(Crackly Top!) Almond Flour Brownies

Almond flour brownies with a crackly top showing the fudgy center

(Crackly Top!) Almond Flour Brownies

Here lies the secret to ultra fudgy almond flour brownies with a legit crackly top... not to mention, whipped up with just cocoa powder as our chocolate base!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Gluten Free

Keyword almond flour brownies, crackly top brownies, gluten free brownies

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 35

Servings brownies

Calories 135kcal

Ingredients

130 g unsalted grass-fed butter or sub half with salted butter and skip the kosher salt (for greater flavor complexity!)
140-200 g cane sugar use the lower amount if you're like me and generally find things "too sweet"*
2 eggs refrigerator cold
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
70 g cocoa powder
70 g almond flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

To garnish

flaky sea salt optional (but highly suggested!)

Metric - US Cups

Instructions

Position a rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat to 350°F/180°C. Line with parchment paper a 8x8-inch baking pan and set aside.
Add butter to a saucepan and brown over medium/low heat until fully golden and fragrant. Bonus points: use half unsalted / half salted butter (and skip the kosher salt) for greater depth of flavor.
While the butter is browning, add the (super cold!) eggs and sugar to a large bowl and whisk for a couple minutes until fluffy, light in color and all the sugar has dissolved. Once your butter is nice and browned, you'll want to temper it into your egg and sugar mixture (you know, little by little so as to not scramble the eggs!). But it is the contrast of adding the hot butter to the cold sugar and egg mixture that will give you the crackly top. Just be sure to drizzle it in slowly, while whisking continuously, until fully incorporated. The batter will be very creamy and silky at this point.
Whisk in the cocoa powder, salt and almond flour- ensuring the cocoa powder and salt are fully incorporated before adding in the almond flour (as it'll get tougher to whisk). Transfer to prepared baking pan, spreading it evenly with a spatula (the texture is not quite pourable, but it spreads easily with a little help).
Bake for 17-22 minutes (I do 20), or until the center is just set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out moist. This really does vary (a lot!!) from oven to oven (think convection etc), so give them a check from minute 15 the first time around, and remember that you'll brownies will continue to cook while they cool.
Sprinkle with flaky sea salt (optional, but always highly suggested) and allow to cool completely on a rack. Lift brownies using the edges of the parchment paper and cut into desired size. To get extra clean edges, place in the freezer for 10 minutes prior to cutting.

Notes

*coming from years of doing keto and baking with sweeteners, my gut stopped tolerating them completely and in the past year I've gone back to consuming regular unrefined sugars (cane, dates, maple, honey and coconut). It's been quite an interesting experience, and it's made me realize something I'm guessing most of us already know: that most of "the problems" we encounter while baking keto don't come from from the flours... but the sweeteners.

Alas, this is an ongoing experiment for me, but I'm finding recipes such as this one incredibly satisfying (like you guys... these are legit brownies through and through, despite being made with almond flour).

Nutrition