Cowgirl Brownies
Cowgirl chocolate has a bit of cayenne pepper in it! Yeehaw! Actually, ancient Mayans and Aztecs prepared a beverage with fermented, dried, and ground up cacao with chili and water. These brownies are like a fudgy cake, if that's possible, and they are gluten free! They are also almost vegan but I don't know what you can substitute for eggs. Maybe unsweetened applesauce? I modified this recipe from the book Sweet Laurel. I also add espresso salt on top but it's completely optional!
Ingredients
- 2½ cups Almond flour
- ⅓ cup Cocoa powder Dutch processed
- ¼ cup Sugar
- ¼ tsp Cayenne pepper heaping
- 1 tsp Instant espresso powder
- ½ tsp Sea salt
- ½ cup Semi-sweet chocolate chunks
- ½ cup Water
- ⅓ cup Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Eggs
- ¾ cup Maple Syrup can sub equal amount of brown sugar
- 2 oz Dark chocolate melted
For topping
- 5 oz Dark chocolate melted
- 1 tsp Espresso salt (optional) Equal parts instant coffee powder and flakey salt such as Maldon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C
- Grease an 8" x 8" pan and line it with parchment paper with an overhang. The overhang will allow you to pull the brownies out to frost them.
- In a large bowl combine almond flour, cocoa powder, sugar, cayenne pepper, espresso powder, sea salt, and chocolate chips.
- Add the olive oil, water, eggs, maple syrup, and melted chocolate. Combine well, ensuring there are no dried bits of powder.
- Pour brownie batter into the prepared pan and bake on the top rack of your oven for 40-45 minutes. It should be just past the "jiggly" phase.
- Allow brownies to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled, Lift the brownies out of the pan using the parchment paper and place on a cutting board. Cut into 16 equal squares, cleaning the knife between each cut.
- For topping, melt the dark chocolate in the microwave, about 1 minute. Place a Ziploc bag inside a cup and invert the top edge of the bag over the cup's rim. This allows you to pour melted chocolate into the bag easily. Scrape the melted chocolate into the Ziploc bag and seal. Snip a small part of the corner off, about 3 mm. Pipe chocolate on each brownie square in a fun pattern. I have done zig zags, hearts, Xs and Os. Then sprinkle with the espresso salt and serve.