Gluten-Free Banana Brownies
We absolutely adore Emi’s school. ❤️ They recently hosted a Maker’s Market where each child was encouraged to create something to sell to their peers and the community.
Emi was initially thrilled to make bracelets, but we had to pivot quickly when they started breaking after wearing them for just a few minutes (we’re not selling anything that doesn’t meet our high standards of quality!). So, Emi and I talked about it and decided to make some of our favorite gluten-free baked treats instead: banana chocolate chip muffins, banana brownies, and chocolate chip cookies (all pictured below).
Just like with our granola and teas, we use organic ingredients (whenever possible) when making our own food at home, and everything that we made for the Maker’s Market was gluten-free.
Since we were using bananas in two of the desserts, we thought it would be cute to create a label featuring a cat (i.e. our cat, Banana) inside of a banana.
Banana is the cat that Emi has always wished for, a white cat that she had wanted to name Marshmallow, but the name that she came with – Banana – stuck. 🙂
We adopted Banana from our local animal shelter about a year and a half ago when Rene and I decided that Emi was ready for the responsibility of caring for a pet. She’s the cutest white and calico kitty and she and her siblings were all given fruit names: Apple, Banana, Blueberry, Kiwi, etc. We immediately fell in love with Banana and decided to keep her name.
Our kitty is super mischievous and loves to attack our feet at night while we’re sleeping and swats at us with her paw when we walk by and haven’t yet fed her once she’s decided it’s meal time. She loves human food and is constantly trying to eat our food and snacks.
On the flip side, Banana is super lovable and snuggles with us as soon as we wake up. She loves making biscuits on cozy blankets and purring loudly while on our beds & hers. Banana’s fur is so soft that I often have to talk myself out of burying my face in her fur, otherwise I end up with a face (and a mouth) full of fur. Not pleasant at all.
So, back to the purpose of this post. 🙂 Out of the three desserts we made, the Banana Brownies are my go-to when I’m craving something sweet and want something that’ll take less than 10 minutes to whip up. They’re also a great dessert to bring to parties or any kind of get together. They’re rich, decadent, fudgy, gourmet, and incredibly satisfying. I love the hint of bananas, along with the optional pecans that I typically add in before baking. It’s like a nutty banana bread married a brownie and had a baby. <3
Gluten-Free Banana Brownies
*Note: I wish I could credit this recipe to the source, but I can’t remember where I found it and the recipe I have was typed out without any reference as to where it came from.
Ingredients:
- 6 TB butter
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (we love Enjoy Life’s mini chocolate chips)
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 small ripe banana, mashed
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup gluten-free flour
- 1 TB cacao powder
- Optional: 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
- Optional: 1/4 – 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square pan.
- Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium-low heat. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips, and stir until melted. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
- Lightly beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Stir in the coconut sugar, banana, vanilla, and salt.
- Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the banana mixture and stir until well combined.
- Add in the gluten-free flour and cocoa powder, stirring just until incorporated.
- At this point, add in any of your optional ingredients and stir until incorporated.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, about 30-40 minutes. Don’t over bake.
- Remove and cool the pan on a wire rack before cutting.
