Gluten-free and Nut-free Flourless Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

Need to bake something that is gluten free and also nut free?

Knowing that most flourless gluten free recipes would contain nuts, I can't help scratching my head if I have to look for a recipe that is both gluten and nut free... Glad that I didn't have to do that and coincidentally I have found one! This recipe is not just a gluten-free and nut-free brownies recipe but in fact, an amazing one!!!

These flourless nut-free brownies are rich, fudgy and intensively packed with chocolate! Interestingly, they are made with no strange ingredients. Just gluten-free cornflour, butter and eggs can bind loads of these chocolate together.

Gluten-free and nut-free flourless chocolate brownies

Nothing strange or fanciful is used here!
This is the cornflour that I used to bake these flourless brownies. 

Mixing the batter is easy and not complicated.

All I have to do is to melt, mix and...

... beat until batter is smooth.

Important: Do not to over bake the brownies!!!

... otherwise they won't be moist and ...

... super fudgy like these!

I have made double amount of this recipe to yield 32 brownies and everyone that ate the brownies told me that they like it. Happy!

Here's the recipe that I have mostly adapted from Life Made Simple and David Lebovitz

Makes 16 brownies
90 unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
240g chocolate, roughly chopped with 70% cocoa
2 eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp (10g) cocoa powder, preferably Dutch processed cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona
30g corn flour, gluten free if required
1/4 tsp salt

Variations: You can add fruits, nuts, chocolate chips or chunks or a swirl of dulce de leche or peanut butter if you like. To minimize food allergy problems, I have baked mine to be very basic and simple! And, these are still good!!!

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C or 160°C fan forced. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 inch or 20x20 cm or 15x25 cm pan with baking paper. Set aside.

In a small saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar. Once the sugar is incorporated, add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla extract.

Using a sieve, sift cocoa powder, corn flour and salt into the saucepan. Stir to combine and transfer mixture into a larger mixing bowl (You don't want to damage your saucepan with your electric mixer). Using a hand held electric mixer, beat batter with medium speed for about 2-3 mins or until smooth and shiny.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 mins (I baked mine for 20 mins) or until the brownies are set in the center. taking care not to overbake. Remove from oven and let cool well enough in the pan (about 45 mins) before removing and slicing.

Happy Baking

This post is also linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Grace from Life can be simple at this post.

Our Little Thumbs Up event starts on the first Tuesday until the last day of the month. Please join us! To join, simply cook or bake any recipe with the theme of the month which is Chocolate for Feb 2015 and link with us at this post anytime until 28th Feb 2015.

What after Feb 2015? Faeez from Bitter Sweet Spicy will be the next hostess of Feb 2015 and her theme is BANANA! Her Little Thumbs Up event starts on the first Tuesday of Mar 2015 (3rd Mar 2015) until the last day of the month.

Don't forget your thumbs up or display this badge! And make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post preferably within this month. (2) Please mention Little Thumbs Up in your post and link back to Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY or/and Grace from Life can be simple. For more details, please see this.

Best Chinese Steamed Bun Recipe to make Wonderfully White and Soft Red Bean Steamed Buns / Dou Sha Bao 豆沙包

Remember that Google image search has convinced my husband to convince me to steam white fluffy red bean buns using the bao recipe from Happy Home Baking.

Thanks to Google image search, my husband (the Google King) and Happy Home Baking! It is true that this bao recipe from Happy Home Baking is really really really good! It is actually a basic bao recipe containing basic ingredients like bleached flour, water and minimal amount of baking powder, yeast and oil and yet it can produce wonderfully, white, soft and fluffy professional kind of steamed buns.

In short, I would highly recommend this recipe!!! I reckon this is one of the best steamed bun recipe that I have found!!! If you like to make your own steamed buns, you must try this recipe!!!

