Indulgent gluten free brownies made with plump Medjool dates, rich brown sugar and covered in a purely decadent toffee sauce!

Yield: 2 dozen brownies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min

Gluten Free Sticky Toffee Pudding Brownies with Toffee Sauce

The same way that gluten helps to build up the elasticity of bread dough, it plays a part in making baked goods thick and gooey. Especially brownies. Not being able to replicate that classic texture of the perfect squidgy American brownie was one of the things I was most afraid of when giving in to my Coeliac Disease diagnosis. But with a bit of smart cooking and combining the right flours, that same texture is achievable.

These brownies are close to my heart for two reasons. When I wrote this recipe, I was still in mourning over the lack of gluten in my life. This weekend, I was in Paris for +Gourmandize UK & Ireland 's #ParisFoodTrip--you remember, that competition that I won? One of the things participants were asked to do was to design a recipe of classic food to their native countries. On Saturday, we all cooked the dishes we'd  designed and had a big pot luck lunch. It was lovely and a great way to taste cuisine from across Europe. Since I consider myself to have two native countries (US by citizenry and UK by choice), I wanted to make a dish that combined both of these.

Everybody loves a good, gooey American brownie. In the UK, everybody loves a good, gooey sticky toffee pudding. It's one of those classic pud desserts that just screams comfort food. Before Coeliac, I couldn't walk out of a restaurant without sampling their sticky toffee pudding. It is by far my favorite UK dessert. Combining the two just seemed like a no-brainer.

What I love most about these brownies is how indulgent and decadent they are. There's no toffee sauce in the actual brownie but it still tastes like there is. That's down to the muscavado sugar used when making the cake. Muscavado sugar (also known as molasses sugar) is a brown sugar with a very strong molasses flavor. As it cooks, it tends to mellow and deepen leaving you with a delicious toffee taste where there's no toffee present. It's genius.

Every good sticky toffee pudding is inverted and doused in lashings of toffee sauce. That's an important part of the dish and it's an important part of this recipe. Once the brownies have cooled slightly but are still warm, pour over the toffee sauce and go grab a spoon!

Ingredients:

For the brownies
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup corn flour/cornstarch
1 cup rice flour
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups muscavado sugar
4 medium eggs
180 grams Medjool dates, pitted
225 grams butter, unsalted

For the sauce
85 grams sugar
250mls double cream
splash water

 

Instructions:

Gluten Free Sticky Toffee Pudding Brownies with Toffee Sauce

1. Preheat your oven to 200c/400f.
2. Chop the dates into a fine dice using a knife or a food processor.
3. Sift both flours into a bowl with the cocoa powder, salt and xanthan gum. Add the dates.
4. Cream together the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer until  smooth.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix to fully incorporate.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold in so that there are no streaks of flour.
7. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted, comes out clean.
8. Make the toffee sauce while the brownies bake.
9. Place the sugar into a sauce pan with a splash of water. Heat until a caramel forms. Do not stir the sugar, just let it form a caramel on its own.
10. Remove the caramel from the heat once it has a nice, even brown color. Add a bit of the cream. Be careful as the cream and the caramel will bubble up. 
11. Whisk to combine and add a bit more cream.
12. Place the caramel back over a low heat and whisk to incorporate. Add as little or as much of the cream as you'd like depending on the consistency you want. Add more cream to make the sauce more pourable.
13. Set aside once you have reached the desired consistency and allow to cool.
14. Serve the toffee sauce poured over each brownie.