Gluten free Chocolate Orange Brownies Recipe
This gluten free brownie recipe features in our book ‘Honeybuns Gluten free Baking‘ and is an adapted version of our best selling chocolate Heathcliff Brownie, If your pushed for time, why not buy them from our Honeybuns online shop.
Like the romantic hero of Wuthering Heights’, this gluten free chocolate brownie is dark and brooding. They’re flavoured with orange and just sweet enough, with lots of body and bite. Delicious served slightly chilled and cut into thin slices, but equally good warmed through and served with clotted cream and/or ice cream, they are the ultimate in sinful puddings.
makes:?1 x 30 x 23 cm/
12 x 9 in cake
health: gluten-free
cook: 25-28 minutes
store: 10 days in airtight tin. Freezes well
compost: eggshells
175 g/6 oz/¾ cup butter, plus extra, melted, for brushing
400 g/14 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp espresso coffee powder or granules, dissolved in 1-2 tsp hot water
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 tsp orange oil
4 eggs
100 g/3½ oz/1 cup ground almonds
125 g/4½ oz milk chocolate, chopped
150 g/5½ oz/¾ cup muscovado sugar
85 g/3 oz/generous ½ cup almonds, toasted and chopped
pinch of salt
2 drops of vanilla extract
TOPPING
250 g/9 oz dark chocolate, cut into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp orange oil
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Cut a rectangle of baking parchment to line the bottom of a 30 x 23 x 4 cm/12 x 9 x 1½ in baking tin. Pop the parchment into the tin and brush it and the tin with melted butter.
Melt the butter with 200 g/7 oz of the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, stirring until smooth (or in a microwave). Stir in the coffee. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then stir in the orange zest and orange oil.
Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, then add the ground almonds, milk chocolate chunks and the remaining 200 g/7 oz of dark chocolate, the sugar, chopped almonds, salt and vanilla. Finally, pour in the melted butter-and-chocolate mixture. Using an electric mixer, beat at medium speed until creamy and thickened, but don’t overmix as too much air will cause the brownie to crumble when baked.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 25-28 minutes. Take care not to overbake. The brownie is ready when the edges are slightly crusty and the middle is still soft, but with a firmish skin’. Allow to cool for 1 hour.
For the topping, melt 150 g/5½ oz of the chocolate with the olive oil and orange oil in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, stirring until smooth (or in a microwave). Spread this over the brownie. Scatter the remaining 100 g/3½ oz of chocolate over the top and leave to set for 2 hours. Cut into pieces.
Great for kids
Use 100 g/3½ oz dark chocolate buttons for decorating, instead of rough chunks.
This gluten free recipe is from the Honeybun’s Gluten-Free Baking Book by Emma Goss-Custard, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography Cristian Barnett.
