So I have this brownie recipe. I’m rather a fan of it.

I’m going to a friend’s party on Saturday. She’s recently concluded she might have problems with gluten, and she already has problems with dairy. This is sad, and I thought I’d attempt to bring some sort of tasty dessert she could actually eat. The brownie recipe seemed like a good candidate, as it’s actually quite light on flour and I’ve made it successfully with margarine before.

The first batch I made didn’t really work so well, but after some tinkering with the recipe this is what I came up with. It worked really very well.

• 200ml sunflower oil
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 1 cup dark cocoa
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 5 eggs

Mix everything together very thoroughly, then bake in a greased tray as before (140C for about 20 minutes).

These seem to bake slightly faster than the normal brownie recipe. It might be worth trying a lower temperature.

I also think the amount of oil could be reduced slightly (it’s already reduced from my first batch).

But basically, the result is really good. I in no way feel like these are hurt by making them gluten free or dairy free – normally using margarine instead of butter results in a slightly less rich brownies, but I think the almonds help compensate for that, and they don’t hurt the texture at all.