Gluten intolerant? Here, have a brownie!

That could very well be a cruel statement... teasing somebody who has a gluten intolerance with a nice big hunk of warm chocolaty brownie... that's just mean, UNLESS... the brownie happens to be gluten free!! That's right, I took the plunge into making a dietary-friendly brownie for a co-worker who cannot eat flour or, if she does, I assume she suffers quite a lot!

K2 and I have been fairly "fortunate" (and there are quotations, because it's not really the right term, but it's what my brain came up with this morning) in not having had any events where there are a lot of dietary restrictions. In fact, the only one I can recall is having a guest who could not eat anything raw that was in the onion family. Easy enough to get around, just cook them. When I think about it, I don't think we've ever done an event where we HAD to provide even vegetarian alternatives, although we always do! I assume as the business builds, we will come across these challenges more frequently. Personally, I look forward to it... I think it's fun coming up with alternate food that under 'normal' (there are those pesky quotation marks again... oh, and parenthesis... that's a different topic all together) circumstances may not come up in the menu planning stage.

For this reason, I took on the quest to find a gluten-free brownie that would not only satisfy somebody who did not eat flour, but also those who more accustomed to eating a flour-packed goodie. I came across a recipe for Black Bean Brownies. I have not yet tweaked the recipe, because I wanted to get a sense of what it would be like as written. They aren't bad at all! I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. All the ingredients go into a blender, then come out of the blender looking like runny pudding, go into the oven, and *POOF* come out looking like brownies. They are moist, and fudgy-like, not very cake-like, but very good nonetheless. I plan on tweaking a little bit, maybe trying for more of a cake-like consistency, and playing around with flavors.

I do not currently have pictures of these little fudgy gems (that's right, fudgy gems), but hopefully when I get back to the pan of brownies tonight, I will remember to snap a couple of shots.

That's all for now ...

-Wendi-