Blog beginnings and brownies

Blog beginnings 

At last I have nervously entered the world of blogging.  I hope you will bear with me as I get to grips with the basics and find my feet.  My aim is to share recipes and cooking ideas with other coeliacs and diabetics and anyone else interested in following a lower sugar, gluten free diet.  Of course if you are diabetic but not coeliac you can adapt the recipes accordingly by using non gluten free ingredients and likewise if you are a coeliac with a sweet tooth you may wish to add a little more sugar to my recipes.

Please bear in mind that I am not a qualified nutritionist, just a Mum sharing what works for us.  I try to use ingredients that are easily obtained.  For each recipe I will do a rough, non-scientific, calculation of carbohydrates per portion but this will vary with the ingredients you use e.g. brand of flour or chocolate.
 

Sweet Potato Brownies

Where better to begin my blog than with a Chocolate Brownie recipe?  Brownies are often offered as the gluten-free option in cafes but are also usually laden with sugar.  I wanted to find a lower sugar version which would not lead to a high blood sugar spike, and also tasted good.  I have adapted a recipe from Phil Vickery's "Gluten free cooking for kids".  I have been experimenting using the "Truvia" sweetener made from the Stevia plant.  It is now widely available, though expensive, but a little goes a long way.  The resulting brownies were moist, sweet enough and according to my daughter very tasty.  I hope you agree.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes 
• 150g gluten free dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 100ml olive oil or rapeseed oil (I used the latter)
• 75g gluten free self-raising flour (I used Doves Farm)
• 50g ground almonds
• 1 tsp gluten free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 150g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
• 2 medium eggs
• 33g Truvia sweetener

1. Preheat oven to 190C/ Gas 5
2. Bake sweet potatoes in skins for around 45mins or until soft.  Slice in half and scoop out flesh into a mixing bowl.  You will need around 250g.
3. Increase oven temperature to 200C / Gas 6.  Grease and line a 20cm square tray with baking parchment.
4. Place chocolate and oil in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water) and stir until the chocolate melts.
5. Sift together the gluten free flour, baking powder and xantham gum into another bowl and stir in the chopped pecan nuts.
6. Beat warm chocolate and oil into warm potato, then add eggs and sweetener.  Finally add flour and nut mixture and stir well.
7. Pour into tin, bake for 30mins or until set and cooked.
8. Cool slightly and cut into squares (I cut mine into 16 squares which seemed about the right size).

The brownies kept well in an airtight tin and I froze some which also worked. I estimated that the carbohydrates per square were 12-13grams.