Ginger Lemon Girls' Brownies with a Twist!

This is my very first time participating in the Secret Recipe Club! For those of you who haven't heard of the Secret Recipe Club, its a group hosted by Amanda of the blog Amanda's Cookin. Each month, bloggers from all over are given a blog from which they have to select a recipe to make. The key? Your assigned blog is to be kept a secret until the posting date! How cool is that?!

This month I was assigned to the blog Ginger Lemon Girl hosted by Carrie. Carrie has a blog full of delicious gluten free recipes! I'm not a gluten free baker, so the world of gluten free ingredients is definitely a new one for me. Thanks Carrie for giving me the chance to experiment with gluten free recipes. I chose to make Carrie's brownies, with a twist of my own.

I made brownies filled with and drizzled with salted caramel sauce.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Recipe adapted from GingerLemonGirl

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1 cup macadamia flour (make your own - grind macadamia nuts in your food processor until smooth)

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup sugar (white or brown)

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup + 2tbsp applesauce

1 tbsp vanilla

half recipe of salted caramel sauce (below)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. Whisk all dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) together in a large bowl. In another bowl whisk together all the wet ingredients (except the caramel sauce) and stir into the dry ingredients. Transfer half of the batter to the baking dish and spread into an even layer. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on rack for 20 minutes.


2. While the brownie cools, make the caramel sauce. Spread salted caramel sauce onto baked brownie layer. Dallop remaining batter over the caramel layer and carefully spread into a nice even layer. Sprinkle with the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Return to preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes until cooked through.


3. Let brownies cool and serve drizzled with additional caramel sauce.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar



• 1/2 cup heavy cream



• 1 tbsp cold unsalted butter



• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Method:

1. Add 1/2 cup water to a small saucepan. Gently add the sugar to the center of the pan; it will mound in the center. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, uncover and insert a candy thermometer. Continue cooking until the mixture reaches 300F and is just starting to develop some colour, about 15 minutes.


2. Reduce the heat to medium and continue boiling until syrup is amber in colour and reaches 350F, about another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan.


3. Remove the caramel from the heat and add about 1/4 of the cream. It will bubble furiously, so be careful. Continue stirring until bubbling subsides. Add remaining cream. When it stops bubbling, whisk to incorporate and stir in the salt and butter.

I really enjoyed my very first Secret Recipe Club and am so excited to have been paired up with such a great (and healthy) blogger like Carrie. Do stop by and check out her blog - it will be worth the look! Thanks Amanda for hosting a great blogger event and to Carrie for introducing me to gluten free baking.
If you want to check out some of the other bloggers that participated, check out the blog hop below: