I’ve wanted to attempt to make a paleo/gluten free brownie. I checked my cupboards and I had what I assumed was everything I needed for a brownie minus some chocolate/cocoa. I also had some beetroot and decided I would try and incorporate these into the recipe. After reading a bunch of recipes around the place I put together my recipe which was primarily based on this one.
After reading the recipes I realised I didn’t have an oven tin that would produce a brownie the right size and only really had a cake tin and decided I’ll use that as its better to have fat brownie right? It turns out that the recipe I concocted was more cake than brownie so this is my recipe for my beetroot brownie cake.
The recipe was more cake than brownie as it was a bit dryer than I had hoped and because of this I also ended up making some icing for the cake that is based on avocado. The icing is actually the filling for a chocolate tart recipe I’ve wanted to try from GI 365. Pecans are priced like gold in Australia so I haven’t attempted the full recipe yet.
Ingredients
Cake
- 200 grams of Organic chocolate 72% or higher cocoa content
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ⅓ cup raw honey
- 3 free range eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup blanched almond meal
- 1 Tablespoons coconut flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 400 grams of cooked beetroot (about 3 golf ball sized beetroot), puree
- 100 grams of crushed macadamia nuts
Icing
- 2 large avocados, room temperature
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- pinch of sea salt
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, room temperature
It’s now winter in Australia (well ‘cooler’) so my coconut oil has solidified. To get it back to liquid I just left the jar next to the pot while I melted the chocolate.
Directions for the cake
- Preheat the Oven to 180 degrees celsius, grease the cake tin with some coconut oil.
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (saucepan with some simmering water in it, bowl on top but not touching the water) add the honey and coconut oil. Once that’s all melted set it to the side. (see top photo).
- Whisk the eggs and vanilla extract in a bowl combine this with the chocolate mixture. I poured the egg mixture into the choc mixture and used a rubber spatular to combine.
- I cooked the beetroot in the microwave using a pyrex bowl, some clean film with a few holes, quartered and a about a cup of water. 12 minutes with a stir at 6 minutes did the trick nicely. Put them aside to cool. Puree the beetroot in a food processor or other kitchen cutting device.
- Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Mix the dry and wet ingredients, I poured the dry into the wet ingredients in stages. Add the crushed nuts. I added the pureed beetroot last.
- Cook in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.
- Once cooked leave it in the tin for about 45 minutes before removing it. I had a bit of separation issue which is why I ended up icing it. You could increase the eggs and remove the baking powder and the coconut flour to cut the dryness.
Directions for the Icing
- Put the avocado’s into the food processor
- Add the cocoa powder
- Add the maple syrup,
- Add the coconut oil
- Turn on maximum boost for about 2 minutes. Stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides.
- You should get a nice thick consistency,
- Ice the cake, sampling the delicious icing as you go. It tastes like pudding!
To get the icing to set correctly you have to leave it in the fridge for about 4-6 hours or overnight. You could eat it straight away also if you’d like, totally up to you. I found the time in the fridge gave it time for the entire thing to set properly.
