Friday, June 20, 2008

Egg-Free Brownie Recipe & Possible Reason I'm a Math Major:)

Some may know that pre-marriage and kids, I did college and some seminary studies.... I knew I wanted kids, and had some desire to homeschool them, if possible, so having a degree in Math and Secondary Education made sense. Then I went to seminary, had babies and thought WHY in the WORLD do I have a MATH degree????

H ahaha... well baking with Anna today and changing recipes made me start to think.... maybe I got a Math degree to help me with baking for food allergy kids:) Not that it requires a math degree but I have to admit that I'm sure I would be having a lot of trouble if I wasn't good at math, especially fractions:)

Well for months now we've been enjoying some yummy egg-free, milk-free brownies.....which can not be accomplished with store bought brownie mix (I've tried many times). Friends have asked about the recipe so I'll just post it, with my changes (of course) and I'll link you to the normal recipe: HERE so you can make your own changes :)

So here is the recipe, with a few changes* :

Egg- Free Brownies

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
a little less than 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 to 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
optional 1/2 cup walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease 9 by 13 pan
2. In sauce pan combine the 1/3 cup flour and water. Cook over medium heat until tick then transfer to another bowl and let cool.
3. Put a stick of butter in microwave safe dish, melt it and then add the cocoa powder and mix until smooth.
4. When flour mixture cools, add sugar and vanilla. Then mix in the cocoa mixture until well blended.
5. Combine the rest of the flour and the whole wheat flour, the baking powder and the salt. Then add these dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until just blended. Finally fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips.
6. Bake for 20-25minutes. The clean toothpick trick works, as long as you don't stick it into a chocolate chip:) But nothing is raw, so under cooking isn't the end of the world. But over cooking, is!! Egg-free stuff dries out VERY quickly when over cooked- I've got plenty of experience:)
*Most of my changes were from following the advice of the other ladies who tried the recipe and offered suggestions:)

Anna helped with the butter and cocoa powder mixture... anyway, she melted the butter in the microwave and then started adding the cocoa powder. I think the color started to disturb her and she asked, "Mommy, why is this so brown?" And I answered back, "Sweetie, we're making Brownies." She just looked at me and smiled like, "oh, that's right"!

6 comments:

Stacey said...

Are your kids just lactose intolerant, or allergic to the protein in milk? Just asking because you still listed butter in your ingredients.

I've been trying to go dairy free, and let me tell you, it's HARD!! I found a great website though, which lists all the pseudo names for milk ingredients. It has helped me a lot, but also made me more frustrated at the lack of products available without milk ingredients.

http://www.godairyfree.org

In Everything said...

Ooppss!! My kids have milk allergies, so we are totally dairy free!!!

I use a dairy-free margarine, for everything. But I am soo used to just substituting it for butter than even my kids call it "butter"!! FYI.. I use Light Blue Bonnet, but there are a couple different brands that are dairy-free, Blue Bonnet is just one of the less expensive one:)

Milk Ingredients are in a LOT of foods... I've even heard of some in hot dogs and lunchmeat!!!

Stacey said...

I know, isn't it CRAZY!!! I have only found 2 brands of dairy-free margarine in Canada, and they are both just soft margarine in a tub. Do you have dairy-free hard margarine in the US?

I also don't eat a lot of soy, as it's a pretty bad allergen too, and I think I react to it too. I don't necessarily read labels for soy content, but I don't buy soy milk or ice cream. My husband works at a soybean processing plant, so there is no way I could avoid it all together. I wash his laundry after all, and he is sometimes COVERED in soy oil! After seeing it, it actually grosses me out a lot too.

I might just have to try that recipe :)

Mark and Rachel said...

Maybe I should have majored in math too :) Or home economics, more like it. Funny that I never even took a home ec course...probably b/c I didn't/don't care to be in the kitchen. Ah well, instead I get to do extra in the kitchen! At least I am not afraid to try new things any more :) So glad y'all have found a yummy recipe! I wonder if I could use vegetable oil instead of the butter? Just might have to try and adapt and find out!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you made egg-free brownies!!!!!! I'm guessing they came out delicious ah??? (based on the pictures hahaha).
Say hi to everybody for us, we love you

Wendy said...

I use the light blue bonnet as well in my cooking. I was worried about it holding up in recipes, but so far it does really well.