Egg-Free Brownies

While my boys were vacationing in Lake Tahoe with my parents, my ten year-old's first pet, a cute Crested Gecko, died on my watch. :( I'm not sure what happened, but my best guess is that it got too warm upstairs and with the additional heat from the warming lamp, the poor little guy overheated. So. Sad. My boys were devastated and a lot of tears were shed when I told them last night.

Luckily, I had already arranged a play-day/sleep-over for my ten year-old so he's been in good company and his buddy has kept his mind off his gecko. Unfortunately, my eight year-old is missing his brother's pet so I needed to cheer him up. Chocolate always works for me so I figured it would work for him, too. It worked! A big piece of brownie brightened my son's day.  :)

I've baked egg-free brownies a few times and haven't had much luck. They were too "cakey," too flat, hard and asphalt-like, didn't have the right flavor, or lacked the right brownie-like consistency. I finally found a decent recipe and modified it quite a bit to have less sugar and butter. Mine was a pretty good version if I say so myself and my allergy-boy definitely approves. This recipe's a keeper!

All this needed was a big scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Egg-Free Brownies


Yield:  8"x8" 


Ingredients:

• 1/4 c butter (1/2 stick)- softened
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 3/4 c cocoa powder
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 Tbs corn starch
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c "buttermilk" (1 c milk + 1 Tbs apple cider vinegar: mix together and let sit for 3-5 mins.)
• 1/2 c chocolate chips
• optional: powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease 8"x8" brownie dish.
3. Place softened butter in mixing bowl and add flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and corn starch. Mix well.
4. Add vanilla and "buttermilk." Mix until combined well but do not over-mix.
5. Fold in chocolate chips last.
6. Spread mixture evenly into baking dish.
7. Bake for 30-35 mins.
8. Optional: dust with powdered sugar 

Source: Adapted from allrecipes.com.