Red bean steamed Buns 豆沙包 made with my healthiest homemade red bean paste

To the health freak me, these steamed buns with healthiest kind of red bean filling is my kind of 豆沙包 but my son reckon that the red bean filling is not sweet or flowy enough for him... Whether you are using red bean filling that is sweet or flowy or not, I can't stop saying that this bao recipe is the kind of steamed buns that you won't want to miss!!!

These are bao making absolute essentials - Hong Kong flour and canola oil

This is the healthiest red bean paste that I have made at here.

Divide paste to 20g each and dough to 40g each

Wrap, shape and steam them...

15 minutes of steaming and the buns are ready!

I'm loving every single bit of our very-homemade red bean buns.

Here is the wonderfully white steamed buns recipe that is mostly adapted from Happy Home Baking which is quite similar to another great red bean steamed buns by Chin's Baking Diary

Intentionally, everything is 3 in the original recipe but I have scaled it up to use 500g of flour to use up the whole packet of Hong Kong flour and make extra buns. This recipe with 500g of flour yields 19-20 buns. 20 buns!!! That's heaps to feed a small family. Yes that I did this intentionally so that I can keep the extra in the freezer and steam them whenever I want just like what we always do with the commercial frozen kinds.

Makes 19-20 buns

500g Hong Kong flour (1 pack) or any low protein (7-9%) bleached flour 

1 1/4 tsp baking powder, preferably double acting baking powder
1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar
265ml (1 cup + 1 tbsp) water
25ml vegetable oil, preferably something light like canola oil

400g red bean paste

Place water, oil, sugar, flour, baking powder and yeast according to this order into a breadmaker and use "dough” setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr.

If breadmaker is not available, kneading by hand is possible. Combine flour, baking powder, yeast, sugar in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour mixture, add water and oil mix to form a dough. Transfer dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead to form an elastic and smooth dough (at least 20 mins) and then let it rise for 1 hr. Please note that HHB has mentioned 15 mins of proving is sufficient for her but I left my dough to rise for at least an hour.

When the dough is ready, divide into 12 portions. Flatten each dough pieces with your hands or roll it slightly with a rolling pin. Place about 20g of red bean paste. Wrap and seal the sides of the dough to completely enclose the filling. Place each bun on each paper cup liner or a small piece of baking paper with its seam sides down. Rest the bun in warm mist for 20 mins.

While waiting, if you are using the stove for steaming, set water to boil for the steaming later. Steam bun for about 12-20 mins until done. The steam timing varies if you have multiple layers of baos to steam. The layer that is closest to the direct steam will take 15 mins to cook. When ready remove the buns immediately from the steamer and serve warm.

Leftovers can be kept in fridge or freezer with cling wrap and cover. To freeze, allow buns to cool completely at room temperature. Wrap each bun in each small freezing bag and place them in the freezer. To consume, no thawing of frozen buns is required. Just re-steam the kept buns until hot before serve.

Happy Steaming

Before going, I like to emphasize again that I'm loving this steamed buns recipe!!! Here, I like to mention that this recipe works well to make Liu Sha Bao too. See this if you wish to know how to make Liu Sha Bao filling.

If you are using this steamed bun recipe to make Liu Sha Bao, please DO NOT steam your buns for more than 14 minutes!!! Otherwise, the custard filling will explode out of the bao.

Liu Sha Bao made with this steamed bun recipe - Yum!!!

Although these steamed buns are not exactly a Chinese New Year delicacy, we are enjoying these buns to its fullest on Chinese New Year too.

For this lame reason - LOL!, I'm linking this post to Cook and Celebrate: CNY 2015 organised by Yen from Eat your heart out, Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe and me from Bake for Happy Kids.

Please link your post with us if you are also cooking or baking something special for your Chinese New Year celebration for the whole of February 2015.

To use this linky tool, please make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post. (2) Please mention Cook and Celebrate: CNY 2015 in your post and link back to us, Yen from Eat your heart out, Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids.

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking / baking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their delicious and auspicious food.

An InLinkz Link-up