Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chunk Blondies
I was so excited when Enjoy Life came out with their Semi Sweet Mega Chunks and newish line of chocolate bars, I literally jumped for joy. I was already a huge fan of their chocolate chips, and now they’ve given me a whole new genre of chocolate to bake with. These chocolate chunk cookie bars are an old-fashioned picnic or school function favorite. So easy and yet sooooo good!
Chocolate Chunk Blondie Bars
makes 16 bars
2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons Authentic Foods GF Classical Blend or my Basic Gluten-Free Flour Mix
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
11/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dairy-free, soy-free vegetable shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
11/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons rice milk
1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon rice milk
6 ounces Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks or Enjoy Life Rice Milk bars or Dark Chocolate Boom Choco Boom bars (about 4 bars), chopped into centimeter-size chunks
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1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 by 9-inch pan.
2. Whisk together the flour mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the shortening, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, beating on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the vanilla and egg replacer and mix for 20 seconds.
5. Add the flour mix in three batches, mixing on low speed, alternating with the rice milk, and beginning and ending with the flour mix.
6. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
7. Spread the batter evenly across the bottom of the baking pan.
8. Bake in the center of the oven for 35 minutes, or until lightly golden, rotating the pan halfway through.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes. Cut into 16 squares. Let cool.
Reprinted with permission from The Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook: How to Bake Without Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, and Sesame. Copyright © 2009 by Cybele Pascal, Celestial Arts, an imprint of Ten Speed Press, a division of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA.
Leprechauns, Sunbutter Greenies, and Authentic Foods Gluten Free Classical Blend
It’s Saint Patty’s day, and I’m part Irish, so I broke out the holiday spirit! My boys believe in Leprechauns, and I believe in cookies, so I baked the Leprechauns some Sunbutter Greenies. (You know if a Leprechaun has been in your house if your house is messy, by the way. My son Monte informed me that we’d clearly had a visit). These cookies are from my new cookbook and are a really fun treat. They’re a chocolate chip cookie (Enjoy Life Chips, of course!) made with maple syrup and sunbutter, and the combo has a magical chemical reaction, creating a green center in the cookie. Don’t believe me? Look below. (the Leprechaun ate the other half…)
But the best part of today was unpacking my new package of goodies from Authentic Foods. The news I am about to share is truly the most exciting discovery I have made all year. Authentic Foods is now selling a product called GLUTEN FREE CLASSICAL BLEND. This product is THE EXACT SAME THING AS MY BASIC GLUTEN-FREE FLOUR MIX. This is the mixture I use in the vast majority of my recipes. So now, you don’t have to make it up yourself. No more buying three flours. Just buy one product, pre-mixed from Authentic Foods, and save yourself the hassle. It’s a combo of their superfine brown rice flour (which as many already know, I’m sort of in love with), potato starch, and tapioca starch. The proportions are all the same as my mix, so use it one-for-one, cup-for-cup. These Sunbutter Greenies were baked today with this fabulous new product, and you can bet your booties, I’m totally sold. Thank you, Authentic Foods, and most importantly, hats off to Annalise Roberts (author of the incredible Gluten Free Baking Classics) and the late Bette Hagman, for trailblazing this flour combo in the first place!
If you want this product in your local Whole Foods, or Wegmans, or local health food store, ask them to stock it. My local Whole Foods doesn’t yet, and I’m going down there tomorrow to shake my cookies at them. Here’s the link for more info GF CLASSICAL BLEND
I’ll be testing out lots of other new products in the weeks to come, so please check back soon for new reviews, musings, and some brand new “FREE-TO-EAT SWEETS” that I’m about to launch.
Happy Saint Patty’s Day!
Cybele