So, the thing is I am trying to post every day. I figure if I’m going to do this, I should do it right. Which for me means I need to do it everyday otherwise it will fall by the wayside. Then three months later I will check in and be shamed that I just let it all drop. However, yesterday did not go as planned. In the morning I had this lovely thought train going about why I am doing this blogging thing and was planning to share it. By the end of the day I was kind of worn out and then there were the connectivity problems. Just about the time my MiFi would connect it would somehow not be connected. Gotta be the sunspots. That combination (tired and internet issues and my, um, distractability) meant that post didn’t happen yesterday. In fact, by the end of the day that post was gone from my mind. Nothing concrete was replacing it, but odds are good it would have been whiny. Probably things worked out for the best as I know no one wanted to read my whining.
That brings us to today. No whining today. Very, very happy. Got my first ride in the new pen today. It works just fine. There is plenty of room to get a green one kicked up to a lope, but not so much room that they are tempted to be stupid. More riding planned for tomorrow. There are at least four horses I need to work, two of them need ridden. Also happy that the back cinch and billets I ordered to match my Martin saddle came today too. Now I have an extra work saddle and can accomplish more. More! Can you here the horses, they are all so excited. That’s half true. As soon as Kanak saw the halter in my hand today he was running across his pen. “We get to do something? I get to work? What are we gonna do? I’m so excited!” He is a dork, but a happy dork. At the other end of the spectrum was Ki, his older half-brother, who conveniently angled himself so that getting out the barn door was a challenge, as he has to do an immediate 90 degree turn to come out the barn. He just stood there and looked at me, “but I can’t you see. There is just no way I can make that sharp of a turn and pick my feet up over the threshold of the door. It can not be done.” With a little encouragement he realized it was possible, quite simple and very easy.
Onto the cravings. Usually for me chocolate cravings happen for two reasons – my world has gone to shit or my hormone system is under demonic possession. Tonight I am craving chocolate. As you can surmise, my world is good. Cravings caused by option number two. Normally, I have chocolate stashed somewhere in the house. It seems that all known easy chocolate supplies have been exhausted. That means no chocolate chips anywhere. That means no instant chocolate fix by grabbing a handful (or three) of chocolate chips. That also means I can’t bake chocolate chip cookies to try to cure the craving. Uh-oh, I had to get resourceful. Just out of the oven is a batch of brownies. Gluten free of course. Recipe here. As usual, I made substitutions. Traded honey for the brown rice syrup. Only had unsweetened chocolate. Didn’t have enough regular brown sugar, so subbed one cup of Sugar In the Raw. Added a teaspoon of almond extract, because I like it. Didn’t have any heavy cream so used coconut milk instead.
One thing that I think is great about this recipe is except for the brown rice syrup and coconut flour all the ingredients are pretty standard pantry items. And even I used a different sweetener, because I keep honey, maple syrup and regular sugar on hand. I could rant about all these sugar alternatives, but the long and short of it is I understand why some people want to avoid too much sugar and I am not one of them. It’s not that I think too much sugar isn’t a problem. Just that I’m not going trade a fairly natural sweetener for some chemically concocted thing that may or may not have health consequences that we’ll all find out about ten years down the road. I’ll stick with the devil I know, thank you very much.
Because of the lack of cream, I had an opened can of coconut milk. At first I thought I would just make whipped cream out of it and throw that on top of the brownies. Then I decided to make frosting. I am all out of powdered sugar, so couldn’t make a version of butter cream. Elana’s Pantry Coconut Cream Frosting looked like it would work, with a substitution or two. Oh man, am I really that bad? It seems I am unable to follow a recipe exactly. About those substitutions, the only thing I didn’t have was agave nectar. Instead I did equal parts honey and maple syrup. Then I added vanilla and almond extract. Why? Because I like it. Didn’t we just go over this?
My only problem with the frosting recipe is it requires time to cool and harden. Sometimes, I’m not so patient. This is one of those evenings. Two shots of rum later (with other stuff mixed in) the frosting was ready to whip and put on the brownies. One of these days we’ll have a chat about how to mix the yummiest, froo-frooiest rum drink. Meanwhile, here’s pictures of the brownies.
This was my first attempt at gluten free brownies from scratch. These are by far better than the Betty Crocker mix available at stores. While that mix is faster and has done for me in a pinch, it has an odd aftertaste. Truth is these have a (very!) mild coconut flavor. I’m pretty used to that now. My only issue with this batch of brownies is that they are slightly dry/crumbly. Not sure if someone who didn’t know what was used in these, or hadn’t had similar baked goods before, would notice anything other than they are dry. I don’t have an unsuspecting guinea pig handy to confirm this though. I’m thinking of adding some mini-chocolate chips next time. It is also possible (gasp!) that I over-baked them. About the frosting, remember my lack of patience tonight? Well, I didn’t let it cool completely before I was out of all patience and decided it had to be done. So my frosting is much more of a glaze. It works. It tastes good. It may help keep the brownies moist and less crumbly, since I baked them for too long. Chocolate craving cured. For now.
Adding a quick note: The next day I couldn’t detect the coconut flour. That first night I could taste/tell the texture of the coconut flour. After that, it seemed to fade into the brownie. I am likely to make these again.
