Gluten Free Brownies with Peanut Buttercream

  There is no better way to begin this post than by saying that I have finally completed another season at the castle!!! I am so happy to now have a week or so off before heading back to university! It gives me some time to catch up on sleep, see my family and of course BAKE!!

  By the end of the season I was beginning to feel run down and I was tired every day. Being tired all the time really gets to me as you feel you can't make time for the things you actually want to do. The fact that baking is my way of winding down and relaxing and I was too tired for even that was starting to get to me.

  It didn't take me long to get experimenting with my baking again. I decided to try something I haven't done before - a gluten free recipe. More and more people are finding out that they are gluten free and I feel that it is the easiest thing to replace flour with something like  ground almonds. Yet, a few places I have been into recently have very few, if any, gluten free options of baking. I am not gluten free myself and I have never tried gluten free cake. I often thought it wouldn't be as nice but I can honestly say I never even tasted the difference.

- Prep Time: 30 minutes.
  Cooking Time: 25-30 minutes.
  Easiness: Easy.

Ingredients: 

Sponge:

• 75g unsalted butter.
• 250g dark chocolate. 
• 15g cocoa powder. 
• 250g caster sugar. 
• 4 large eggs. 
• 100g ground almonds.

Icing: 

• 2 heaped tbsp peanut butter. 
• 40g unsalted butter.
• 170g icing sugar. 

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180° and grease an 8inch square tin and line the bottom with baking parchment paper. 
2. Melt the butter and the chocolate together in a bowl over a pot with a small amount of water in the pot. Make sure it is only over a low heat.
   
3. Take off the heat and mix in the cocoa powder and sugar until fully combined. 
4. Next add in the eggs, one at a time. Followed by adding the ground almonds. 
5. Pour into the prepared tin and put in the oven for 25-30 minutes. 
6. Leave the brownie in the tin to cool completely. 
7. Whilst the brownie is cooling, I started to prepare the peanut buttercream. 
8. Place the butter in a bowl. If your peanut butter is crunchy, use an electric food mixer to smooth it off a bit. Then add to the butter and stir until combined. 
9. Sieve in the icing sugar into the butters and mix fully. Use some milk to loosen if need be. 
10. Then using a piping bag and nozzle, pipe a small amount onto the top of each brownie, only once the brownies are cooled. 

  I would definitely bake gluten free cakes again as they were just as tasty as brownies I have baked before using flour. My family also loved them - mum claimed they were the nicest I have made to date!!