Almost Gwyneth's Fudgy Brownies

My less-healthy version called almost Gwyneth Paltrow's fudgy brownies. Still made with spelt, they are chewy and chocolatey and delicious!

I was sitting around the house this past Monday (actually on my laptop making comments on many of the movie-inspired #SundaySupper posts  – so many fabulous ones!) and suddenly, on Facebook (yeah, okay, you got me, also reading Facebook) a link popped up for these brownies.  It was posted by a friend who is trying to eat more healthily (Hi, Claire!) and she said that, for healthy brownies, they were pretty good.  More cake than brownie but good.  Well, I just happened to have some spelt flour I bought on a whim a few weeks ago, (I was under the mistaken impression that it was gluten free.  It’s not!) so I decided to give them a try.  Of course, as these things usually go, I didn’t have maple syrup or agave nectar or soy milk.  So substitutions were made.

If you’d like to make Gwyneth’s actual recipe, here’s the link with metric measurements and imperial measurements, but I can tell you that, after comparing results with my friend, my brownies were chewier and more brownie than cake.  Not as healthy perhaps, since they have sugar.  But hey.

And while, I’m but hey-ing, what’s with all the hating on Gwyneth?   I think folks are just jealous.  Are you a Gwyneth fan?

Ingredients
2 cups or 200g spelt flour
1 cup or 80g cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark.)
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
Healthy pinch fine salt
1/2 cup or 125ml canola or other light oil
1 cup or 250ml honey
1/2 cup or 100g light brown sugar
1/2 cup or 125ml strong brewed coffee, cooled
1/2 cup or 125ml milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup or 175g semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your baking pan by greasing with a little canola oil or baking spray.   This is supposed to make 12 brownies so I used my square brownie pan but I must admit it was very full.  (You’ll see what I mean later.  Nothing ran over during baking though, so I guess it was just big enough.)

Gwyneth’s instructions said to sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together but when I tried sifting the spelt flour, the bigger bits just got stuck in the tiny holes in my sieve, so I tipped the flour into my bowl and then sifted in the cocoa, and added the other ingredients, including the light brown sugar.  So you can probably do the same.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the canola oil, milk, honey, coffee and vanilla.

It doesn't really want to mix.  Just do your best. 

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Gwyneth said, "Don't stir too hard," so I didn't.

Pour half of your batter into the prepared baking pan.  Sprinkle with half the chocolate chips.

Now cover the chips with the rest of the batter.

Top with the rest of the chocolate chips.

See how full?!  I was a little worried, I'll be frank. 

Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean.  I think underdone is better than overdone when the item is brownies.

All the chocolate chips sank.  But maybe that made them more chewy so I'm not complaining.

Let them cool for about 10-15 minutes and then cut into squares.  These were fabulous warm!

Enjoy!

And since I substituted honey for the maple syrup, I am submitting these chewy brownies to 

We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette of the ChocolateLogBlog where chocolate is a food staple and April's extra ingredient is honey.  Go on over and visit!