Gluten Free Parve Brownies: an easy and delicious recipe!

Last night, I decided to try baking gluten free brownies from scratch for the first time. I've been rather (excessively) timid about baking without a mix since cutting wheat and gluten out of my diet two years ago. It always seemed to require so many ingredients and lots of (potentially wasteful and expensive) trial and error. Passover recipes, however, tend to require relatively few ingredients and so I adapted a Kosher for Pesach recipe from a wonderful book, Crafting Jewish: Fun Holiday Craft and Party Ideas for the Whole Family, by Rivky Koenig. This is, by the way, a great book with ample recipes, lovely crafts and art projects as well as ideas for entertaining. If it is not available at your local bookstore or to borrow from your library, it can be purchased directly from ArtScroll.com or from Amazon.com.

I should mention, I love brownies. A famous family recipe for this delicious classic treat was one of the first things I ever learned to bake as a child. I even won a first place prize after entering that recipe into our county fair in upstate New York. Occasionally, I've bought gluten-free brownie mixes to bake, but they just weren't the same. I have now fallen in love with brownies all over again, and for those who are gluten intolerant or just brownie lovers like me, this recipe turned out too fabulously not to share!

 Gluten Free Parve (non-dairy) Brownies

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs 
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup potato starch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup parve semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional) You could alternatively use nuts if you happen to like those in your brownies, or, if you are making them dairy, you could use a different type or flavor of chocolate chip. I used to love making mint chocolate chip brownies and may try this in the future.

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a 9x13inch baking pan with cooking spray, coating the sides and bottom. I actually used a slightly smaller rectangular glass baking dish.
2. Crack eggs individually into a small bowl, checking for blood spots if you keep a kosher kitchen. After ensuring they are good, place the eggs into a large mixing bowl. The recipe I adapted this from calls for an electric mixer, but I had success without one. Beat the eggs with a whisk until they are light and foamy. Add sugar and oil; mix until well combined.
3. Add the cocoa, potato starch, baking powder and vanilla. Mix (slowly at first since the cocoa and potato starch will splatter!) until combined, but do not over-mix.
4. Fold in your chocolate chips (or nuts, mint chips, etc.).
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Place in hot oven for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of your brownies comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven and place on wire rack to cool. The brownies cut well while still warm, and a small trick my mother taught me as a girl was to use a pizza wheel to cut even and straight lines. 

Anyone have some non-dairy ice cream?? These are incredible and the closest to my family recipe I've ever come. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go sneak a good workout in at my gym before Shabbat comes!