 ounces (115 grams) semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (chocolate chips work)
• 3 large (90 grams) egg whites
• 1/4 cup (25 grams) organic cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) organic white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure organic vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups (220 grams) sweetened flaked coconut

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Stir in the coconut and melted chocolate, making sure the coconut is well coated.
3. Carefully spread macaroon mixture over the brownies being careful not to lift the brownie and mix it with the macaroon. Place in the 350 oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY before cutting. It will be hard to resist, but if you try to cut them too soon the macaroons will be sloppy. Let it set!
4. That's it. These are absolutely decadent and delightful! Enjoy!

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