Sweetheart Buckwheat Brownie Recipe

Sweetheart buckwheat brownie recipe

I came up with this brownie recipe for my hubby on Valentine’s day. I was looking for something to balance out all that sweetness, so I threw in some wholesome goodness using buckwheat flour. I recently bought some buckwheat flour and brown rice flour and have been wanting to use both in some sort of baked goods recipe. Buckwheat is not a whole grain, it is considered a fruit that has an earthy nutty taste, and after being ground up into a flour is usually found in a form of a pancake, or a crepe.

I first encountered buckwheat as a young child from my Grandmother who LOVES buckwheat pancakes. I personally never thought of incorporating buckwheat into my day-to-day cooking and baking until I decided to switch to using natural whole food ingredients for all of my recipes.  I knew I wanted chocolate to be the dominating flavor in this recipe, and this is where these rich brownies were conceived. The buckwheat flour is subtle, giving these brownies some tender heartiness. I then used some other unusual ingredients, brown rice flour, brown rice syrup, and clarified butter.  By incorporating all of these ingredients I realized more than ever, that natural whole food ingredients, when made right, can be amazingly delicious.

Back to the brownies, these are ultra rich, chewy, and decadent to the nth degree, but in a sort of semi-healthy way of course. I also wanted to make these brownies Valentines-ish, so once the brownies cooled, I cut them with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, perfect for the occasion! Not only did these brownies look the part, but they also tasted the part with the hint of dried tart cherries, walnuts, and chunks of dark chocolate. All around goodness you can write home about.

Sweetheart buckwheat brownie recipe

Sweetheart buckwheat brownie recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup clarified butter, melted
• 1/2 cup turbinado cane sugar
• 1/3 cup brown rice syrup
• 1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup part buckwheat flour part brown rice flour (more or buckwheat, 70/30 ratio)
• 3/4 cup good quality cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped dried tart cherries
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• Coconut oil (For greasing your pan)

• ****Optional – you can make this vegan or gluten-free if you like. For vegan eaters just replace the egg with 1/4 cup apple sauce and buy a vegan friendly dark chocolate. For gluten-free eaters, buckwheat is almost gluten-free, but if this does not work for you, then you can replace the buckwheat flour for millet flour, or almond flour combined with your gluten-free brown rice flour. I feel it is always best to mix your flours when you’re not going with traditional wheat flours in baking.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix melted butter, sugar, brown rice syrup, vanilla extract, and egg together on a low speed for one minute
3. Sift together in a separate bowl your cocoa, both flours, salt, and baking powder
4. Slowly mix in dry mixture into your wet mixture, continue mixing until thoroughly blended (about 1 1/2 minutes)
5. Mix in walnuts, chocolate, and cherries
6. Grease your baking pan with coconut oil and pour batter in evenly spreading out with a rubber spatula
7. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes depending on pan size

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