A VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE BROWNIE BAKING FIASCO

A VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE BROWNIE BAKING FIASCO

For my first vegan-gluten-free baking adventure, I decided to take on brownies. And not just any brownies, but brownies that claimed to not only be gooey and delicious but also packed with nutrients. This proved to be a big mistake.

I regret this first attempt for a couple reasons. Most notably, because the recipe I chose was one for a more advanced baker, and I was in over my head. But also because these were the most expensive gosh-darn brownies I’ve ever made—the obscure flour I had to used cost me $15 alone. I also had to visit three different grocery stores to find everything I needed, the last being Wegmans about a 30-minute drive from my home (and actually where I should have just bought everything to begin with to save the hassle).

I also altered the recipe, because I realized that I didn’t have the right size baking pan (said to use 8 x 8 inch pan; I only had an 8 x 13), so I might have screwed everything up right then and there. I also don’t own a full-sized food processor, which the recipe said to use to combine all of the moist ingredients (dates, banana, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and applesauce), so I just used my mini food processor to do the dates and banana then mixed everything else together by hand, before adding the dry ingredients (teff flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).

So anyhow, the brownies ended up tasting like chocolaty-banana-ish mush. Not satisfying whatsoever. I had originally intended to bring them into the office and have my colleagues give feedback, but was too embarrassed. They are sitting in my kitchen feeling neglected, destined to go out with the trash tonight.

To be fair, I must stress that I can’t really blame the recipe I used for my disappointing brownies. I even hesitate from telling you what cookbook I used because I’ve eaten many things from it and can attest that when made by someone who actually knows what they are doing, the food is quite good.

But I also believe in transparency and don’t want to keep secrets from my dear readers, so apologies Terry Walters, I promise to make something really good from one of your gorgeous and well-done cookbooks, Clean Start or Clean Food, in the future.

(Pssst, Mom…Some good Christmas gift ideas for me would include some baking pans and a food processor. Just sayin’…)

Best,

Caroline

@carolinebrown