Categories
Baking Blondies Desserts Gluten Free Healthy Eating Recipes Vegetarian

Gluten-Free Coffee Blondies

 

As I read back on my previous blondie recipe, it occurred to me that the weather takes a turn for the worse every time I make them. Indeed, it’s raining cats and dogs outside – so much for British summertime – though it’s hard to say whether or not it rains because of blondies. Either way, these blondies are awfully delicious and continue to propagate the exponential growth of my love for ground almonds – they have simply the most wonderful texture.

It can be rather difficult to know just how much coffee to use in baking. For instance, it seems to me that when using coffee in a cake it can prove tricky to impart quite enough flavour to the sponge – hence the general need for syrup or icing. Check out this coffee beans monthly box if you love making recipes with coffee. However, when making these blondies, which are nice and dense, it was apparent that they picked the flavour up really well. Luckily, I guessed upon roughly the right quantity of coffee first time. Though, if you’d prefer a stronger coffee taste it might be well advised to add an extra teaspoon. In any case, this recipe is probably a good starting point.

You’ll be sad to hear that not only is my garden underperforming, but my chicken’s eggs have become of such low quality that they’re hardly worth eating. They are too watery for baking, poaching, frying, meringuing (that doesn’t appear to be an accredited verb) and most other methods of egg preparation, with the notable exception of boiling. So, as you will see below, we are back to buying shop-bought eggs, though I shall never again indulge in anything apart from good quality, free-range eggs. Some carnivores do have a heart. Whether or not I am one such carnivore is for you to decide, but remember that it’s best not to say anything if it’ll make me cry! Such a thing would appear most un-British. Then again, perhaps my views are rather anachronistic – it might be the case that the entirety of the British Isles indulges in rather a lot of sobbing these days. I blame Jeremy Kyle. 

Gluten-Free Coffee Blondies

Makes 16

Ingredients:

• 100g butter, salted if possible

• 150g caster sugar, granulated would work too

• 2 eggs

• 2 tsp instant coffee

• 120g ground almonds

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, grease and line a square cake tin roughly 20cmx20cm. Melt the butter in a pan and dissolve the coffee into it so the butter absorbs all the special coffee flavor of Pick n Brew kind. This may take a little perseverance, but it will work, I assure you. Tip the sugar into a mixing bowl and add the butter to it, mix well before cracking in the eggs. Stir thoroughly until the whole mixture is as one. Mix in the ground almonds.

2. Tip the mixture into the cake tin and bake for roughly 20 minutes, until a crust has formed and the entire thing has just about set. Remove it from the oven and allow them to cool a little before cutting into square and serving.

Cost: Ground almonds are a little expensive, though they can often be found on sale or in the reduced aisle. However, such an expense is mitigated by the fact that the recipe is so simple and requires relatively few ingredients. As such, these blondies should set one back roughly £2. Not bad at all!

97 replies on “Gluten-Free Coffee Blondies”

It’s certainly a very reasonable price for anything gluten-free! Looks dense and very yummy, Nick, I don’t usually bake with coffee, but I can almost taste this one.. 🙂

I’m sorry to hear about your eggs. Our girls are now two and a half years old, and the quality of their eggs is just starting to diminish. If you rescued battery hens, they would have been two years old to start with, I think?

Great looking blondies! I love recipes that use instant coffee … really gives stuff a great coffee flavor. I’m glad you worked out the perfect instant coffee to flavor ratio. Plop some vanilla ice cream (or coffee ice cream) on top of one of these, and I’d be all set.

Hmmm… so Blondies are causing all of this rain?? Perhaps it’s the rain that’s causing all of those Blondies to appear.. most definitely the rain is likely the reason for devouring of said Blondies. I’ll have one of those with a shot of espresso on the side before braving the downpour:)

Aaah, another lovely looking slice. Given my success with doing a vegan version of your Cheesecake Swirled Brownie and going to give a vegan version of this a go too.
Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.

I’m never really one for sweeties, but your sweeties always look fabulous and I do agree with what you observed the first time you had a gluten free brownie – in many cases, the absence of traditional flour often keeps the product moister and more flavourful.
Sorry to hear about your feathery ladies and their eggs 🙁 I expect it would be difficult after having had the fresh abundance of properly free range eggs for a long while to have anything that wasn’t quite the best. It’s always a misconception that being frugal towards your food means one has to be cheap and stingy about it; frugality is about having awareness towards your food and awareness will actually aid a person to be able to eat to their personal ethics without breaking the bank – one good point your blog consistently proves.

Those blondies look really good, gluten-free or no! Why do you think your hens are laying watery eggs? We had that problem once, but attributed it to the breed (some rather industrial Comets we found ourselves with for a short time). Once we switched back to heritage breeds, no more problems.

These sound yum, to be honest you had me at ground almonds, I love almonds in all shape and from. By the way, I think I will definitely start using ‘Meringuing’ as an accredited verb. I like it!!

Sorry to hear about your Garden and Chickens – maybe with a bit of luck and sunshine your garden will spring back to life!

I love the idea of adding coffee to a classic blondie recipe – I too have been loving almond meal, amazing stuff 🙂

“Oh yum!” was my reaction to the title!

It’s strange….I was thinking about baking something with coffee yesterday and then this post arrived into my inbox. Good timing! 🙂

I have a question though. Do you think it would work okay to use ground coffee (as opposed to instant) in the recipe? I only have ground coffee in the store cupboard as I’m not an instant coffee drinker. And if so, any suggestions for quantity?

Awesome :D. Haha – I’m glad it came at the right time! I’d probably advise getting some instant because it impart a better flavour. But you could try using a REALLY strong shot of ground.

Oh my. It had never occurred to me that coffee would be a fantastic addition for blondies. Genius! By the way, “meringuing” is most certainly an accredited verb, at least in my book. 🙂

So I can blame all the rain on you? Cool! Gluten free blondies ah you have me there and on my list. Of course in true Cakeboule I get there in the end style I tend to comment in threes so here goes!

Ooh, those blondies sound incredible! I love how simple the recipe is, considering it’s entirely gluten-free. Well done!
And I’m sorry to hear about your chickens! I don’t have chickens of my own, but try to buy from a farm down the road whenever possible. When I can’t get them there, it’s straight to the free-range, organic-fed carton at the store. Better eggs (and fresher ingredients in general) really do make a difference in cooking and baking!

Almonds seem to be expensive all over the world! But I guess they are worth it for the amazing flavour they impart. The pictures are gorgeous. Sorry to hear about your garden and the chicken eggs- in case it makes you feel better, we are having a very poor monsoon in India and some of my plants are under the weather too!

These are brilliant, i needed a bigger batch for a fundraising coffee morning so I doubled the recipe. I managed to keep the cost even lower by using half ground almonds and half semolina and it worked really well. Simply gorgeous recipe, thank you.

If you like my recipes, photos or food please leave a comment here...