Sugar Free Recipes - Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies
Sugar free no longer needs to mean taste free as Caroline Noonan demonstrates with her mouth watering recipes for sugar-free treats. Thank you Caroline!
Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies
Ingredients
- 100g (4oz) good quality sugar free dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids) for melting plus 50g (2oz) finely chopped into chips (Try Plamil sugar free chocolate which you can buy in most health shops)
- 150g (5 ½ oz) coconut oil, butter or dairy-free margarine suitable for baking, at room temperature
- 100g (4 oz) xylitol
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 4 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic, beaten
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (not artificial vanilla flavouring)
- 150g (5 ½ oz) ground almonds
- 2 tsp baking powder (gluten-free if necessary) 25g (1 oz) cocoa powder
- 200g (7oz) hazelnuts, chopped
Directions
- Cream the oil, butter or margarine and xylitol until soft and fluffy, then either blend in the rest of the ingredients in a food processor or, to do it by hand: beat in the chocolate, bananas, beaten eggs and vanilla extract then stir in the chocolate chips, ground almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder and chopped hazelnuts.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F or gas mark 4).
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for around 20 minutes or until the mixture no longer wobbles when shaken and the top is just firm to the touch. You don’t want to cook it for too long or the brownies will lose their squidgy quality
- Leave to cool then cut into slices for serving.
Comments
Like all good brownies, these are soft and gooey. The recipe uses ground almonds instead of flour to make it gluten-free and bananas for natural sweetness and moisture to help cut down on the amount of fat and added sugar required. It is also rich in protein from the nuts and eggs, which help slow down the release of sugar from the chocolate, as well as being good sources of B vitamins that will help put you in a good mood - as if you need extra help with brownies at hand!
Cook’s Notes
Gluten-free if you use gluten-free baking powder, wheat-free, dairy-free if you use coconut oil or dairy-free margarine, yeast-free • V • Suitable for freezing • Can be made in advance.
Easiest Ever Flapjacks
This must be the only flapjack recipe to avoid the usual syrup or honey binders, but which is still finger—lickingly gooey and holds together. This is a great snack for you to use at work.The nuts provide protein to lower the GL of the flapjack, as well as minerals and essential fats. You can also add 1—2 teaspoons or so of ground ginger, to taste.
Ingredients
- 150g (/oz) slightly salted butter or coconut oil (this makes it dairy—free but the flavour is not as good), at room temperature or just above
- 150g (5½oz) xylitol
- 150g (5½oz) roughly chopped nuts, such as a mixture of almonds and hazelnuts, or pecan nuts and brazil nuts (or use seeds or replace with oats in cases of nut allergies)
- 150g (5½oz) whole rolled oats
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 18o°C135o°FIGas . Line a baking tin,
- about 20 x 30Cm (8 x 121n) with baking parchment.
- Beat the butter or coconut oil with the xytitol until it is
- Creamy, then stir in the nuts and oats.
- Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 20—25 minutes, or until golden brown (they still won’t set until they cool down). Slice into fingers, and allow to cool and harden in the tin set on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container. These can also be frozen — defrost individual flapjacks as and when you need them.
Apple & Oatie Crumble
Ingredients
- 8 eating apples
- Splash of lemon juice or cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons coconut butter (melted) (optional)
- 1 ½ tablespoons of dried ginger, or freshly grated frozen ginger
- 1 ½ tablespoons dried cinnamon
Topping
- 1 ½ mugs jumbo organic oat flakes
- 1 mug mixed seeds
- 4 tablespoons coconut butter (softened)
- 4 - 5 tablespoons agave / honey / apple juice
- Generous pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes
- Cold pressed sesame oil (optional see below)
Method
- Chop up apples to bite size pieces, binning the core. Don’t remove the skins as these soften and add terrific texture.
- In a saucepan of 1-inch boiling water, add ginger, cinnamon, lemon juice and apples. Cover and cook until semi squishy (anything between 8 and 20 minutes). Remember not to turn into mush, as it will have additional cooking time in the oven later.
- While your apples cook, mix/blend oats with the melted coconut butter (which is solid like butter at room temperature) and agave until it clumps together.
- Add the blended oats to the seeds (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, linseed) and mix well with a fork. A good sprinkle of crystal salt flakes brings out the sweetness in the oats. Maldon sea salt are chef’s favourites. Taste. Adjust sweetness with apple juice / agave / honey or whatever you are using. Sesame seed oil is also a fabulously nutty addition.
- Pour the stewed apple into an oiled dish, top with oatie crumble and press down.
Cook at 170 degrees (conventional oven, see chart below) for 30 mins, making sure the top does not brown and turn bitter
- Allow to cool if you can overcome the temptation to dive straight in. The crumble solidifies when cool.
Apple crumble
Ingredients
- 4 eating apples
- 2 tbsp water
- 1/6 cup of brown rice flour
- 1/3 cup desiccated coconut
- 2 tsp sunflower oil
- 2 tsp sunflower seeds
- 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
- 2/3 cups of ground almonds
- 1 cup of millet flakes
- 2 tsp xylitol
Method
- Peel and core the apples and finely slice into an ovenproof dish.
- Pour the water over the apples.
- To make the crumble, place the millet flakes, rice flour, ground almonds, coconut and cinnamon into a bowl and rub in the oil by hand.
- Spread the crumble over the fruit and sprinkle the sunflower seeds on top.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 200c until the topping is brown and the apples are tender.
