Sugar-Free Brownie Cake

Sugar can go, lectins can go, dairy can go, gluten can go, but brownies… brownies can not go.

Brownies are essential to life; the idea of engulfing a brownie at the end of the day is enough to get me through a day’s work.

Brownies = Life.
Moving on.

Before we dive into this decadent, chocolate dessert, I’d like to share a few words on grains and use of sorghum in this recipe:

As stated in the About Us, most of our recipes are grain free, because most grains contain lectins, which wreak havoc upon our colon, small intestines, nervous system, and therefore, our brains. Nasty stuff, right?

Lectins do their work by cutting their way through the protective barrier of our gut wall, creating open wounds in place of healthy barriers, thus letting in stomach acid and more lectins, which are supposed to stay inside of our GI track, not inside of our bodies (that difference is very important).

From there, lectins attach onto healthy cells, preventing them from receiving the fuel they need from fats, protein, and other nutrients, as well as creating brain fog by intercepting signals sent from our gut bacteria with intentions of reaching our brains.

How does this happen? Once lectins enter our bodies – i.e. once they exit our gut via aggressive tactics – they latch onto our nervous system and dictate which messages our brain will receive. When our gut wants to send a signal to our brain to stop eating, for example, the lectins intercept that signal and tell it to fuck off, leaving you foggy headed and hungry for more lectin-containing foods.

 

I tell you this to explain what most grains to your body. However, there are certain grains that don’t contain any lectins. Naturally, these include sorghum and millet, but by removing the hull of brown rice, we end up with white rice: a product that is also free from lectins, albeit from human intervention. Thus, my friends, is why some recipes, such as this one, still include grains in them.

 

The grain we used for this recipe is sorghum, particularly sorghum flour, which is light, fluffy, and dry in texture, similar in consistency to a blend of cake flour and fine cornmeal. Sorghum creates a more desirable texture for brownies than cassava flour – a grain-free alternative made from dried yucca root – which leaves baked goods gummy and chewy, in my experience.

This brownie’s trick-up-its-sleeve is mashed sweet potato, which binds together the batter and creates a moist, fudgy texture. Other important additives include liquid stevia extract, which provides sweetness, and pure vanilla extract, which is chocolate’s right hand man.

As for frosting, we went with simple, vanilla whipped coconut cream. It’s cold, fluffy, and creamy nature is the perfect balancing act for these rich brownies. The night before you plan to make your frosting, simply put a can of coconut milk in the fridge, as well the bowl and beaters you plan to use to make your whipped cream because keeping the fats inside the coconut cream solid – that’s below 70° F – is crucial for this to be executed properly.

If you don’t keep your coconut cold, the result may look a little like our photos (oops!), which were taken thirty minutes after we removed the coconut cream from the fridge, leaving us with a decently runny mess… don’t be discouraged though, because as long as you frost your cake right after you whip up your frosting, you will have a product that is light, fluffy, sweet, creamy, and down right delicious!

It’s important to note that some brands of coconut cream whip up better than others; in recent months, Trader Joe’s changed their coconut cream formula, which doesn’t whip up well for this application, as reported by other bloggers, as well as my own trials. Online, I’ve seen people report good results with Thai Kitchen Full Fat Coconut Milk and 365 Full Fat Coconut Milk, which whip up nicely after the cream layer is removed after a night of chilling out. My recent go-to, however, is Let’s Do Organic… Heavy Coconut Cream, because the entirety of the product can be used (no solid cream layer has to be removed from a watery layer), and it whips up smooth and homogenous.

This brownie layered cake is fudge-y, lightly chewy, chocolate-y, indulgent, sweet, lectin-free, and – as always – vegan.

Like what your taste buds are tellin’ ya? Leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.

If there’s a dish you’ve always wanted to see veganized, submit it here, and we’ll head to the lab, break out the test tubes, and whip out our culinary gadgets, so that in a couple of weeks there’ll be a recipe dedicated all to you!

All the best,
Ryan & Kim