Made it home after the GOTV Rally at the U with President Obama. It was a good time and I will have plenty of pictures soon.
Decided I wanted to have quiet night at home – maybe watch a movie with the pup, do some stuff around the house, and bake some brownies.
Last summer when I was on an elimination diet during the Great Allergy Hunt of 2009, I had to eat gluten free. Since then, I’ve still kept some of those items in my pantry, not because they are gluten free but because they are super tasty (plus I have a friend that can’t do gluten, so I like to be accomodating when I can). One of these items is a gluten free brownie mix. They aren’t dry as many gluten free (GF) baked good tend to be and I often time make my own litte tweaks to make them my own and not just your standard mix out of a box.
In the past, I’ve added GF chocolate chips or strawberry-rhubarb compote. Tonight I decided to go with replacing the oil called for with some of my homemade applesauce. Bascially, the recipe is: 1/4 cup applesauce, 1/3 cup water, brownie mix, extra chocolate chips and a bit of cinnamon. They remain GF and turn out pretty fudgey. I’m a bit nervous about the applesauce, but I’m sure it’ll turn out.
The homemade applesauce has pretty much turned me off of buying it at the store for two main reasons: 1. it is ridiculously cheap and easy, and 2. IT TASTES AMAZING. I chose to do it in the crockpot – which took a bit longer, but was worth it in the end. I also used apples from the farmer’s market, as a part of my quest to eat seasonally and locally.
Basically the recipe is:
- enough apples to fill the crockpot or pot 3/4s of the way (~8-10 apples) cored & chopped into roughly the same size pieces (do not peel them!)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (or to taste)
- 1/2 cup water
Put it all in the crock pot (either on high or low), stirring occasionally, until it cooks down and the apples are able to be smashed by a spoon. I then used a food mill to get rid of all of the peels and smooth it out.
So good. So simple.